Alliances for Action: Coffee Network

Summary

At the design stage, this project has been conceived as 3 year project (subject to yearly approvals). In 2023 the Coffee Network will continue building on results from previous years. In 2022 the focus was the promotion of the Coffee Guide, the co-development of translations and capacity building; in 2023 the main objective is the consolidation of the Network, its functioning and the co-development of new knowledge products on topics that were relevant to Network members (data, circular economy and sustainability mapping); in 2024, provided availability of funding, efforts will shift to profs of concepts and proposals for fund-raising including exploring self-sustaining business models. 

In 2024, the focus will be put on:

• Coffee Network coordination and support to the Centre for Circular Economy in Coffee (C4CEC) 
• Awareness raising and capacity building based on Coffee Guide and other Network’s developed knowledge products (paper on circular economy, new data)
• Embedding of tools into partner organizations and ITC coffee projects so they function as multipliers for sustainability 
• Facilitating collaboration in countries where ITC and its partners are active in coffee in partnership with the Centre for Circular Economy and International Coffee Organization (ICO). Raising awareness on the circular economy through engagement of coffee network partners, ITC coffee project stakeholders and awareness raising at events e.g. AFCA) 
• Mainstreaming of Coffee practices and peer learning in ITC through the internal coffee working group

Since the publication of the Coffee Guide in October 2021, more than 300,000 coffee stakeholders have been reached. The Coffee Guide Network was validated by the 70 partners (and contributors to the Guide), ranging from coffee SMEs, foundations, NGOs, universities and independent coffee experts in addition to covering 25 countries across 6 regions - Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe, and Oceania.

6 key institutional partners of the Coffee Guide Network and co-editors of the Coffee Guide - CLAC, ICO, FTA, BCSA, ACRAM, ECTA – contributed financially and in-kind to translate the Coffee Guide into four key languages spoken in major coffee producing regions. Trainings on the 8 technical chapters of the Guide reached almost 50k SMEs and individuals. This knowledge was transferred through partners to + 1 M of members.

One of the main features of the Network is the co-creation approach with partners co-investing (in-kind) with ITC to showcase the Coffee Guide as well as to co-develop new tools. It is estimated that in-kind contribution in 2023 were above 330K. Even more importantly, the Coffee Network was able to leverage investment by Lavazza Foundation as contribution for the creation of the Centre for Circular Economy which is to be considered a spin-off of the Coffee Network and its working group on Circular Economy that was created in January 2023. 

More broadly, the Coffee Guide Network contributed to UN SDG 17.6 to enhance global partnerships for sustainable development; the Network's composition reflecting the value chain from farm to shelf enables a systems approach to address ever-evolving information on coffee trends; the network's expertise contributes to updating data and statistics on coffee volumes and prices segmented by quality and niche consumer markets, good production practices against climate change challenges and digital transformations, opportunities in sustainability, quality and commercialization of specialty coffee, and many more.

As per results chain and planned activities, this project is aligned with the ITC W1 objectives and initiatives that are critical to ensure that ITC remains at the cutting edge of Aid for Trade; maintains and develops global public goods that support enterprises in international trade; innovates with new approaches, tools and profs of concept to attract supplementary W2 resources. The co-creation of the Coffee Guide, the new knowledge products to be developed in 2023 and, very importantly, the Network approach itself are innovations. The impact that can be reached through Network approaches and that goes beyond activities directly organized by ITC could inspire other ITC programmes and projects. It is, as well, more and more appreciated by traditional and non traditional donors that value collaboration as a fundamental approach to achieve impact.