Involving women at every level of the coffee business 

Marcelline Budza, founder and president of RWH - Picture by Glody Murhabazi

Women in Eastern Congo are marginalised and subjected to gender based violence. 

The cooperatives affiliated to African Coffee Connect are working to address this in several ways. 

Leadership

Currently the presidents of three cooperatives and the vice president of another are women. A number of washing stations are managed by women, and there are a number of women with other senior technical roles, including agronomists. 

Growing and selling coffee

Women’s access to land is traditionally severely curtailed. Despite the fact that they do the large majority of the work, it is usually the men who deliver the coffee to the co-operative and receive the payment.  The co-operatives now encourage their male members to gift a portion of their farm to their wives, who can then both manage the trees and sell their own coffees. 

In the case of Muungano and Coopade, some of these coffees are processed separately in the washing stations and then marketed as coffees grown by women.

Household

At household level a number of cooperatives run GALS (Gender Active Learning System) progammes, a practical and highly effective approach to developing gender equality.

Women’s economic empowerment programmes

Two cooperatives, Rebuild Women’s Hope and Muungano, run women’s economic empowerment programmes. These start with literacy and numeracy courses, as many women have received little or no education, and move on to business skills training including tailoring, market gardening, baking and soap making.

Healthcare

Access to healthcare, in particular maternity services, is inadequate or completely lacking in the communities. In response, two coops, RWH and Muungano have embarked on initiatives and run maternity and basic healthcare clinics for the community, funded by coffee buying partners and by Fairtrade premiums. 

GALSatScale https://www.galsatscale.net/