To mark the annual meeting of the Nespresso Sustainability Advisory Board (NSAB), World Bank Group member IFC and Nespresso announced a new joint partnership in Africa. The joint project will seek to promote more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive livelihoods for coffee-growing communities, while preserving some of the world’s rarest coffee varieties as part of the Nespresso Reviving Origins program in Uganda and Tanzania.
The partnership, which will include a $4.1 million investment by IFC into Nespresso’s Sustainability Innovation Fund, will focus on delivering positive social and environmental change. It is also supported by investment advisory firm Clarmondial and will be supplemented by a $2.5 million investment from Nespresso into its Reviving Origins program.
IFC and Nespresso will initially focus their efforts on Uganda, where they plan to work with and train an initial cohort of 2,000 farmers, using Nespresso’s experience in deploying regenerative farming practices and improved land management techniques. IFC and Nespresso’s support to farmers will also place emphasis on gender gap learning programs and on IFC’s expertise in creating economic opportunity in emerging economies.
As part of the Nespresso Reviving Origins program in Uganda and Zimbabwe, Nespresso and IFC will partner with women farmers to help provide them with the knowledge they need to improve their ability to access resources. The ambition is to empower these women to thrive as coffee growers, establish equity with their male counterparts and help drive a systemic change in the sector.
As coffee-growing communities around the world become increasingly vulnerable to the adverse effects of the climate emergency, strengthening farmers’ resilience is more vital than ever. By enabling an increased supply of high-quality and sustainable coffee, we can contribute towards a more secure and prosperous future. The partnership will also place a large focus on reducing the gender gap that currently exists within the coffee industry. Women’s role in coffee production is crucial, but historically they have had less access to land, credit and information.
“Our work with IFC goes back 20 years, and the next chapter in our partnership will focus on two main areas: strengthening climate resilience using regenerative farming practices and providing inclusive economic opportunities for women in coffee farming communities in Africa. The projects will form part of the Nespresso Reviving Origin Program, and work will begin in Uganda and Zimbabwe”, says Jerome Perez, Head of Sustainability at Nespresso.
Nespresso and IFC have been working together since the beginning of the Nespresso AAA Program in 2003. IFC’s support and expertise in driving impact in the coffee sector has been invaluable to Nespresso’s sustainability efforts. In 2016, IFC and the World Bank’s BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes provided $6 million to the Nespresso Sustainability Innovation Fund to help improve the climate resilience and productivity of smallholder coffee growers in Ethiopia.
