Insight to Impact: How our Toolkit Drives Positive Consumer Change - Part Three
In the third of this four-part series exploring our theory of change we look at how our global advocacy, calls to action and community supported movements have driven positive change. Right from the grassroots – bolstering educational sustainability programmes in schools and universities to driving leadership commitments - such as helping to reform buy now pay later schemes. With a flexible framework adapted to national contexts, Members have ensured the consumer perspective has been heard so that products and systems are built with and for consumers.
Part one - Introduction to our 6-lever interconnected toolkit
Part two - How consumer-led research lays the foundation for change
WORLD CONSUMER RIGHTS DAY
For more than 40 years we have led World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) on March 15, a global campaign uniting the consumer movement, which supports our Members and partners and their different approaches to achieving a united vision on the foremost consumer issue of the time.
Our theme is informed with input from our Members and decided together, along with where we think we can have the greatest impact – from tackling plastic pollution to understanding future and current implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Over time the day has been recognised by the United Nations, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), UN Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD), and many other partners. Year-on-year the campaign unites more Members and partners to call for consumer action.
Members joining the campaign have grown from 70 in 2020 to 108 in 2025.
Launched at World Consumer Rights Day 2022 under the theme of Fair Digital Finance, our Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) campaign raised awareness and action against the negative impact that unregulated finance schemes can have on consumers.
This was set against a backdrop of 600 leaders joining together for our Fair Digital Finance Forum, which raised critical visibility as consumers worldwide have switched to online banking. Our BNPL statement outlined six key policy asks calling for effective global regulation of BNPL products and was signed by leading consumer groups.
Our Member CHOICE (Australia) asked supporters to sign the joint statement to demonstrate they were part of a global movement supporting regulation. Following this campaign and its visibility, federal legislation regulating BNPL credit in Australia was introduced by policymakers in 2025.
Rosie Thomas, Director of Campaigns and Communications, CHOICE (Australia)
EMPOWERING LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Anne Fransen Fund
Since the 1980s our Anne Fransen Fund has contributed nearly one million euros to strengthen the capacity and impact of grassroots consumer groups around the world with support from our Member, Consumentenbond and facilitated by Consumers International. Per year, Members are awarded annual grants of between €5,000 - €10,000 to fund campaigns in local communities centred on one of the eight basic consumer rights. In 2025, the fund supported our Members from Saint Lucia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Bangladesh and Colombia with awards.
In Bangladesh, only around 35% of women in Bangladesh have bank accounts – compared to more than 50% of men – and only around 25% of women with bank accounts made or received a digital payment in 2024, according to the Asian Development Bank’s Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Diagnostic for the Finance Sector of Bangladesh .
To help address this, grantee - the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) - received financial support to help promote financial literacy among women and girls from low-income and marginalised communities in Bangladesh. This offered valuable financial education workshops and training on the use of digital tools, such as mobile apps, to help women make informed economic decisions and participate more fully in the economy.
In 2019, a grant from the fund helped the National Consumers Association of Armenia (ANAC) collaborate with teachers and parents to set up school clubs across three of the country’s provinces. The clubs taught young consumers about their rights and duties to help them make informed consumer decisions.
ANAC has since submitted a cartoon book from the clubs to Armenia’s Education Ministry proposing inclusion in the National Curriculum.
These are just a few examples of how we have helped community initiatives around the world bring about positive change, but there are many others.
GREEN ACTION WEEK
Another of our long-running annual initiatives – Green Action Week – helps our Members reduce poverty and promote sustainable development and consumption in communities around the world. More than 60 consumer organisations have been supported to implement more than 300 campaigns in nearly 50 countries.
Consumers International administers the Green Action Fund made available by our partner the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) and each September-October, the fund brings together organisations, individuals and communities to support action-oriented initiatives that raise awareness of sustainable consumption practices and key environmental issues, in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.
Winning projects in recent years have gone on to raise awareness and educate communities on issues including sustainable fishing, recycling and green transportation, with our support providing materials, research, policy support and joint-campaign communications.
Our success stories are many, varied and widespread: ranging from the Yemen Association for Consumer Protection’s campaign to educate grape farmers in the country’s Bani Hashish area about the health dangers of reusing empty pesticide and chemical containers as water carriers; to a campaign in Kenya to establish a seed bank for local farmers, promoting indigenous seed sharing to increase soil fertility and plant drought tolerant crops to bolster local food security.
“A sharing community has a ripple effect, creating a positive change in so many ways. It strengthens the roots of our communities, like a sharing tree that grows stronger and stronger with every branch of support,” said Sara Nilsson, Green Action Week Co-ordinator at the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.
Sara Nilsson, Green Action Week Co-ordinator, Swedish Society for Nature Conservation
JOIN US
These examples share just what can be achieved when consumers are engaged as active agents in the protection narrative – through a signature sent to government to training workshops which allow lessons on sustainable consumption to ripple through communities – actions which drive a new social compact for people in the marketplace.