Last updated: 10 December 2009
This brief history of the consumer movement is written by Julian Edwards (CI Director General 1996–2005) and shows how CI can bring together consumer groups across the globe.
Consumer rights take hold
The first ever international conference of leaders from consumer organisations took place in The Kurhaus, an imposing hotel in Scheveningen, the seaside suburb of The Hague, in March 1960. At the end of the meeting, five of the 17 organisations present signed the necessary papers to create the International Organisation of Consumers Unions (IOCU). The global consumer movement was born.
What these five organisations from Brussels, London, New York and The Hague had in common was a desire to help ordinary people make informed buying decisions and get good value for their money as a post-war consumer boom took hold.
Consumer boom
The increasing number of consumer goods on offer was accompanied by rising wages across Europe and North America. But whilst goods became more heavily promoted – including on TV – and more readily available, people soon realised that they were at the manufacturer’s mercy when it came to claims about the quality and value of these new products.
As a result, consumer organisations sprang up in country after country to analyse the products on sale, to provide much-needed independent advice, and to challenge rogue traders where necessary. They struck a chord with the buying public, and rapidly gained tens, then hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
Testing
The following years saw a steady expansion in testing collaboration among these new organisations and a widening of focus for IOCU. Newly formed groups were invited to join from across the world and IOCU’s first global newsletter was launched.
Meanwhile at the biennial conferences that IOCU organised, leaders spoke of a wider consumer agenda, and particularly the need to address poverty, access to basic goods and services, and the challenges faced by consumers in developing countries.
Membership
Although membership continued to increase, resources remained extremely tight. However, in 1968, IOCU adopted a new Constitution, passing power from the founding organisations to a voting membership, and increased fees. This made more money available but it also created the opportunity for participation by organisations that did not fit the model of the founders, in particular those beginning to emerge in developing countries, where consumer education and advocacy about basic access were the main concern.
Regional offices
In the early 1970s, a regional office was created in Asia. Its advisory committee came from India, Singapore, Malaysia, Fiji and the Philippines, a very different stakeholder group from the founders of IOCU itself. This decision was to prove critical in the history of the international consumer movement.
Pioneering international NGO advocacy
The model for the new Asia Pacific Office was as an information exchange and advice centre. But the man appointed to head it seized the moment to create something very different. Anwar Fazal was an energetic and persuasive leader, full of ideas. Over the next decade he made the Asia Pacific office the centre of gravity of IOCU.
With an entirely new approach, Anwar sought to target transnational corporations with specific campaigns, engaging organisations in both developed and developing countries. He took IOCU into new ways of campaigning and advocacy by playing a leading role in setting up issue-based networks with partners from outside the consumer movement, including the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) and Health Action International (HAI).
These networks were early pioneers of a new method of campaigning for NGOs, which brought together disparate groups on a particular issue for a particular purpose. IOCU’s role in the networks made it one of the early leaders of the international NGO community.
UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection
These methods and activities brought results. Among them, the seminal international document of the consumer movement – the United Nations Guidelines on Consumer Protection – was adopted by the UN in 1985 after 10 years of campaigning. This gave important legitimacy to the principles of consumer rights and practical support for developing national consumer protection legislation.
Meanwhile, the consumer movement continued to grow and the membership of IOCU doubled to 150 in more than 50 countries by the mid 1980s. This was partly the result of IOCU’s own capacity building efforts, but also due to significant global developments such as economic growth in some countries and new opportunities for civil society organisations in others.
The need for a global consumer voice
IOCU began tentative work in Latin America and the Caribbean in the early 1980s publishing a Latin American newsletter through its member organisation in Mexico from 1981 and eventually opening a regional office in Uruguay in 1986. At the same time, moves were made to create a global management structure, with the low-key Executive Secretary role replaced by that of Director in 1983.
Work began in Africa in the late 1980s leading to the set up of a regional office in Zimbabwe in 1994. By this time, the Soviet Union had collapsed and the whole of Central and Eastern Europe was converting to market economies, increasing the need for strong consumer organisations.
As the 1990s progressed, IOCU was managing extensive capacity building programmes in all parts of the world, training both in methods (such as institutional management, research and fundraising) and on specific issues. Membership numbers increased to nearly 250 from around 115 countries. The consumer movement had indeed become global.
WTO
Advocacy began to focus on international trade negotiations, particularly those of the newly formed World Trade Organisation (WTO). IOCU also increased its work at the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the Codex Alimentarius Commission (food standards) as international standards became the reference point for disputes about artificial barriers to trade.
These developments in global governance made it increasingly difficult for individual countries to adopt national standards that were different from those agreed internationally, thus increasing the need for global consumer rights advocacy. Other issues also emerged from the trade agenda, including the impact of patent and copyright protection on consumer access to essential medicines, traditional seed varieties and educational material. A powerful international consumer movement was needed more than ever.
IOCU becomes Consumers International
By the late 1990s, a much-altered organisation was in place, a transition symbolised by a change of name from IOCU to Consumers International (CI) in 1995.
Campaigning and member development was a particular priority in Central and Eastern Europe and in Africa. In the former, CI helped create a sustainable consumer presence very nearly from scratch in countries struggling first with democracy and transition to market economies, and then with the demands of preparations to join the EU.
Global engagement was reflected in various ways. Many publications (including annual reports) appeared in three languages. World Congresses were held for the first time in Latin America (Chile, 1997) and then Africa (South Africa, 2000). And CI’s Presidents came, successively, from Indonesia, Hong Kong, Australia, Brazil and Kenya. Member participation in CI’s work was carried forward both by the range of programmes being implemented and by the level of engagement in policy formulation.
New consumer issues
CI facilitated member participation in trade, food and technical standards activities; taking a 40-strong delegation to the WTO ministerial in Cancun, and getting Codex and ISO to provide training and improved access to meetings. Other consumer problems also became more prominent – for example, access to and the management of utilities services, the regulation of GMOs, and protecting consumer rights in the digital age.
As CI’s work on these issues continued through the 2000s, its range of campaign targets and techniques developed too. Critical engagement with transnational corporations increased, but so did demands for accountability and responsibility. New communication techniques, such as email, online forums, project-specific websites and campaign films were used to raise awareness and engage with members.
CI Today
Today the founding principles of the movement still energise and inspire people and organisations throughout the CI membership. The focus has broadened to address poverty reduction, corporate responsibility, services and sustainable consumption as well as providing advice on consumer products. As the movement enters its second 50 years, its commitment to campaigning, advocacy and engagement continues to grow.
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