New film and report highlight success of Challenges’ flagship Rwandan Coffee Project
Watch Challenges’ new film about the Rwandan Coffee Project!
Challenges’ flagship Rwandan Coffee Project has reached its mid-way point. To mark this major milestone, Challenges has released the above film and published a report detailing the activity that has gone on during the past two and a half months.
Featuring voices from Rwanda and Scotland, it reveals the journey coffee takes from the farms of Sholi to the cafes of Glasgow.
In the report, we detail much of the activity that has gone on across the eight coffee co-ops we’re working with, and how we have met a range of project milestones and targets. You can read and download the report, here.
Major achievements of the Rwandan Coffee Project
- Growing volumes of coffee beans exported by 18%,
- Improve each co-op’s “cupping” score (measure of coffee bean quality) to 85 or higher (out of 100), and thereby achieving the “speciality coffee” accolade
- Train of more than 800 coffee workers, smallholders, young people and women in areas such as management and leadership; quality control; business finance and operations; marketing; solar power and other clean technologies; and gender-based violence reduction. Of those taking part in training activities, 47.5% were women
- Increase international market access, including sales visits and/or representation in Scotland and global trade fairs. This includes introductions to more than 15 new commercial buyers
- Increase operational efficiency for most of the co-ops
- Support the organisation of youth networks involving 850 young people and enabling increased access to business and work training, as well as support groups for women and girls to better access reproductive rights and healthcare
- Provide accountancy software training and provide access to accounting software
Provide functioning websites with new content, including newly commissioned photography- Drive clean tech innovations such as minigrid, water digesters and waste-water treatment facilities.
- Catalyse nine start-up enterprises following business support, enterprise training and/or access to micro-finance.