Voices for Change: the Consumer Right to Representation

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World Consumer Rights Day 2002: Voices for Change
4. Educate authorities about your issue:
Tell authorities why your organisation is
involved and what its position is. Establish
your credentials with authorities. Send
working papers, write-ups and briefings.
Invite authorities to address your group.
Anticipate the questions you may be asked
as a consumer representative.
5. Identify allies: Get to know your consumer
counterparts. Caucus, consult and network
with potential allies outside the consumer
movement. Engage in international dialogue,
making use of CI networks. Take advantage of
broader alliances and coalitions to advance
consumer perspectives.
6. Examine industry involvement: What
issues are local/national industries interested
in and why? What are they doing about it?
Who among national industries is being
consulted? Who among the multinational
corporations is interested?
It is important to understand industry
concerns. When they conflict with consumer
concerns, they need to be countered.
Authorities may hold consultations with trade
and industry while excluding consumer
groups on the grounds that government
officials are responsible for protecting
consumer interests.
It is also important to understand the extent
of industry involvement and its influence on
national governments and international
agencies. At Codex, for example, it is not
uncommon for industry interests to sit on
national delegations and thus sway
proceedings. At the global level, industry
works in a sophisticated manner. Global or
regional industry and trade associations
routinely follow all meetings of interest to
them. To the extent that they advocate the
legitimate concerns of business, this is
acceptable. But when this monitoring function
becomes a vehicle for pushing business
interests at the cost of consumer interests, it is
cause for concern. Whether at the national or
international level, consumer groups need to
identify and check any undesirable industry
influences that can compromise consumer
welfare.
7. Watch your national delegations: It is
important to monitor the positions of national
delegations to international forums (like Codex
or the WTO) and to influence them. Get copies
of national reports to international meetings and
submit and circulate your comments. Seek entry
for consumer representatives on national
delegations. If denied, seek written explanations
and present these to higher authorities for future
consideration. Ask your government to
contribute to expenses incurred in representing
national consumers at international meetings, as
delegates or observers. Seek non-governmental
funding for travel support as part of, or parallel
to, national delegations.
8. Report back: Consumer representatives
must keep their constituents informed of work
done, lessons learned and progress made on
their behalf. Reporting back is an opportunity
for participation, consultation and feedback.
Representatives must be certain that what they
are doing still reflects consumers’ views. If not,
they must identify new priorities to act upon.
Good mechanisms for feedback and support
are also necessary to foster transparency and
accountability between the representative and
his or her constituency. Representation
involves being a part of the compromise that
is achieved. Parties to a compromise must
“deliver” their constituencies. Defending a
compromise may result in allegations of
having sold out by those not party to the
discussions and compromise reached.
Consumer representatives run the risks of
capture and co-optation, a trend often ascribed
to regulatory agencies whose initially dynamic
defence of the public interest often devolves
into ineffective bureaucracies and de facto
acquiescence to the industry they were created
to monitor. The social facts of co-optation and
collegiality must be recognised, as they are
likely to blunt the efficacy of representation.
9. Expect growing pains: As interest in
consumer participation increases, so do the
demands and expectations placed on representatives.
Often, a representative’s initial goal is
simply to legitimate consumer input and get
consumer issues taken seriously. Once this
succeeds, representatives may find themselves