Getting insight in working conditions in factories: audits are only effective if several conditions are met. For example, workers – the majority of them women - should be interviewed by a female local specialist, who speaks the language and is able to build a strong basis of trust among workers. The interviews should take place both before the audit outside the factory and during the audit. Building audit teams from labour experts from two or preferably three different organisations, moreover, helps assure that various parties take ownership in the audit process. For this reason FWF trains and maintains its own audit teams, consisting of experts from local organisations, in production countries where it is active. Thus, the risk of audit fraud is minimised, as is clearly illustrated by various studies.

On the new Dutch website 'rankabrand', which independently ranks consumer brands on 'climate change', 'environmental issues' and 'social issues', companies working with Fair Wear Foundation score high - provided they are transparent about their work.

To stimulate growth of Fair Trade, ten organisations working together in a ‘Fair Trade Alliance’ applied to the Dutch minister for development cooperation for funding. The five Fair Trade organisations applying for the funding are the ‘LVvW’ (Dutch association of world shops), Fair Trade Original, Fair Wear Foundation, ICCO and the Technical Assistance for Sustainable Trade and Environment (TASTE) foundation.