The GEPA is Europe's largest alternative trading organization

Alternative trading organization

An alternative trading organization is usually a non-governmental organization or mission-driven business aligned with the Fair trade movement, aiming "to contribute to the alleviation of poverty in developing regions of the world by establishing a system of trade that allows marginalized...

. The abbreviation GEPA³ stands for "Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Partnerschaft mit der Dritten Welt mbH“, literally meaning "Society for the Promotion of Partnership with the Third World

Third World

The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...

".

Mission

The main goal of GEPA³ is to improve the living and working conditions of people in the South, following the spirit of the UN Agenda 21

Agenda 21

Agenda 21 is an action plan of the United Nations related to sustainable development and was an outcome of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992...

 for economic, social and ecological sustainability.

Partners of GEPA

• Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (EED) (Evangelical Development Service),
• Bischöfliches Hilfswerk Misereor der Katholischen Kirche (Misereor Episcopal Welfare Organisation of the Catholic Church),
• Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Evangelischen Jugend (aej) (Consortium of the Evangelical Youth),
• Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend (BDKJ) (Federation of the German Catholic Youth),
• Päpstliches Missionswerk der Kinder in Deutschland e.V. (PMK) Papal Missionary work of Children in Germany (since 25 October 2004).

Sale Structure

15 regional fair trade centres in the Federal Republic of Germany supply approximately 800 shops worldwide and roughly 6,000 action groups with fairly traded groceries and handcrafted products. Numerous supermarkets and food retailers also sell gepa products.
Cafetiras of companies, student unions, conference houses etc are provided by gepa on a wholesaler basis. The gepa website also has an online shop which generates sales.

The "Regionalen Fair Handelszentren" or RFZ (Regional Commercial Fairs) are partly owned by gepa with the other part belonging to independent sponsors.

• RFZs sponsored by GEPA themselves:
• West (Wuppertal
  Wuppertal
  Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in and around the Wupper river valley, and is situated east of the city of Düsseldorf and south of the Ruhr area. With a population of approximately 350,000, it is the largest city in the Bergisches Land...
  
  )
• Central (Alzenau
  Alzenau
  Alzenau is a town in the north of the Aschaffenburg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. The epithet “in Unterfranken” , now dropped, was to distinguish it from another Alzenau since 1945 no longer in Germany...
  
  )
• South (Leonberg
  Leonberg
  Leonberg is a town in the German federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg about 10 miles to the west of Stuttgart, the state capital. Approximately 45,000 people live in Leonberg, making it the third biggest borough in the rural district of Böblingen .Leonberg is most famous for its picturesque market...
  
  )
• Fair Trade Centre (Berlin
  Berlin
  Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
  
  )

• RFZs sponsored independently:
• Saarland (Saarbrücken)
• North (Hamburg)
• Bavaria (Haimhausen/Amperpettenbach)
• Saxony (Dresden)
• Aachen
• Bad Abbach
• Bonn
• Cadolzburg
• Münster
• Munich
• Northeim

Membership

GEPA is a FLO International registered Fairtrade licensee and importer. The organization is also a licensee of Naturland Zeichen GmbH and a member of the European Fair Trade Association

European Fair Trade Association

The European Fair Trade Association is a Dutch association established informally in 1987. It gained formal status in 1990. It regroups 11 fair trade importers in 9 European countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. EFTA members...

 (EFTA), the World Fair Trade Organization

World Fair Trade Organization

The World Fair Trade Organization , formerly the International Fair Trade Association , was created in 1989 and is a global association of 324 organizations in over 70 countries...

 (WFTO) and the Forums Fairer Handel.

Campaigns

• As a member in the Forum Fairer Handel, taking part in the Fairen Woche ("Fair Week") organisation.
• Togethor with the Weltladen-Dachverband, leading a campaign for the development of activities ("Professionalisation") of Weltladen until 2006.

External links

• http://www.gepa.de Homepage of GEPA³ (German)
• http://www.gepa.de Homepage of GEPA³ (English)
• http://www.eed.de Homepage of the Evangelischen Entwicklungsdienstes (EED
  EED
  Polycomb protein EED is a protein that in humans is encoded by the EED gene.- Function :Polycomb protein EED is a member of the Polycomb-group family. PcG family members form multimeric protein complexes, which are involved in maintaining the transcriptional repressive state of genes over...
  
  )
• http://www.misereor.de Homepage of the Hilfswerkes Misereor
• http://www.bdkj.de Homepage of the Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend
• http://www.evangelische-jugend.de Homepage of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Evangelischen Jugend
• http://www.fairewoche.de
• fairsprochen.org - das FAIRE Forum
• Die Krise der Kaffeewirtschaft (Teil II): Wege aus der globalen Preiskrise (The crisis of the coffee economy (Part II): Ways out of the global price crisis).
• http://www.interrupcionfairtrade.net