As part of our mission to make sustainable farming the norm, we launch our Sector Partnerships program in Central America to strengthen the capacity of farmers (especially smallholders and female farmers) and local civil society organizations to lobby and advocate for sector change in coffee in their countries. We will support them to work with governments and companies to engage in issues that require a sector wide approach. We will work with the coffee industry, farmers, workers and local NGO’s on advancing the policy agenda with local governments on the topics of: climate change, productivity for farmers, living wage for workers and gender equity in coffee farming communities. We will implement at least one project in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua on each of these issues with local NGO’s and farmers. We will include the coffee industry in our lobbying and advocacy efforts and will share our learnings with the coffee community at large.

With our Sector Partnerships program, we want to ensure that:

• Smallholder farmers have better access to knowledge, tools and services to increase productivity;

• Farmer groups are strengthened and inclusive with regards to smallholders and women;

• Farmers adopt climate change adaptation practices supported by companies and improved government policies;

• There is progress towards a living wage for workers, and the gap between women and men’s wages is reduced;

• Women have equal opportunities and do not face discrimination or violence in the workplace.

Goals:

• At least 4 projects total on topics of climate change, productivity for farmers, living wage for workers and gender equity for coffee farming communities implemented by 2020 in Central America

• Results from projects will be shared by farmers, workers and local civil society organizations directly with the broader coffee community on international forums. Including the 60,000 coffee farmers and workers part of the UTZ program in Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala

• At least 1 million dollars invested on these projects.

In partnership with: Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Update

January 29, 2018

We have started 9 projects in Central America (4 in Nicaragua, 3 in Guatemala, 2 in Honduras) focused on the following themes: gender (1), climate change (3), productivity (3), farmer organization strengthening (2). We have already released over 900,000 euros (over US$1M) to our partners to start implementing those projects.