In this series, titled “Promoting Wealth for Women in Specialty Coffee,” we will take a deep dive into the forces surrounding – and interconnected with – money and the accrual of wealth by women in the coffee industry. There are many reasons and ways to invest in women in coffee, but this very big topic of women’s access to finance and credit is key to understanding them all.
Over the last few years here at the Women in Coffee Project, I have invested a lot of my personal energy into understanding the history and pressures on our industry. I think this is a foundational step to intentional activism - it’s also one of the first steps to being an ally. The task is to not expect others to educate us or teach us how to do the work but find ways to make the work meaningful so we can bring our whole selves to the table, and stay at the table. We really need everyone to do this first step in order to achieve sustainable equity as the world changes around us.
There are many invisible burdens that groups such as smallholder women producers don’t have the luxury of overcoming. Coffee producers often live in the most risk-laden side of the industry, where the multidirectional flow of information and/or opportunity is infrequent, where banks and other financial institutions or country-specific support systems are inconsistently – or completely – inaccessible due to that imposed risk. Coffee geographically is grown in countries and economies that have experienced centuries of active underdevelopment by world powers.
In the years post-pandemic, many of us in the industry are talking about what it looks like to redefine "value.” We all agree that within the specialty sector, there is an intricate link between quality, value, and prosperity. In order to INCREASE value to all supply stream actors (an effort that is a direct response to the radical undervaluing of coffee and the people behind it for centuries), we are re-directing our attention to why, how, and where we can promote wealth in areas with the most impact. It may not come as a surprise to hear that the highest level of impact comes through promoting social, intellectual, spiritual, and economic wealth for women.
As we hope to illustrate through this series of virtual panel events, increasing stakeholder prosperity, or any efforts to measure success for achieving equity, always comes back to wealth. Money is in itself a neutral force, but depending on the hands it’s in, it can serve as a positive or negative power.
Due to its complexity, we will invite industry experts to teach and share their perspectives on many potential topics, including but not limited to:
Women Stakeholder Prosperity: Financial Literacy (watch the recording here)
Credit for Women: the Micro Manual & Learning Loan (watch the recording here)
Leadership & Entrepreneurship in Africa (watch the recording here)
For-Profit Social Impact
Equity & the Cost of Transparency
It’s our hope that participants come away with a greater understanding of the unique opportunity for impact centered around promoting wealth for women in coffee, and take away tangible solutions for this work, proving how uniquely capable we are of moving the whole industry toward sustainable equity. These tangible solutions may vary depending on our respective roles, but they should all be aligned on investing our focus and resources in credit and finance for smallholder women producers.
The concept and content behind this series are both owed to Roberta Lauretti-Bernhard and Karen Cebreros - incredible women whose work will be highlighted through this series. I met Roberta and Karen at SCA in Portland, April 2023, and had the great fortune to interview Karen through a collaboration with IWCA Global. You can listen to the recording of Karen’s interview (and the others) here.