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Kirsten Gagnaire, managing director of FSG’s global health practice, looks at what it means to bring gender equity into every global health conversation.
Young women in Gondar, Ethiopia.
Recently, I’ve seen a shift towards asking, “What does it mean to have a gender lens in all aspects of global health?” We need to move beyond just thinking of women and girls, and start thinking about all the ways that gender impacts global health issues.
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By Gigi Gatti, Regional Director, Asia, Grameen Foundation
Grameen Foundation works with a team of organizations to help coconut farmers like Gina (center) revitalize their farms and increase their income.
On their coconut farm in the Philippines, Gina Rison and her husband Nico have battled pest outbreaks, drought, and typhoons. But today as part of Grameen Foundation’s FarmerLink program they are starting to ride the rising wave of demand for coconut. Continue Reading
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Welcome to the June 2017 issue of the Global Washington newsletter.
Giving birth to my son and daughter was one of the greatest joys in my life. But it wasn’t easy. I was in labor with my son for 38 hours (I round up to 40), and I had mildly severe hemorrhaging after my daughter was born. Both births were in a hospital and the health of my children and myself was never in danger.
When women give birth in developing countries, the event is not only life-changing, it can often become a struggle for life itself. Thousands of women like Sarah Omega, whom we profile as this month’s Changemaker, have been left broken by the act of childbirth, and have had their perseverance tested by the combination of stigma and fear that accompanies such injuries.
Thankfully, there are excellent organizations, including right here in Washington state, that are deeply committed to supporting women and girls, as well as men and boys, in managing their reproductive health.
Organizations like Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands (PPGNHI), also profiled in this month’s newsletter, not only provide affordable healthcare to women and families in our region, but they also provide funding and technical assistance to projects globally. Most recently, PPGNHI has begun working with another GlobalWA member, VillageReach, on ways to reduce HIV infection in girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa.
Recognizing the importance of women’s health is a personal issue and a global issue. I hope that you will learn more about the health challenges and renewed opportunities for women in developing countries through these articles and at a panel discussion we will be hosting on June 7th.
Global Washington will also be tracking information leading up to the 2017 London Summit on Family Planning, organized by the U.K. Department for International Development, the UN Population Fund and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. According to a concept note by the organizers, the summit will focus on ways to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal of universal access to sexual and reproductive health by 2030.
Also, look for more on the topic of family planning from our friends at Washington Global Health Alliance later this month. WGHA’s new President and CEO, Dena Morris, will take a closer look at how investing in voluntary family planning pays dividends in the economies of developing countries.
Kristen Dailey
Executive Director
Photo: Days for Girls
Investments in reproductive health services have proven to be a highly cost-effective way to reduce extreme poverty globally. According to The United Nations Foundation, not only does access to voluntary family planning saves lives it also “reduces poverty, promotes environmental sustainability, increases security, and allows women to pursue educational and income-generating opportunities.”
Unfortunately, many reproductive health needs go unmet throughout the world, often with tragic results. Globally, more than 800 women and girls die each day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, including unsafe abortions. And for every woman who dies in childbirth, 20 more will suffer debilitating childbirth-related injuries like obstetric fistula.
Reproductive health is a cross-cutting issue that encompasses everything having to do with the human reproductive system across all life stages. People who work in reproductive health services make sure that girls have access to menstrual pads, so they are more likely to stay in school. They educate families about the benefits of delaying child marriages, and thus early pregnancy, which can take a life-long toll on the health of adolescent mothers and their babies. They provide counseling and care for pregnant women infected with Zika. They conduct cervical cancer screenings for women in rural areas. And they ensure at-risk populations have access to HIV/AIDS screening and treatment.
Reproductive health workers do all this and more, while at the same time having to overcome societal taboos and stigma, threats of violence, a lack of stable funding, and to top it off, the high-stakes politics surrounding family planning and abortion services.
The Mexico City Policy
The Mexico City Policy is a U.S. government policy that originally required foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive U.S. global family planning assistance to certify that they do not “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning” with non-U.S. funds. It’s important to note that before the Mexico City Policy was established, foreign organizations were already barred from providing abortion services using U.S. funds.
Because the meaning of “actively promote” is unclear, organizations that are afraid of losing U.S. aid funding interpret this prohibition broadly, avoiding even the word “abortion,” let alone using their own non-U.S. funds to provide abortions or refer women to safe, legal abortion providers. This is why those who oppose the policy refer to it as the “global gag rule.”
On January 23rd, President Trump expanded the policy to apply to all of U.S. global health assistance, including funds that also support childhood vaccinations, as well as treatment for HIV/AIDS, malaria, Ebola, and other infectious diseases. According to PolitiFact this is approximately $9.7 billion, or “about 15 times as much money as the United States spends on family planning, which was the core program affected across all three previous Republican administrations.”
While foreign organizations could agree to drop any activities related to abortion in order to continue to receive U.S. funding, the integrated nature of health services, particularly in rural areas, makes this especially difficult.
A broad coalition of organizations, including several GlobalWA members, have publicly opposed the expanded policy, saying that it “interferes with the doctor-patient relationship by restricting medical information healthcare providers may offer, limits free speech by prohibiting local citizens from participating in public policy debates, and impedes women’s access to family planning by cutting off funding for many of the most experienced health care providers who chose to prioritize quality reproductive-health services and counseling over funding that restricts care and censors information.”
Despite the contraction of U.S. funding for family planning globally, European governments and others continue to invest in this important area. Organized by the U.K. Department for International Development, the United Nations Population Fund and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the upcoming 2017 London Summit on Family Planning in July will focus on ways to continue making progress toward the Sustainable Development Goal of achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services by 2030.
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The following Global Washington members are working to save and improve lives in developing regions through their work on reproductive health:
ACT for Congo
ACT for Congo improves health for women and their communities through partnership, capacity building and advocacy. We identify change-agents and help them identify opportunities and resources which empower them as they change the future of DR Congo. Our partner’s peer educators create music, drama and use their own stories to teach reproductive health and rights in schools, faith communities, marketplaces and by radio and local television. http://www.actforcongo.org/
Adara Development
Adara Development is focused on improving health and education for women, children and communities living in poverty. Its expertise is in maternal, infant and child health; and remote community development. Adara’s work reaches tens of thousands of people living in poverty each year through service delivery, and countless more through its knowledge sharing program. Adara is in the process of scaling its global health work in order to contribute to the end of preventable deaths of women, children, adolescents and particularly newborns. http://www.adaragroup.org/
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Foundation aspires to help all people lead healthy, productive lives and is dedicated to discovering and disseminating innovative approaches to addressing extreme poverty and poor health in developing countries. It is working to bring access to high-quality contraceptive information, services, and supplies to an additional 120 million women and girls in the poorest countries by 2020 without coercion or discrimination, with the longer-term goal of universal access to voluntary family planning. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/
Days for Girls International
Days for Girls creates a more dignified, free and educated world through access to lasting feminine hygiene solutions. Through volunteers, through enterprises, and through public and private partnerships, Days for Girls is working to shift how women and girls see themselves and are seen by their communities. The organization offers girls and women new life choices and spurs narrative change, by providing sustainable hygiene solutions, health education, and income-generation opportunities. https://www.daysforgirls.org/
One By One
One By One is a Seattle-based non-profit organization dedicated to the elimination of obstetric fistula worldwide. The organization partners with communities to develop and support holistic fistula treatment and to increase access to safe childbirth for all women. https://www.fightfistula.org/
OutRight Action International
OutRight works to bring visibility to the struggles and expose discrimination and violence against the LGBTIQ community. For example, the organization brings the voices of the LGBTIQ community to the United Nations and helps advocates build networks that empower lesbian, bisexual, trans and intersex women to ensure that they are not excluded from broader discussions around global health. https://www.outrightinternational.org
PATH
PATH is an international organization that accelerates innovation to save lives and improve health, especially among women and children. PATH’s health solutions reach an average of 150 million people per year in more than 70 countries, addressing a range of global health challenges from malaria to diabetes to reproductive health. For 40 years, the organization has mobilized thousands of cross-sector partners to help countries tackle their greatest health needs, empowering people to transform their own health and futures. https://www.path.org/
Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands (PPGNHI)
PPGNHI draws upon its expertise as a leading provider of sexual and reproductive health services and comprehensive sexuality education to build the capacity of partner organizations around the world. PPGNHI believes that sexual and reproductive rights are basic human rights and that everyone should have access to quality health care and education. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-great-northwest-hawaiian-islands
By Heidi Breeze-Harris
In Vietnam, a group of peer educators create signs with messages about sexual and reproductive health for a large educational event. (Credit: Susan Steckler/PPGNHI).
Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands (PPGNHI) provides reproductive health care services and education to people in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho and Western Washington— the largest geographic region of any Planned Parenthood affiliates in the United States. Since 2001, PPGNHI’s Global Programs have circled the globe, reaching Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Global Programs has offered funding and technical assistance to projects in low-resource settings including Cameroon, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Laos, and Vietnam.
“We bring expertise in our core competencies, including sexual and reproductive health services like family planning and prevention of sexually transmitted infections, and providing comprehensive sexuality education for adolescents, to a global context,” said Diane Bushley, PPGNHI’s Global Programs Manager. “And while each country context is different, our programs can adapt to local needs and values.”
In Vietnam, the sexual health education programming offered by our local partner is quite progressive, offering sex education to younger students than in many other countries. Working with youth between 11and 13 years in age is a unique opportunity for PPGNHI to support age-appropriate education for this important but often underserved group. PPGNHI’s in-country partner, the Centre for Creative Initiatives in Health & Population (CCIHP), launched a peer education program in 2014. The CCHIP peer educators conduct large group education sessions, a less common approach for PPGNHI. This adaptation has been a learning experience because the large group communication sessions are culturally appropriate for Vietnam.
For CCIHP, learning how to implement an adaptation of PPGNHI’s peer education model at six middle schools in Hanoi has enhanced their programs. The effort has increased the capacity of local youth to engage peers and adults, and created new communication channels for sexual health education.
In 2016, CCIHP reached 4,200 students in six schools through their education sessions, leading to a significant increase in young people’s knowledge about sexual and reproductive health and gender in the rapidly changing but relatively conservative context of Vietnam, where discussion about sexuality is often avoided. The CCHIP initiative has also helped both students and adults feel more comfortable talking about sexual and reproductive health.
“Working with youth as young as 11-years-old is such an opportunity,” said Bushley. “They are interested in the information and articulate about what they learn.” One student noted, “After this program, I found that there is nothing to be ashamed of in learning about reproductive health because everybody gained knowledge which will help them prevent risks for themselves.”
PPGNHI with CCIHP trainee staff during a training on inclusivity in sexuality education and strategies for improving sexual and reproductive health among LGBTQ youth. (Credit: Tu Anh Hoang for PPGNHI).
The most recent project in the Global Programs portfolio is in Malawi, in partnership with another Global Washington member, VillageReach. The collaborative effort was funded in 2016 by the Dreams Innovation Challenge, which intends to reduce HIV infection in girls and young women in ten sub-Saharan African countries.
VillageReach and its partners launched the mobile health hotline CCPF, a Chichewa acronym for Health Center by Phone, in Malawi in 2011. CCPF was originally designed specifically for maternal and child health and has since expanded in scope to cover all general health topics. Through a unique partnership with the Malawi Ministry of Health and Airtel, Africa’s largest mobile carrier, CCPF will be available nationwide by the end of 2017. Despite this tremendous growth and success, VillageReach found that the hotline service was not adequately reaching adolescents. Specifically targeting the unique needs of adolescents’ health is critical because young women and adolescent girls represent the largest population of those newly infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.
VillageReach saw the opportunity for PPGHNI to bring their expertise designing youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services to the CCPF project.
“Too often in global health we talk about maternal health without considering that many of the pregnant women and women of reproductive age are also teenagers. Developmentally, adolescents require a different approach when it comes to outreach and interventions, especially when talking about their sexual and reproductive health. We are excited to work closely with PPGNHI whose deep expertise is essential to strengthening CCPF as a youth-friendly health service,” said Jodi-Ann Burey, Program Manager for VillageReach.
To begin their partnership, VillageReach and PPGNHI conducted an extensive assessment to determine the specific needs of adolescents and sexual and reproductive health content and services in the CCPF project context. Based on that needs assessment, Village Reach and PPGHNI have created CCPF for Adolescents, which will employ specially-trained health workers to provide information and advice to adolescents and will also establish partnerships with over a dozen health facilities to increase young people’s access to health center services and sexual and reproductive health commodities.
CCPF’s new adolescent module will be launched in June 2017 and will cover issues such as pregnancy prevention, STI/HIV prevention and management, menstrual hygiene, and partner and parental communication. The CCPF for Adolescents hotline module will benefit more than 22,000 girls and women ages 15-24 and 11,000 men ages 20-24. The health center partnerships are expected to bring 40 percent more girls between the ages of 15-19 to facilities for care.
PPGNHI’s Global Programs have come a long way since they first began in 2001. “Our board of directors have a strong interest in global issues and they believe that the goals of equity and social justice extend beyond our national borders,” says Bushley. “We are thrilled to work in partnerships, like with VillageReach, to bring our technical expertise to international projects. Needs for sexual and reproductive health services and education are significant. We want to help meet those needs, not just in our own backyard, but globally too.”
By Heidi Breeze-Harris
Sarah Omega. Photo: One by One.
“After what happened to me, I said to myself, ‘I can bring a change.’” This is a quote often used by Sarah Omega, when giving speeches about her experiences as an obstetric fistula survivor. Obstetric fistula is a devastating childbirth injury. The World Health Organization estimates that obstetric fistula affects approximately 2 million women worldwide with 50,000-100,000 new cases each year.
Obstetric fistula is caused by obstructed labor, which means that the baby cannot descend through the birth canal due to breach presentation, the baby’s position, or a mismatch between the size of the baby’s head and the size of the mother’s pelvic opening, also known as cephalopelvic disproportion. Worldwide, 8 percent of women will experience obstructed labor. The primary intervention to relieve obstructed labor is timely access to a caesarean section. And while women in the developed world usually have access to this care, women and babies in the developing world often die of complications related to obstructed labor because of limited access to care.
For women in places like rural Kenya, care is limited or unavailable for a variety of reasons including poverty, distance, women’s lack of decision-making power in their healthcare choices, and lack of supplies or health professionals at health posts. Of the women who survive obstructed labor, 90 percent will have lost their babies during childbirth, and some will leak urine and/or feces, uncontrollably, through a hole that has formed during the long labor. These women are often cast out of their homes and told they are cursed. Due to stigma and ill health, they cannot work, and they suffer high rates of depression and suicide. And yet, obstetric fistula can be repaired with a surgical procedure costing an average of $500. Fistula repair surgery, in effect, gives a woman her life back.
Sarah Omega is the Let’s End Fistula Program Manager for One By One. She is originally from rural western Kenya. Sarah knows the realities of obstetric fistula all too well. At the age of 19, she became pregnant as a result of rape. She went into labor at her aunt’s house. Her labor was obstructed and needed medical assistance, but no one in the household had even $1 for bus fare to the hospital.
Even though Sarah had been in labor for 21 hours, she and her aunt walked to the hospital. Once at the medical facility, Sarah waited another ten hours to be seen by a doctor. After 31 hours of labor, the doctor finally came, but by that time her baby boy had already died, and Sarah was dying too. An emergency c-section was performed to remove the stillborn baby and to save Sarah’s life. Thus began Sarah’s journey from impoverished fistula survivor to internationally renowned maternal health advocate.
After her harrowing childbirth experience, she began leaking urine uncontrollably. She did not know why. Doctors told her there was no hope for treatment. She sank into a deep depression for 12 years before she met Dr. Hillary Mabeya, a fistula surgeon who explained that her condition could be treated. “I remember asking him, ‘Am I the only one who has this problem?’ Dr. Mabeya told me that I was one of thousands of women suffering in Kenya. I couldn’t believe it. Once I was healed, I knew I had to help other women to be treated.”
When Sarah had recovered and she was able to reopen her hair salon, she began talking with her clients about fistula. Soon she was saving a few extra shillings here and there in order to pay for travel to remote areas of western Kenya. She would make presentations to churches, youth groups, and at village meetings to raise awareness about fistula. “At that time, I was just beginning in this work. I would do anything. I would go anywhere so that people would listen to me,” Sarah said.
Sarah’s charisma, commitment, and passion propelled her into the international spotlight. In 2009, the UN Population Fund brought her to Washington D.C. to speak to members of the United States Congress about the importance of American aid funding for maternal health issues like obstetric fistula. At that same meeting, Sarah connected with One By One for the first time. In 2011 Sarah joined One By One’s staff as the Kenyan Program Manager.
Fistula outreach in rural Kenya. Photo: One by One.
With Sarah’s help, One By One partners with local communities in western Kenya to develop and support holistic fistula treatment and increase access to safe childbirth for all women. As Sarah’s experience shows, holistic fistula treatment is extremely complex. When working to assist fistula patients, Sarah faces difficulties even finding affected women because they are hiding after experiencing intense stigma. She must solve issues of transportation for women who live in remote areas. She must explain the medical system, fistula surgery, and build trust with women and families, many of whom have never accessed formal medical care, much less undergone a surgical procedure.
To meet these challenges, Sarah Omega has recruited and trained over 30 Regional Representatives who work for the Let’s End Fistula program. Most of the Representatives are former fistula patients themselves. These women, and some men, go door-to-door in their local communities looking for fistula survivors and educating families about safe childbirth practices. One By One has treated women as old as 90 and as young as 11. Some patients have only had fistula for several months and some women have suffered for over 50 years. Each of them has the same question as Sarah did, “Am I the only one to suffer this fate.”
Since 2012, the Let’s End Fistula program, under Sarah’s leadership, has reached 275,000 people with education and provided holistic fistula treatment for 1,000 women.
Reintegration is a crucial component of holistic care for women who have suffered from fistula. Many women, even once they are physically healed, remain isolated from their families and communities. As a result of the stigma they experienced, they suffer higher rates of mental health and self-esteem issues. Under Sarah’s direction, One By One launched Phase II of the Let’s End Fistula program in early 2017. Phase II aims to empower fistula survivors to improve their lives and trains them to become safe motherhood advocates in their communities.
Prevention will be the key to ending fistula. “Who better to advocate for safe childbirth than the women who have lived through the trauma of fistula,” says One by One’s International Program Director, Carolyn Anderman.
200 women who were treated in Phase 1 are now in 12 newly formed “solidarity groups” that provide training and peer-to-peer support with psychosocial issues and economic empowerment. The women involved know they are no longer alone. Their voices, collectively, have new power to bring a change. As Sarah says, “These are women who have walked the same journey. Sharing their experiences, it helps them imagine not being stuck, seeing new opportunities, seeing what other people have accomplished. They can see there is a future.” Sarah is living proof that a bright future exists for every woman whose life she touches.
Please welcome our newest Global Washington members. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with their work and consider opportunities for support and collaboration!
Key Travel
Key Travel is a Travel Management Company that has specialized in simplifying travel complexity for the humanitarian, faith and education sectors for over 35 years. www.keytravel.com/us
Providence Health
Providence’s Mission is rooted in a deep tradition of reaching beyond our borders to serve those in need. With 32 hospitals and more than 300 clinics, we have the talents and resources to make a substantial impact internationally and, in return, the experience is transformative for volunteers. www.providence.org
June 6: Seattle University // Advocacy and Lobbying: What Your Nonprofit Needs To Know
June 8: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation // Women Hold up Half the Sky
June 9: Washington Nonprofits // ONLINE: The Best Way to Tell a Story
June 19-July 19: Jackson School of International Studies // The International Strategic Crisis Negotiation Exercise
June 28- July 19: Washington Nonprofits // ONLINE: Nonprofit Data for Beginners
Senior Media and Publicity Engagement Specialist, Intellectual Ventures
Program Sustainability Manager, Splash
Associate, VillageReach
For more jobs and resources, visit https://globalwa.org/job-board/
June 7: The Status of Reproductive Health Worldwide
June 14: Tech for Global Good: Maximizing Office Technology
June 22: Networking Happy Hour with Friends of GlobalWA, Humanosphere and World Affairs Council
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On Tuesday, May 2nd Global Washington hosted a small discussion as part of its newly launched “Voices from the Field” event series. Khalil Sleiman, a member of World Vision’s Global Rapid Response Team, presented on the current humanitarian crisis in the Middle East.
Khalil brought to the discussion his in-depth knowledge, as well as his own experience of war and displacement. Originally from a small village in southern Lebanon, Khalil’s family lost their home and land during the Lebanese Civil War. Continue Reading
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Think Globally, Give Locally
These Global Washington members are participating in this year’s GiveBIG.
You can donate now through May 10th to amazing organizations, based here in Washington state, that are doing lifesaving work globally.
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by Erika Koss
Coffee cherries in Rwanda (Photo: Erika Koss)
At last week’s Global Specialty Coffee Expo in Seattle, the word “resilience” bounced around like an India rubber ball.
World Coffee Research shared its focus on breeding resilient seeds that will result in resilient beans—or, coffee trees that can withstand the earth’s rising temperatures, which threaten coffee yields.
Computational chemist Dr. Christopher Hendon, in his talk on Water & Cryogenics, illustrated why coffee beans possess resilience to freezing. Dr. Andre Sanfiorenzo, an expert in landscape genetics, explained why sun grown coffee lacks resilience in the agroforestry systems.
But if a coffee bean’s resilience is all the buzz, why does this matter for coffee farmer producers? Continue Reading
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I will never forget the first time I read about Adara.
I remember the moment as if it were yesterday. I opened the local paper to a story about a woman, Audette Exel, who had started a unique ‘business for purpose’ to use the power of business to help people living in poverty across the world. It was 1998 and I was living in Bermuda working in maternal and newborn health. At that point I had a decade of experience under my belt working with a population that I love, and it was during that time that the fires for global health were first lit.
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Welcome to the April 2017 issue of the Global Washington newsletter.
This week, some 12,000 coffee professionals will filter through Seattle for the annual Global Specialty Coffee Expo. Baristas will be competing for the best latte design, participants will learn about the science of coffee, and hundreds of exhibitors will be marketing specialty coffee products. Alongside this Expo, Global Washington will be shining the spotlight on coffee growers in developing countries who bring that delicious brew to our cup each day.
We’ve been pouring over the research, and one thing we’ve learned is that it can be challenging to be a coffee farmer, and climate change is increasing some of the perennial hardships farmers face. Many are having to explore new planting and irrigation techniques, even switching to new types of coffee plants, or new crops altogether.
Several non-profit organizations and academic institutions in Washington state work with coffee farmers to create a more equitable and environmentally sustainable coffee supply chain. In this month’s issue brief, you can learn more about some of the programs that Global Washington members have percolating in coffee-growing regions. Our member profile this month looks at how a Seattle University class project with coffee farmers turned into a student-run social enterprise, Café Ambiental. And our Changemaker for April is a woman from Colombia who is living out her grandfather’s legacy by serving up financial access for coffee farmers through Global Partnerships.
Here in Seattle, we’re known for our great coffee. I hope that after learning more about smallholder coffee farmers around the world, and the Global Washington members working to improve their lives and livelihoods, you will be even more proud of our region and our reputation for supporting excellent, equitable coffee.
Kristen Dailey
Executive Director
By Erika Koss
Arabica coffee tree in Uganda. (Credit: Erika Koss).
“The Emerald City” is a fitting nickname for Seattle, a city filled with beauty: parks, lakes, and dazzling views of Mt. Rainer. But it’s also a jewel as a global center of environmental stewardship and social innovation. With a robust Climate Action Plan, intended to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, it’s also a hub for innovation in technology, science, and the arts. And, Seattle is arguably the “coffee capital” of the United States, a seaport city with a deep history of coffee trade and economic growth, which now boasts more than 1,700 coffee shops to serve its more than 684,000 residents who speak more than 160 languages.
For all these reasons, Seattle is the perfect city to, once again, host the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual U.S. Re:Co Symposium and its newly renamed “Global Specialty Coffee Expo.” This week, these two events will unite more than 12,000 coffee professionals from around the world.
The term “specialty coffee” is only rightly applied when coffee beans can be accurately traced to their origin, and when the resulting drink is graded a score of 80 or above through cupping, a rigorous method of judging coffee quality. But specialty coffee purveyors are also driven by a quest for environmental and human sustainability at every part of a long global supply chain.
Women are essential actors throughout coffee’s global supply chain, such as this woman, who has worked for a decade at Buf Coffee’s washing stations in Rwanda. Her job includes managing the process of sorting parchment coffee that will be eventually exported to specialty coffee roasters. (Credit: Erika Koss).
The coffee supply chain is nothing if not complex. More than 25 million coffee farmers who hail from the “bean belt”—tropical countries around the equator that produce the coffee bean—work long, tiring hours in some of the world’s most beautiful countries, to grow a product ultimately consumed by more than 80% of all adults in the Global North. Among the 75 coffee-producing countries, the top five producers in 2016 were Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia, and Ethiopia. The vast majority of the world’s coffee is consumed by the European Union countries and in the United States, where demand for coffee has been rising for the last two decades. But it’s mostly in Scandinavia—where many workers’ unions require coffee breaks—that per capita consumption reigns.
At the Global Specialty Coffee Expo, members will join in promoting and enjoying coffee, as well as discussing various challenges that the industry faces, including the greatest one, climate change. Many have even been asking, will we have coffee in 80 years? In 50 years? In 30?
And, like so much in coffee, the answer is, it depends.
If you ask the researchers of the U.K.’s Royal Botanic Gardens and the Environment and Coffee Forest Forum in Ethiopia, we have until 2080 before a majority of the world’s coffee supply disappears due to climate change.
Perhaps one of the most ominous predictions comes from World Coffee Research, which estimates that half of the land currently suitable for Arabica coffee production will no longer be suitable by 2050.
“Coffee rust” (la roya) infects this coffee tree in Kenya, destroying its capacity to produce healthy cherries. (Credit: Erika Koss).
Even the United Nations is concerned. In the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2014 synthesis report, the authors predict that throughout the 21st century, “heat waves will occur more often and last longer, and that extreme precipitation events will become more intense and frequent.” This poses a serious threat for coffee since the tree requires consistent sunlight for photosynthesis, as well as cool temperatures that won’t parch its cherries.
The increasing temperatures also increase the spread of coffee-related diseases and pests that vex coffee farmers and their communities in Latin America, East Africa, and Asia:
Most coffee producers are small-holder farmers, those who own about 25 acres of land or less. Due to coffee’s volatile prices and trade regulations, farmers have a hard time gaining stability unless they join with non-profit certifiers, such as Fair Trade USA, that provide a floor price. Add to this challenge that of labor scarcity. Coffee farmers are aging out, and youth often migrate to cities, where they can earn more for their labor. Since there aren’t enough hands to pick cherries and produce coffee, a coffee lover might well wonder: what hope is left?
Certainly the scientists are hard at work researching more resilient coffee seeds, trees, and beans. And some roasters and café owners implement sustainable business practices by using compostable bags, recyclable coffee lids, or renewable energy. But mitigating climate change will take much more than this.
Thankfully, the entire coffee community is working on these and other challenges —diligently, devotedly, compassionately. That’s why they’re coming to Seattle from all corners of the globe to share with us their passion for the bean – and the people who produce it.
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By strengthening the economic, social and environmental sustainability of coffee production, various Global Washington members are building stronger communities and ensuring the future of a product none of us wants to go without.
Agros International’s data shows that coffee production is a key element of the success and profitability for poor families. That is why Agros’ intervention strategy does not solely focus on its production, but in its commercialization. Farmers receive technical assistance and quality inputs, while Agros makes strategic investments in processing as well on site support to guarantee compliance with both market and environmental standards. The final step is for Agros to create a linkage to consumers by formally connecting farmers to exporters. Coffee rust and the recent drought plagued Agros families along with other coffee farmers in Central America. The response from Agros was to plant roya resistant plants and to enhance irrigation systems in their seven active communities, along with further encouragement of crop diversification. Harvesting coffee is just a piece of an overarching strategy to move families along Agros’ Theory of Change, called the “Path to Prosperity.” A wide-range of other crops for consumption and sale also play a role, along with community development, education, health and emotional growth for each community member.
Global Partnerships is an impact-led investor whose mission is to expand opportunity for people living in poverty. The organization invests in social enterprise partners who empower people to earn a living and improve their lives. Over the last 23 years, Global Partnerships has impacted over 5.1 million lives in 15 countries across Latin America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa as a result of our impact investments in 101 partners. Partners include agricultural businesses and cooperatives that help smallholder coffee farmers increase their income and strengthen their economic well-being. These partners deliver improved market access, technical assistance and working capital loans designed to help farmers improve crop quality, increase yields, obtain better pricing for their crops, and ultimately strengthen their resilience and economic well-being. An example of these partners is Cenfrocafe, a coffee cooperative that serves 2,450 smallholder coffee farmers in Northern Peru. Cenfrocafe has full-time staff dedicated to providing technical assistance and all of their clients are Fair Trade certified. Their clients earn an estimated $6.53 per day, per family member.
Oxfam America focuses on tackling the conditions that cause poverty by advocating for new laws to help the world’s poor and offering direct support to impoverished people. Throughout the years, Oxfam has supported coffee farmers and raised awareness of the importance of Fair Trade. As global coffee prices have fallen, Oxfam has supported coffee farmers in their fight for fair treatment and better wages. Oxfam’s advocacy efforts include meeting with coffee corporations to push them to adopt fair business practices, providing farmers with new technologies and necessary supplies, and raising awareness of the importance of Fair Trade.
Seattle University was the first Fair Trade University in the Pacific Northwest. As part of the University’s journey to garner Fair Trade certification, a professor collaborated with students and colleagues at the Universidad Centroamericana Managua (SU’s sister school) to develop a new fair trade coffee. In partnership with farmers in the Nicaraguan coffee farmer cooperative CECOSEMAC, the sisters schools worked together to develop Café Ambiental, which is now sold by SU. SU has completed various other projects in conjunction with coffee growers in Nicaragua, including developing a more efficient and sustainable way to treat coffee wastewater.
Theo Chocolate is the first Organic, Fair Trade and Fair for Life chocolate factory in North America. Theo believes that chocolate can and must be produced in a way that creates long-term sustainability for the farmers, the planet, and the consumers. To further that mission, all of Theo’s ingredients, not just its cocoa, are certified organic and fair trade. Theo’s Coffee and Cream milk chocolate bar and coffee caramels both contain organic coffee from local roaster Café Vita.
Thriive’s mission is building shared prosperity in vulnerable, global communities. We achieve our mission by making pay-it-forward loans of up to $10,000 to ambitious small business entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and create desperately needed jobs. Unlike a bank or microfinance loan, ThriiveCapital loans are not repaid in cash, but by business donations of an equivalent value of job training, income-enhancing products, or basic necessities to disadvantaged community members. Thriive supports many different types of businesses including coffee manufacturers in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Kenya, and Vietnam. An example is De La Finca in Nicaragua. De La Finca produces, processes, and distributes its own gourmet honey and coffee products. Their ThriiveCapital loan purchased new equipment to grow and expand their coffee shop. De La Finca’s charitable repayment is highly beneficial to the local community- training unemployed single mothers and unemployed college students in coffee production and processing. Trainees then have the opportunity to sell De La Finca products on their own and keep the income. So far, De La Finca has increased their revenue by 101%, created 2 fulltime jobs, and trained 35 individuals!
Woodland Park Zoo supports a variety of environmentally sustainable projects. Since 1996, the Zoo’s Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (TKCP) has worked with the communities of Yopno-Uruwa-Som (YUS) to protect the endangered tree kangaroo and its rainforest habitat in Papua New Guinea. In 2009, TKCP partnered with the indigenous YUS landowners to help them address economic challenges. Through an existing relationship between the Zoo and Seattle-based coffee roaster Caffe Vita, TKCP and the people of YUS began to sell Conservation Coffee on the international market. The coffee is shade-grown in small, sustainable family gardens, flown out of the remote mountain villages, and sold by farmers directly to Caffe Vita and other international buyers. To date, farmers have exported more than 65 tons of YUS Conservation Coffee. The success of the program encourages other landowners to pledge their land for conservation. More land pledges means more protection for species such as the tree kangaroo.
By Andie Long
Despite both economic and ecological challenges, Seattle University students are supporting Nicaraguan farmers in their commitment to produce the highest quality coffee – and you can get it right here in Seattle.
The fair trade coffee team at Seattle University, making the official SU Redhawk sign.
Back row: Justin Totura, Samantha Henry, Lucy Wilhelm, Braden Wild, Benjamin Fuller. Front row: two students from the University of Central America-Managua, Javiera Maritza Alfaro Salinas and Agustina Zamora. (Credit: Seattle University).
For nearly a decade and a half, Seattle University students and faculty have partnered with a coffee cooperative in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. Visiting the farms and talking to some of the 300 smallholder farmers who form the co-op CECOSEMAC, whose acronym means “Aroma of Coffee” Union of Multiple-Service Cooperatives, students have learned about the challenges that coffee farmers face, and worked with them to find ways to solve them.
The relationship with the Nicaraguan coffee co-op began in 2003 when Seattle University chemistry professor, Dr. Susan Jackels, along with Professor Carlos Vallejos and his students from the Universidad Centroamericana Managua, began researching ways to improve the quality of coffee for smallholder farmers after the coffee crisis. Today the program has two faculty advisors besides Jackels, including Dr. Nathan Colaner, who teaches business ethics, and Dr. Quan Le, who teaches international economics.
Seattle University faculty advisors: Nathan Colaner (Business Ethics), Sue Jackels (Chemistry), Quan Le (Economics). (Credit: Seattle University).
Since 2003, multiple student projects have sprung up. In 2015, when Professor Le and his students travelled to Nicaragua to visit the coffee co-op, they were joined by a student engineering team, led by Professor Mike Marsolek and professional engineers from Seattle University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The engineering students were working on a wastewater treatment project, while the business students had decided to start a service-learning project, which came to be known as More than Fair Trade.
Le’s students had learned that organic cultivation methods and other fair trade certification requirements tended to decrease the amount of coffee that farmers could produce. Even though farmers could charge a slightly higher price for the resulting product, it still left them without much leftover at the end of the harvest. As a result, the students vowed to find a way to purchase fair trade coffee from the co-op at a price that would not only provide a premium for the certified organic coffee, but would also compensate farmers for the shortfall in their yields, so that they would be able to continue to invest in their farms and their communities.
The business model the group decided on was to pay the farmers a premium 25-35% higher for organic coffee than what they would normally receive, and they would pay up front for every order. The hope was that the pricing mechanism would give farmers incentive to continue improving the quality of their coffee. Sure enough, this is what happened.
The 2017 cupping, the process by which coffee quality is judged, resulted in an almost two point increase compared with where the product was at two years ago. Not only that, all of the profits from the coffee that the students purchased and sold at Seattle University went back to the farmers in the form of school scholarships to support their children.
Coffee farmers in Matagalpa are working hard to improve the quality of their coffee in order to have their product accepted by the specialty coffee market. A greater challenge, however, may be how they can adapt their current agricultural practices in response to climate change.
According to Le, Nicaragua traditionally grows Arabica coffee, which is considered the highest quality and highest prestige. In the past few years, however, the Nicaraguan government has been encouraging farmers to grow Robusta coffee, as it is more tolerant to drought and better suited to the changing climate. Robusta also produces a higher yield and at lower cost. Nevertheless, Le says none of the farmers in the co-op that Seattle University works with are considering switching to Robusta. Not yet, anyway. For now, they are committed to raising the quality of their coffee on the international market, despite the lower yields.
One way the farmers are managing their risk, however, is by working with international organizations, such as the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Fair Trade Small Producers and Workers, to improve their soil management. They are also receiving assistance from a group in the Netherlands on how to improve the quality of their coffee, while at the same time reducing any environmental damage.
For several years, the Seattle University bookstore has been selling the Nicaraguan co-op’s certified organic, fair trade coffee. In March of this year, the students incorporated the project as a student-run social enterprise, called Café Ambiental (Environmental Coffee). It is the only student run business at Seattle University.
Sold for $12.95 per bag, $1.60 from every purchase goes directly to the co-op farmers above what they would normally get, and an additional $3.50 goes towards an education fund for the farmworkers’ children. The profit made from the sales is then used to buy more coffee.
“With the establishment of Café Ambiental, the students are now looking to grow the business beyond Seattle University, so that they might send more money back to the farmers,” said Le. “Hopefully the community will support their endeavors.”
Seattle University student leaders of Café Ambiental: Samantha Henry, VP of Marketing, and Braden Wild, CEO. (Credit: Seattle University).
By Andie Long
Global Partnerships’ Nathalia Rodriguez Vega draws on her Colombian heritage in helping coffee-growers lift themselves out of poverty
Nathalia Rodriguez Vega, VP Portfolio Monitoring & Economic Analysis, Global Partnerships. (Credit: Global Partnerships).
Growing up in Bogota, Colombia, Nathalia remembers her mom telling stories about her grandfather, Luis Felipe Vega, who managed a coffee farm on the north coast. He started a coffee cooperative so that he and the other farmers in the area could secure a higher price for their beans. Though she never met her grandfather, Nathalia feels a strong connection to his legacy, including working to help improve opportunity for people who grow coffee for a living.
After studying economics and working for a number of years at a major bank in the United States, Nathalia felt a nagging desire to do more with her financial skills to help people, like the farmers her grandfather knew, lift themselves out of poverty. Her search brought her to an emerging field, “impact investing,” a specialty of Seattle-based Global Partnerships.
Living in Seattle for the past five years, Nathalia helps manage Global Partnerships’ debt funds, which invest in social enterprise partners in Latin America, the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. Less than 10 percent of their partners are coffee-related, yet these partners are currently serving more than 30,000 thousand coffee farmers.
Around 70 percent of all the coffee globally is produced by smallholder farmers, and one of the greatest risks these farmers face is the impact of climate change on their crops. Leaf rust, for example, a fungus that can devastate coffee trees, has been increasing in range and frequency as a result of steadily warming temperatures. In addition, coffee farmers have been grappling with excessive amounts of rain in some areas, and historic low rainfall in other areas. Overall, the extremes are becoming harder to manage.
Nathalia Rodriguez Vega (far right) with her Global Partnerships colleagues in Guatemala. (Credit: Global Partnerships).
As a perennial plant, coffee trees are highly sensitive to changes in the environment. Farmers have been experimenting with various ways to adapt their crop to rapidly changing conditions; some are even planting new varieties or switching crops altogether. Requirements of certification groups, such as Fair Trade USA and the Rainforest Alliance, have had the added benefit of making coffee farms (and thus, farmers) more resilient to some of the effects of climate change. These include shifting to new methods of irrigation, pesticide use, and even waste management.
The investment process that Nathalia follows at Global Partnerships includes verifying that the coffee-related service groups they fund are providing farmers with high impact products and services, such as access to international markets, technical assistance, and affordable loans to expand their coffee businesses. Coffee plants start to bear fruit around year three, and reach their full production after year five. Yields start to decline after eight to 10 years, depending on the investment in ongoing maintenance. As a result, farmers must seek funding to “renovate” their crops, especially since aging trees are even more susceptible to weather shocks.
Nathalia sees an incredible richness and vibrancy in the coffee sector here in Seattle and around the world. “It feels very much alive,” she says.
Asked how she likes to drink her coffee, Nathalia replies without hesitation, “Black, no sugar.” Colombian, of course.
Please welcome our newest Global Washington members. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with their work and consider opportunities for support and collaboration!
Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) expands opportunities for the world’s children to receive adequate nutrition for learning and achieving their potential. gcnf.org
April 19: Washington Nonprofits // Central Washington Conference for the Greater Good
April 25: OutRight Action International // Rights and Resistance: Lessons from the Frontline of the Global LGBTQI Movement
May 1: University of Washington School of Law // Deadline for Sustainable International Development Program
May 1: Shoreline Community College // Saudi Arabia in Transition
May 6: Construction for Change // Banquet
May 10: Women’s Enterprises International // 9th Annual Walk for Water
May 18: One By One // Annual Dinner
June 14: Trade Development Alliance for Greater Seattle // Global Cookout
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Office Manager, Global Washington
Senior Communications Associate with MACEPA, PATH
Hospitality Coordinator, iLEAP
Development Assistant, Splash
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April 19: Networking Happy Hour with Friends of GlobalWA, Humanosphere and World Affairs Council
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By Meaghan Bogart
Today, 2.5 billion people worldwide do not have access to clean water and a simple toilet. Despite international attention and action around this issue, 35-50% of water projects fail within the first 5 years. In order to share a greater understanding around world water inequalities and the complexity in developing sustainable change, Global Washington hosted a panel event highlighting three organizations that are on the front lines.
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Living in a state as highly dependent on international trade as ours, Washingtonians are well-aware of the importance of maintaining good relations with our global neighbors. Not only is it a smart thing to do economically, it’s also the right thing to do. Continue Reading