Fair, Green and Global Alliance

The Fair Green and Global (FGG) alliance is an alliance of six civil society organisations. Both ENDS is the lead agency, and other member organisations are: ActionAid, Clean Clothes Campaign, Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands), SOMO and Transnational Institute. The alliance is in a Strategic Partnership with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The alliance aims at socially just, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable societies. It addresses governance gaps in corporate conduct, trade and investment and financial systems. Our aim of socially just, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable societies is within reach. Yet a persistent combination of socio-economic and environmental crises threatens to roll back the progress we have made. People across the globe, particularly in low- and lower-middle income countries (LLMICs), especially women, are suffering from rising inequality, food insecurity and financial instability. Their lives and livelihoods are threatened by climate change, declining biodiversity, and scarcity of resources. Human rights are being systematically violated and rights defenders are under severe threat. Governance gaps - described by former UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights John Ruggie as the gap between “the scope and impact of economic forces and actors, and the capacity of societies to manage their adverse consequences” - are a principal cause of these social and environmental crises. People’s ability to claim respect for their human rights, engage in decision making and influence policies and practices that affect them is shrinking. Laws, policies and decision making processes increasingly favour the private sector at the expense of public interest. We, the Fair, Green and Global (FGG) Alliance, have expertise and strategies to help close these governance gaps. We believe that the solution lies in democratic, transparent, equitable and gender-sensitive economic and social structures and practices that respect our natural environment. We focus on three interlinked leverage points, or Theories of Change (ToCs) - corporate conduct, trade and investment, and the financial system - because our joint analysis indicates these as being loci where change is critical and possible in order to achieve inclusive societies in which human rights are respected and global public goods managed sustainably. Since 2009 the FGG Alliance, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of MFSII, has achieved notable results in these three areas, exceeding the sum of our parts. We believe that the key to achieving transformative change is to inform and mobilise people to engage with relevant decision makers in these three areas. We know that the grassroots social movements we are part of have the power to effect change.