The International Coffee Organisation (ICO) and its Coffee Public-Private Task Force (CPPTF) have commenced living income benchmarking studies in Rwanda, Honduras, Togo and Angola.
The studies have been commissioned and funded by the CPPTF’s Living-Prosperous Income Workstream and will be carried out by the consulting firm NewForesight. The studies aim to identify living income benchmarks as an estimate of the cost of a basic and decent standard of living for a household.
This will answer the question, “how much does a typical household in a particular place need to earn, from all income sources, to have a decent standard of living?” The studies are a joint action by coffee companies and governments and will be supported by regional coffee platforms such as Promecafé and the ASEAN Coffee Federation.
“To achieve this, the entire coffee sector must work together. For this reason, we are collaborating with the ICO’s Coffee Private Public Task Force to identify what the income gaps are and using this fact-based approach to collectively work together at the national, regional, and international level, to close those gaps,” says Ing. René León Gómez, Executive Secretary of Promecafé.
The studies are part of the ICO Coffee Public-Private Task Force’s Roadmap 2020-2030, which aims to implement activities to close the living income gap to reach prosperity for target producers in at least 50 per cent of the ICO Member coffee-producing countries by 2030. The Roadmap foresees establishing living income benchmarks in 80 per cent of ICO Member producing countries by 2025.
NewForesight will use a proxy benchmark methodology – formally recognised through the IDH Living Income Benchmark Recognition process – based on the Anker principles to achieve the studies. The Anker methodology will identify the income gaps and provide strategic advice on how to move forward collectively towards a better future for coffee farmers and the sector as a whole.
For more information visit www.ico.org