In an April 15, 2016 e-newsletter, the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA, thecosa.org) announced the launch of a new project to focus on resiliency for agricultural value chains and projects such as coffee and cocoa. This was great news to Artisan Coffee Imports, as we have been seeking to understand and support resiliency for the coffee value chain through this blog for about 1.5 years now. COSA is known globally for excellence, so having their commitment, along with funding from the Ford Foundation and SECO, to resiliency is a welcome and exciting development.
Up until now, COSA has pioneered the development of metrics
and data on certifications as part of its core work. It conducts rigorous
research in rural areas of coffee and cocoa producing countries[1]
to help assess the impact of certifications that form the basis of sustainability
programs implemented by some of the world’s largest roasters.
With the
announcement in April, COSA is taking its good work in the sustainability area
to new heights. We expect their credibility as an organization will give the
“resiliency movement” an important boost in legitimacy. They will be working in
close collaboration with partner institutions that are also interested in field-ready
tools including Root Capital, The Sustainable Food Lab, Lutheran World Relief, and
Catholic Relief Services. Gathering inputs from across its global network of
leading institutions such as the FAO, CIAT, and IFAD will further ensure that
this will be a well thought and widely accepted approach. COSA’s ability to
generate well-designed metrics and conduct solid field research will also help
the field.
COSA’s president, Daniele Giovannucci, discussed the
initiative with us in an interview by phone on May 5. He says that the tools will
be available free of charge as part of their commitment to the public good (COSA
is a registered non-profit). The objective of COSA’s resiliency work is,
“to create a distilled set of practical indicators
and approaches. Companies and projects need tools for managing resilience in a simple
and practical way so COSA and its collaborating partners will devise ways to easily
monitor resiliency. By bringing together teams of global experts to learn from
each other, we can get to optimal approaches that look holistically at the
issue and build on the considerable academic work already done.”
We
asked Giovannucci, “what is the difference between sustainability and
resilience?” He replied, “The distinction
is a fine one. It depends on where you focus the lens. Resilience is the core –
the survival of people and production systems. Sustainability implies higher
level of social, environmental and economic progress. Resilience is the ability
to be around to do that!”
At this point, Giovannucci introduced the COSA researcher
coordinating their new effort, Dr. Elena Serfilippi. She offered COSA’s
definition of resilience for the coffee world.
Resilience: The
capacity of people, communities, or systems to prepare for and to react to
stressors and shocks in ways that limit vulnerability.
Serfiliippi and other members of the COSA team including Gayatri
Ramnath, Jessica Mullan, and Gabriela Soto will be spearheading COSA’s efforts.
They will evaluate and synthesize the ideal resiliency indicators that will be
both user-friendly and low-cost for industry stakeholders to use. With a number
of partner institutions, they will be creating a Resilience Tool Kit. She
points out the importance of resilience as part of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #1: End
Poverty.
“By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable
situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related
extreme events, and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters” (Target 1.5)
In the phone interview Serfilippi explained the phases of
COSA’s resiliency project:
- Review of recent efforts and the scientific literature
- Identify expertise among partner institutions
- Build Indicators and test them in the field
- Publish Tool Kit
COSA is not the first to tackle the job of developing
proper metrics for a certain aspect of the coffee industry. In our industry
there are recent or on-going efforts to create better metrics for measuring
taste, monitoring gender-inclusiveness and avoiding slave labor. So a focus on
resiliency metrics is certainly also due and will be welcomed by many actors in
the value chain.
COSA understands three engagement levels farmers might
have: Adaptive, Absorptive and Transformative. The core elements behind each of
these terms are the concepts around which indicators will be built.
Currently, Serfilippi is finalizing the science review
and partners are already joining. With a solid start on these first two steps,
we are sure to hear more soon from COSA on resilience and a Tool Kit we can all
apply in our own space in the coffee industry.
No comments:
Post a Comment