Addressing living income gap in Rwanda's coffee growing communities

A large part of the population in Rwanda lives in poverty. Approximately 90% of the active population works as a farmer. Agriculture contributes 30.9% (2017) to the Gross National Product (GNP) and agricultural products make up approximately 63% of export income (f.e. coffee, tea and minerals).

All Ahold Delhaize Coffee Company coffee beans are Rainforest Alliance certified. Ahold Delhaize Coffee Company wants to improve its due diligence approach and cooperates in this pilot with sustainable coffee trader Sucafina. The human rights risk assessment Sucafina conducted in Rwanda identified living income gap and gender equality as high-risk areas. The low income of coffee farmers is partly due to aging coffee plants and therefore lower production.

This project focuses on testing different measures to lower the risks for farmers when they invest tree rejuvenation to increase their yields. The project partners have complementary skills to address the issues.
The Dutch NGO 100WEEKS, has experience with projects to overcome the living income gap.
Sucafina and its sister company in Rwanda, Rwacof, haves contacts with relevant stakeholders like farmers and supply chain workers.
Kahawatu Foundation is a local NGO and embedded in the coffee community in Rwanda, with expertise in community development and gender equality.

Working together is essential to make the action plan and its execution successful. Sucafina will coordinate the creation of the action plan for developing a methodology that can be used in closing the living income gap for smallholder coffee farmers. Sucafina will first identify the project's scope/beneficiaries. Workshops will be organized to further build-out the workplan, and detailed budget, including cost-sharing.