The Latin American and Caribbean Network of Fair Trade Small Producers and Workers (CLAC), is composed by different structures, that includes the General Assembly, the Board of Directors, the National Platforms, product networks, the workers network, work commissions and staff.
General Assembly
CLAC’s highest authority is its General Assembly. It is composed of around 240 delegates representing the around 1,000 organizations of small producers and associations of workers of Fair Trade from different countries and products across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Grass-roots organizations from different countries democratically choose the people that are going to represent the different productive items in CLAC’s General Assembly. In it, delegates choose the Board of Directors, Oversight Committee, they approve the three-year strategic plan and they make other important decisions for CLAC’s development.
In each General Assembly, the delegates choose the Board of Directors, they review Country Platforms and Product Networks reports, they approve the Board of Director’s General Reports, including, Financial Statements, Strategic Plans, Strategic Lines for work at a continental level and the policy of membership.
The General Assembly was originally held every two years, but in 2012 during the Fifth General Assembly held in Quito, Ecuador, it was decided to change the periodicity and to start celebrating the assemblies every three years.
CLAC Assemblies:
- The First Assembly, the constitutive one was held in the City of Oaxaca, State of Oaxaca, Mexico, in August 2004.
- The Second General Assembly was held in the City of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in October 2006.
- The Third General Assembly was held in October 2008 in the City of Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala.
- The Fourth Assembly took place in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, in November 2010.
- The Fifth Assembly took place in Quito, Ecuador, in November 2012. It was agreed that the General Assembly would be held every three years.
- The Sixth General Assembly was held in San Salvador, El Salvador, in november 2015.
- The Seventh General Assembly was held in Peru in November 2018.
- The Eighth General Assembly was held virtually in January 2022.
