Coffee farmers are set to be smiling all the way to the bank after IDH The Sustainable Trade Initiative in partnership with the Kenya Coffee Platform (Sauti ya Kahawa) convened a coffee sector stakeholders forum in Kenya with the objective of engaging on approaches and priorities of making the closing of living income gaps for coffee farming households a priority for all sector actors. The convening event that took place yesterday in Safari Park Hotel brought together key actors who made engaged on commitments towards addressing living wage challenges in East Africa.
Speaking during the event, IDH CEO Daan Wensing from the Netherlands said that the focus of the convening was to bring together sector actors who are actively engaged or considered to be frontrunners in integrating living income within the coffee sector and at a business level. “IDH in collaboration with our partners is on the forefront of bridging the living income gaps for coffee farmers in Kenya and East Africa in general as we aim to improve the livelihoods of all coffee farmers,” he said. “We are also sharing living income-related tools and resources that may be availed to other sectors such as tea, so this is just the springing board.”
IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative is an organization (Foundation) that works with businesses, financiers, governments, and civil society to realize sustainable trade in global value chains. It brings together over 600 companies and governments to drive new sustainable production and trade models in emerging economies reaching over four million farmers in 30 countries.
Ivy Nderitu, Coordinator at Kenya Coffee Platform, has said that closing the living wages gap for coffee farmers in Kenya is a collective effort that needs to convene different stakeholders in the sector. “The key expected outcome of this convening is a commitment by all the sector stakeholders to work towards defining and agreeing on firm commitments for business or sector actions to progressively close living income gaps,” she said. “We are hoping to adopt and ratify this commitment during a follow up event later this year.”
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The Kenya Coffee Platform is an inclusive county and national multi-stakeholder and pre-competitive, collaborative forum that seeks to provide a platform for coffee stakeholders both public and private, to freely interact, discuss, deliberate and address issues affecting the sector in order to create sustainability in the sector.
Coffee is one of the main post-independent cash crops in Kenya. Over the years, the sector has not been sufficiently rewarding but has been promising. Farmers and entrepreneurs across different value chains continue to grapple with meagre income coupled by the challenges of climate change, competition from other crops and marketing challenges occasioned by unscrupulous middlemen.
Jenny Löfbom, the IDH Kenya Country Director has mentioned that the organization is using a multidimensional approach to address the living wage gap for coffee farmers. “We are convening a global network to build on each other’s strengths, align on strategies, share best practices and pilot new methodologies to make coffee farming in this region profitable, environmentally friendly and climate resilient,” she said.
The event was also graced by representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Co-operatives department of coffee as well as officials from the Global Coffee Platform, Kenya Coffee Producers Association (KCPA), farmer organisations, donors and international organisations, and the private sector.
A redacted version of this article was first published by John Kamau in The Star newspaper
