The Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) has announced commitments from four partners for its Partnership for Gender Equity campaign. The Partnership for Gender Equity is a collaborative research initiative which aims to better understand the effects of gender inequality in the coffee sector and support gender integration in the coffee supply chain. Acdi/Voca, an international nonprofit development organisation, Falcon Coffees, a leading trading company in the sustainable coffee sector, Mars Drinks, a workplace-dedicated beverage provider, and Amfotek a female run beverage business, have agreed to contribute financially to the research stage of the initiative.
Through this initiative, CQI is conducting an extensive literature review and participatory workshops for both women and men in four countries. The initiative inaugurated its first workshop successfully in Cauca, Colombia, in October 2014 and just held its second in Nicaragua earlier this month. The aim of this collective effort is to come up with pilot projects, investments, and partnerships to help ensure gender integration in the coffee sector.
The four partners will sit on the Partnership for Gender Equity advisory council for the research stage of the initiative, to guide research questions and provide input to the overall project framework.
“Poverty is the greatest hurdle to sustainable agriculture and the protection of bio-diversity,” said Konrad Brits, Falcon’s CEO, in a statement. “Women around the world do the brunt of the work. If we don’t empower these women we cannot hope to achieve what we have to achieve.”
