EQUAL ORIGINS & EQUITABLE OUTCOMES Issue Brief from The Partnership for Gender Equity
EXPANDING OUR VIEW OF COFFEE FARMING Coffee is the product of many hands, all playing an essential role in coaxing coffee cherries into the carefully roasted beans and daily ritual enjoyed by coffee lovers around the world. Recognizing and supporting all of the people involved in this transformation is good for farmers and good for the coffee business. In this first Equal Origins Issue Brief, we highlight data related to industry sustainability issues in coffee farming communities. The data underscores the importance of taking an expanded view of coffee production. In the face of growing global demand, climate challenges, and migration, we believe this is critical to ensuring the longterm success of the sector. Put simply, strengthening the role of all members of the coffee farming family and community is essential to the health of our industry. Our goal with these briefs is to offer valuable insights that will support businesses to enrich their own understanding and be able to build greater buy-in for gender equity inside their organizations and among their primary stakeholders. As in this brief, each subsequent edition will highlight the gender dimensions of coffee production in key coffee producing countries – this issue the spotlight is on Ethiopia. We will also spotlight what companies are doing within their sphere of influence to invest and take action.
Volume 1 / Issue 1 / April 2018
INVESTING IN GENDER EQUITY PAYS OFF Coffee, like other commodities, faces complex challenges that threaten the sustainability of the sector and the livelihoods of stakeholders along the supply chain. Global demand is growing by 2.5% per year according to the ICO and continuing to conduct business as usual means that coffee supply will not be able to keep up. Coordinated action is required between industry, governments, and development actors to change the status quo for the estimated 25 million smallholder coffee producers. The good news is that companies are already taking commendable steps to align business goals with efforts to address climate change and reduce poverty. Many have made commitments to support the 2016 Sustainable Development Goals. Even with this good work, a flourishing coffee sector requires additional focused effort to address gender inequalities throughout the supply chain. A wealth of agricultural research demonstrates that failing to do so hinders corporate and social progress. McKinsey estimates the economic cost of gender inequality to global GDP to be US$12 trillion.
Equal Origins exists to encourage companies across the sector to invest in gender and generational equity and equality in coffee farming communities. These Issue Briefs are our gift to you for your support of our efforts. We’re happy you’re on this journey with us. And look forward to hearing from you about how taking an expanded view of coffee farming brings new perspectives and success to your business. Kimberly Easson Founder and Strategic Director The CQI Partnership for Gender Equity (PGE)
In the coffee sector, many inequalities stem from a widely held assumption that coffee is a man’s crop. Women are seldom considered primary producers despite significant contributions to working on and managing family farms. Women’s 1
contributions also tend to be in production and processing stages while men dominate transportation and marketing. Despite the best intentions to align farmer and business outcomes, an incomplete understanding of women’s contributions and comparative advantage reduces the impact of supply chain investments. The following arguments highlight why investing in gender equity supports the long-term productivity, health, and resilience of coffee farming communities, to ensure better quality and consistent supply: Supporting women and their families builds stronger more resilient coffee farming communities. Evidence shows that when women’s contributions are recognized in monetary and nonmonetary ways, it has a positive effect on their families and communities. In coffee, women’s lack of participation in marketing activities leaves them vulnerable to doing the work without receiving any benefit. In Uganda, Kasente highlighted that women side-sell coffee beans at lower cost when they do not have decision-making power over how to use income from coffee.i Without benefits, women are incentivized to withdraw their labor or side sell, creating a risk for supply chain continuity. Demographic shifts and out migration of men mean coffee farms are increasingly in the hands of women, requiring business to become better equipped to work with women directly. Women are also more likely than men to reinvest income into their children’s health and education. Providing the right mix of benefits to men and women helps ensure that coffee livelihoods are attractive and sustainable. Reducing inequalities is a strategy for maximizing productivity and enhancing quality. Though women provide much of the labor for coffee, their specific needs and preferences are seldom considered in training, financing, and contract negotiation. Women often have less access to agricultural inputs and financial services than men
and are often unable to attend or are excluded from trainings about productive tasks for which they hold responsibility. This results in lower yields from women-managed farms, because they are not being targeted as producers. When women gain the same access to inputs, training, and financing, evidence from coffee and cocoa supply chains in Uganda, Guatemala, and Ghana shows that they are just as productive as men.ii If the coffee sector expands its view of how to work, train, and invest in everyone who contributes to coffee production and processing, it will see better return on investments along the supply chain, now and into the future. The endmarket will gain access to a more consistent supply of better quality coffee; producer organizations will strengthen their business practices; and farming households will make decisions that improve yields and outcomes to benefit everyone who contributes to their coffee business. Several industry stakeholders have already observed quality gains after improving women’s participation. Conversations with a diverse pool of stakeholders found that these arguments are relatable and build on what businesses understand about supporting supply chain resilience and sustainability. Supporting gender equality in coffee supply chains provides an opportunity to drive national-level economic growth while strengthening the flexibility and competitiveness of firms. Businesses understand how the investments they already make to improve productivity and quality, like farmer training, are magnified by targeting all the men and women involved in coffee production. Concerns about the next generation of coffee farmers and continuity of supply also provide rationale for business to address food security and the resilience of communities. For more information about the business case, see the tools and resources available from PGE including Gender Equity for the Coffee Value Chain: An Engagement Guide.
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE We support The Partnership for [Gender] Equity as their strategy is based on research, not just good intentions, to assure the right approach to solving the difficult problem of gender equality. Larry Challan, CEO, Batdorf & Bronson 2
COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT: ETHIOPIA Ethiopia, the birthplace of Coffea Arabica, is the largest coffee producer in Africa and the 5 th largest globally.iii It is the 2nd most populous country in Africa, with abundant resources and a recent history of agriculture-led economic growth. The country’s major crops include cereals, pulses, oilseeds, and export crops like coffee, khat, tree crops, and flowers. About 12 million smallholder households grow 95% of Ethiopia’s agricultural output, mostly in the rural highlands.iv Ethiopia ranks 174th of 188 countries on the Human Development Index and 35% of the population lives below the poverty line. v
Despite their contributions to agriculture, women are often overlooked for services, unrecognized as farmers, and they have lower decision-making power. Farms are less frequently managed by women and those they do manage are 24% less productive than plots managed by men due to unequal access to and returns on inputs.ix Research indicates that women experience lower yields than men when using the same amount of fertilizer, indicating that they use lower-quality inputs or follow improper application. x According to the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (2015) women face significant constraints in access to groups, speaking in public, workload, and access to credit. Men are also constrained by credit and group membership. In coffee, men are mostly responsible for heavy manual labor, including land preparation, weeding, and pruning, and for transport and marketing. Women participate in management, harvesting, and processing, especially when trees grow close to the home.xi After harvest, men tend to hold coffee and sell when market prices are high. Women usually need to smooth their income over time and sell small quantities at a lower price on a regular basis to pay for household expenditures. Most coffee producers sell directly to farmer cooperatives. After processing, coffee is graded by the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX). A 2009 law required all export coffee to be sold through Cooperative Unions which trade directly with overseas buyers or private exporters. xii Half of
Coffee is an important crop: it comprises 20-30% of the value of all exports and supports the livelihoods of 15 million people. An estimated 4 million smallholder households cultivate 95% of Ethiopian coffee.vi Yet, productivity remains low in Ethiopia compared to other coffee producing regions. vii Low access to financial services and low group membership restrict smallholders from investing in productivity and quality improvements. Only 5% of agricultural land is irrigated and drought represents a significant threat to agriculture and food security. Economic volatility and low prices encourage some producers to cultivate other crops like khat which is more resilient and can provide 3-4 times higher income.viii Ethiopia’s coffee is exported and the rest is consumed domestically. The ECX was established to help farmers benefit from high market prices by eliminating middlemen. However, the poorest households and women have still sold to nearby Box 1: East Africa Coffee Initiative From 2008 to 2015, TechnoServe’s East Africa Coffee Initiative served nearly 268,000 smallholders by improving yields, building wet mill businesses, and growing the sector. In Ethiopia over 160,000 farmers in participated and increased incomes by an average of 21%. By the end of the program, 35% of the farmers trained in Ethiopia were women. Following the Coffee Initiative, TechnoServe replicated the model in partnership with roasters, USAID programs, and with Nespresso’s AAA Sustainability program. In the AAA program 40% of agronomists were women, well above the 7% Ethiopian average estimated by the World Bank. With sensitization trainings, this helped increase the participation of women from 1% to 30%.
consumers or traders, often at lower prices, to meet income needs after harvest. Recent changes in the law are expected to enhance direct market access for farmers. It will be imperative to find ways to leverage this opportunity to ensure that women also benefit. The most pressing gender issues are summarized below: Limited access to extension services: Women’s time burden from household and childcare responsibilities conflicts with agricultural activities and training. A TechnoServe pilot found that women 3
only made up 4% of training participants. Women experience smaller productivity gains from extension advice received by the household, indicating that trainings do not support their different needs. There are few women extension agents: only 9% of agricultural training center graduates in 2005 were women.xiii Inequitable extension services result in lower use of improved technologies and practices, and lower incomes. Lack of access to and control over income: Men and women contribute to coffee production, but women have less decision-making power about when to sell and how to use the income. xiv According to TechnoServe, women contribute up to 75% of labor but only earn 43% of the income from coffee because men are responsible for trading. Women’s lack of Recommendation: Improve women’s access to training
access and control over income is a disincentive to contribute to coffee production. Research also reveals that some women side sell coffee to access small amounts of cash.xv Low participation and leadership in groups: Gender balance in representation is important because cooperative investments and decisions affect men and women differently. Not accounting for these differences makes it difficult for women to attend important trainings or receive inputs, and reduces the benefits that women receive from membership. Several initiatives have already begun addressing gender-based constraints in the coffee sector. The recommendations below highlight action areas for industry to address to improve quality, sustainability, and gender equity.
Improve leadership opportunities for women
Directly invite women, and invite men and women from the same household Work with local leaders to sensitize men and women Deliver training in locations and at times that accommodate women’s schedules Provide childcare Adapt training methods to meet women and men’s language and literacy levels Train and employ women agronomists Establish representation requirements for leadership committees Recruit women as extension agents and lead farmers Work with local leaders to sensitize men and women Conduct financial management training
Improve financial management of farms
Strengthen women’s ability to generate, save, and control income Conduct household financial management and budgeting training Conduct cooperative financial management training Partner with financial institutions to develop alternative products and services for smallholders
4 Source: The “Coffee Regions of Ethiopia” map by Traboca. https://dailycoffeenews.com/2018/02/08/the-coffee-regions-of-ethiopia-in-this-new-map-from-trabocca/
CONVERSATIONS ABOUT GENDER IN COFFEE: THE CODESIGN LAB Over the course of six weeks in January and February of this year, 15 representatives from coffee roasting and buying companies joined the Partnership for Gender Equity to discuss gender equity in the coffee supply chain. The CoDesign Lab brought together participants from five different time zones and a range of different coffee companies – including Nespresso, Falcon, Allegro, S&D Coffee & Tea, ECOM, Tate, and Equal Exchange, among others – to share their experience in and questions about addressing gender inequalities in their supply chains. The conversations were also an opportunity for PGE to gain a better understanding of how end market companies can drive change in the coffee sector on the issue of gender equity. Each conversation was designed to provide information to participants about key issues in gender equity and encourage dialogue about the challenges and opportunities for roasters and buyers to act. During the first conversation, about why gender equity is important for the coffee sector, participants weighed in on the most compelling arguments. See the first article in this Issue conversation provided a framework for identifying and analyzing constraints facing men and women in the chain. Participants discussed the differences in the types of constraints that men and women face – highlighting for example that women faced social constraints and lacked access to resources, while men faced fewer resource constraints. In the final conversation, participants discussed different financial and contractual arrangements that are being used, or could be used, to support gender equity initiatives. Many highlighted that integrating gender equity into sustainability programs would create the needed incentive for companies to drive change. Gender should be the fifth pillar [of sustainability]…It is intrinsically linked to the success of any sustainability program of smallholder agriculture.
Throughout the conversations, participants raised issues and questions they had about addressing gender and other social inequities in the chain. These ranged from the importance of working with youth to the need to improve our understanding of genderrelated performance indicators. I’d love to see more work on the KPIs…That really is a point of engagement for me. Focusing attention on young women and men – the next generation of farmers – was consistently cited as a concern for industry. Youth issues are often thought of as a separate issue from gender. However, young men and women face both age-related and genderrelated constraints and the two topics can, and should, be discussed together. As often happens when we discuss gender issues, many asked whether it was appropriate to talk about changing culture. Participants worried that by talking about the different needs of men and women we may be creating divisions. Many share this concern, but perhaps by talking about inequalities and the negative impact of existing divisions we are opening a conversation that can reduce those divisions. Unfortunately, the time was far too short for these necessary conversations. The Partnership for Gender Equity is exploring ways of continuing them. We believe that creating opportunities for learning and sharing is a fundamental part of building partnerships for gender equity. In response to this issues and to build on these opportunities, PGE is launching the following new efforts:
Research on Generational Engagement in the Coffee Sector (building on The Way Forward) A Learning & Innovation Hub on Gender Equity in Coffee that will bring together various thematic groups to participate in facilitated online discussions on key gender equity topics to share learning and inform ongoing strategy development. 5
Please contact us to find out more.
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPCOMING EVENTS April has shaped up to be a big month for gender equity in coffee. Below are highlights of related events and also in the broader world of gender in agriculture. April 10
Conversation about Gender Equity with the Bay Area coffee community in Oakland, California April 12 Fundraiser for Equal Origins with Sisters Coffee in Portland, Oregon Apri 18 - 19 Re;Co Symposium – participation in the Roundtable on Equity, Diversity and PGE works hard to unlock the Inclusion potential of coffee farming women and April 19 Equal Origins Celebratory Event at La their families, promote equitable Marzocco @KEXP, 6:30 – 8:30pm, opportunities for their communities to Ticketed event thrive and catalyze bold action toward April 20 Panel at Global Coffee EXPO – a supply chain that works for the Links of the Coffee Strengthening everyone. Supply Chain, check EXPO guide for other panels related to gender presented by partner organizations Contact April 21 Us Gender in Coffee Documentary, panel discussion following the film screening The Partnership for Gender Equity April 24 - 26 Participation in expert consultation on 2020 Pennsylvania Ave, NW #382 and responsible gender sensitive Washington, DC 20006 agricultural investments with United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Twin, London UK Telephone: 202-657-5788 April 26 - 27 Participation in Theory of Change Email: connect@genderincoffee.org workshop with Edge Certified Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland May/June May industry event in London TBC; World Website: genderincoffee.org of Coffee Amsterdam in June; Webinars Social Media: @EqualOrigins and other events to be announced
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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE Gender Equity is a complex topic; it not just about women, it's about families, breaking stereotypes, inclusion and empowerment while recognizing the need for cross border collaboration. We support Equal Origins because the tools and dialog they are creating will bring a systematic and accessible resource to the coffee supply chain for women and families that is culturally aware and just. This important work will help to shape and inform the entire movement and we are proud to be part of it. Beth Ann Caspersen, Equal Exchange
WORKS CITED
i
Kasente, D. 2012. “Fair Trade and organic certification in value chains: lessons from a gender analysis from coffee exporting in Uganda.” Gender & Development, 20:111 – 127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2012.663627 ii Hill, R.V., and M. Vigneri. 2014. “Mainstreaming Gender Sensitivity in Cash Crop Market Supply Chains.” In A. Quisumbing, R. Meinzen-Dick, T. Raney, A. Croppenstedt, J. A. Behrman, and A. Peterman (eds.) Gender in Agriculture and Food Security: Closing the Knowledge Gap. Springer. Root Capital and FOMIN. 2014. Improving Rural Livelihoods: A Study of Four Guatemalan Coffee Cooperatives. Root Capital. Cambridge, MA. https://info.rootcapital.org/guatemalan-coffee-study iii Tefera, A. and T. Tefera. 2013. “Global Agricultural Information Network: Ethiopia Coffee Annual Report.” United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service. Washington, D.C. https://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Coffee%20Annual_Addis%20Ababa_Ethiopia_6-42013.pdf International Coffee Organization (ICO). 2018. “World Coffee Report.” ICO. London, UK. http://www.ico.org/prices/poproduction.pdf iv FAO n.d. http://www.fao.org/ethiopia/fao-in-ethiopia/ethiopia-at-a-glance/en/ v United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 2018. “Human Development Reports: Ethiopia” UNDP. New York, NY. http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/ETH vi Tefera and Tefera 2013. Minten, B. 2017. “IFPRI Blog: Ethiopia’s coffee farmers struggle to realize benefits from international markets.” International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Washington, D.C. http://www.ifpri.org/blog/ethiopias-coffee-farmersstruggle-realize-benefits-international-markets vii Minten 2017. viii Tafesse, A., Dorosh, P., and S. Gemessa 2012. “Crop Production in Ethiopia: Regional Patterns and Trends.” In Food and Agriculture in Ethiopia: Progress and Policy Challenges. ed. Dorosh, P. and S. Rashid. University of Pennsylvania Press. Philadelphia, PA. http://ebrary.ifpri.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15738coll2/id/127350 Tefera and Tefera 2013. Columbus, C. 2018. “Ethiopia's Coffee Farmers Are 'On The Front Lines Of Climate Change'.” National Public Radio. Washington, D.C. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/06/19/533538555/ethiopias-coffee-farmers-are-onthe-front-lines-of-climate-change ix World Bank and ONE. 2014. “Levelling the field: Improving Opportunities for Women Farmers in Africa.” The World Bank. Washington, D.C. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/579161468007198488/pdf/860390WP0WB0ON0osure0date0March 0180.pdf x World Bank and ONE 2014. xi Aregu, Puskur, and Bishop-Sambrook-2011. https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/21037/roleOfGender.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y xii Tefera and Tefera 2013.; Baptista and Jenkins 2017. xiii World Bank, IFAD, FAO 2009. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/6603/461620PUB0Box3101OFFICIAL0USE0ON LY1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y xiv Aregu, L., Puskur, R., and C. Bishop-Sambrook. 2011. The role of gender in crop value chain in Ethiopia. Paper presented at the Gender and Market Oriented Agriculture (AgriGender 2011) Workshop. Nairobi, Kenya. https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/21037/roleOfGender.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y xv Aregu, Puskur, and Bishop-Sambrook 2011.