Against the backdrop of the Global Coffee Sustainability Conference 2017, the Global Coffee Platform (GCP) and Coffee Quality Institute’s Partnership for Gender Equity (CQI-PGE) have intensified their cooperation through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in order to drive the issue of gender and youth onto the coffee sector’s agenda and further accelerate collective action.
This deeper collaboration between the two organizations aims to provide a stronger and more effective ecosystem for those stakeholders wishing to contribute to addressing the issues associated to gender equality. Through the leveraging of existing and potential funding, the development and dissemination of practical tools, the exchange of learnings, and the alignment of a broad base of coffee stakeholders, such a cooperation will see the more efficient use of allocated funding and an increase in collective impact for the benefit of coffee farming communities around the world.
This is good news for GCP Members as the MoU provides various opportunities to advance their sustainability efforts. This includes the possibility of contributing to field research to identify gender and generational based risks and opportunities, participation in strategic field level projects that unlock the potential of women, youth and their families, and access to research, tools and innovative approaches that result in more profitable supply chains and equitable outcomes for farming families.
“As a central thought-leader on the issue of gender in coffee, CQI-PGE is an ideal partner to support the work being done in the Gender & Youth Collective Action Network and accelerate the efforts of all GCP Members towards impacting on the lives and futures of women and young people working in coffee” Annette Pensel, Executive Director of the Global Coffee Platform.
“GCP’s extensive member network, national platforms and innovative approach offer an effective framework for advancing sustainability goals across the sector – including those of gender equality and youth engagement. PGE is pleased to partner closely with GCP to catalyze gender equity in farming communities and realize benefits throughout the value chain.” Kimberly Easson, Strategic Director of the CQI Partnership for Gender Equity.
The MoU complements the existing activities the two are already working together on. This includes the design and development of two practical tools – an Engagement Guide and a set of indicators to be a part of the common measurement framework, GCP Progress – which are both intended to encourage greater industry action and improve gender equity throughout the supply chain and will be launched later this year.
Find out more and Get Involved!
Gain access to all the relevant updates and previous webinar recordings from the Gender & Youth Collective Action Network by visiting GCP Connect.
The CQI Partnership for Gender Equity
The Partnership for Gender Equity (PGE), a program of the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI), was created in 2014 as a collaborative research and development initiative to better understand the link between gender equity and supply chain resilience and determine the best way to respond.