42. LTC Rwanda - Innovations in the Rwanda Coffee Supply Chain

Friday, Nov. 13, 2015
Serena Hotel, Kigali, Rwanda

Panel on "Innovations and Community Development in the Rwandan Coffee Supply Chain"

Sustainable Harvest's Christine Condo moderated this panel that truly kept me sitting on the edge of my seat throughout. My fingers could not type fast enough as each panel member described the innovations they have already brought to their operations and the new things they are planning to do.

Panel speakers were:

• Anastase Minani, President of Dakunde Kawa, a cooperative in Gakenke district (North)
• Jean Bosco Ngabonziza, President of Rusizi Specialty Coffee, Rusizi district (West)
• Pascal Kalisa, KZ Noir, 8washing stations in Gakenke and other districts (West and North)
• Agnes Nyinawumuntu, Twongere Umusaruro Coop in Kayonza district (East)
• Asterie Mukangango, Nyampinga Cooperative in Nyruguru district (South)
• Inyoung Anna Kim, LetSequoia, Co. based in Korea, investing in Rwanda and Congo

Highlights for me from each of the speakers presentations were as follows:

• Agnes Nyinawumuntu - I appreciated her emphasis on the importance of training for her cooperative of women. The first training Sustainable Harvest gave them was in quality, now they will have training in organization building and management. To keep cooperative members motivated, the board decided to set a goal to give each member 2 new clothes per year. Every woman likes to have beautiful clothes! And a good sleep is important, too, so another goal is to improve their livelihoods by buying 156 double mattresses in the coming year.

• Pascal  Kalisa of KZ Noir seemed unaware of how innovative and impressive his list of accomplishments sounded to a coffee supply chain researcher like me. He described their supply problem -  11% of their supplying producers bring their coffee directly to the washing stations. 89% do not bring their coffee, they go through middleman. So KZ Noir decided they needed to get to know these "farmers once removed" better. Their vision is to benefit the coffee growers so they have to do this. Among the things they did with their "Know Your Farmer" survey is they taught them how to count their trees. This way the farmers are less likely to claim to have 5000 trees when they only have 3000 trees. KZ taught the CWS managers to use the tablets so that they could conduct the survey with each of the farmers who deliver to their WS.

• Jean Bosco Ngabonziza – Rusizi Specialty coffee, had a wonderful emphasis on developing trust and breaking down old barriers between people. He works with 400 farmers in the far West and he offers a lunch at midday for all the workers to sit together. When they have an event (which they do regularly) they emphasize over and over that all are invited and truly encourage all to come. "We are entrenching unity."

• Inyoung Anna Kim - LetSequoia Coffee has invested $US 1 million in Rwanda and coffee so far. They have focused on management skills at the cooperative level. Then they connect the cooperatives to buyers, selling exportable green for $7.5 - $8/kilo (translates to $3.4 - $3.6/lb). They lead a train the trainer program in collaboration with NAEB which trained 26 people -- 13 of them passing. They have creative efforts with their partners such as the "golden chicken project," encouraging chicken raising and use of chicken manure. And my favorite -- they are organizing a COFFEE OLYMPICS in December. There will be competitions to see who can pick the best and who can roast the best. I'm excited about the contest to see who can pick the best! I'm sure there are lean practices in picking that today, only a few "frontline" coffee pickers know. With programs like "Coffee Olympics" we can highlight and encourage these best practices. Organizations and supply chains that embrace such 'lean at origin' practices, will outperform the others on quality, profit and worker empowerment.

• Asterie Mukangango's (Nyamapinga Cooperative - 124 farmers) presentation was exciting because you could feel how excited and proud she was of her organization. It's even more exciting when you realize that before the start of the Relationship Coffee Institute program, this group of women was not organized as a cooperative at all. No had heard of them. Now they have a washing station, since 2014 every member has paid health insurance and Asterie told us her oganization's impressive goals:

1. Look for new members
2. Build a store house
3. Divide into different cells to do outreach more effectively
4. Gain more knowledge
5. Help members have access to small amounts of credit

• Anastasi (Isaac) Minani, Dukunde Kawa, North district. Anastasi shared a few of the accomplishments of his cooperative, which is in the Africa Great Lakes Coffee (AGLC) project sample set of 16 washing stations, and has been discussed earlier in this blog. They have:
  • They have 3 milling(dry) stations (3 of only a few outside of Kigali in the entire country), the biggest has 9 machines.
  • They give cows, health insurance, and pay school fees with no interest for members. 
  • The management board visited a banana plantation, learned much about best practices for quality control and is now and transferring that knowledge to coffee.
  • They have started a water harvesting project.

[author: Ruth Ann Church, Artisan Coffee Group]

41. IWCA Rwanda meets at Let's Talk Coffee

Friday, Nov. 13, 2015
Serena Hotel, Kigali, Rwanda

IWCA "interested parties" gather at lunch during Let's Talk Coffee Rwanda. See names below.

Today was the second and final day of the Let's Talk Coffee conference. I was happy to see Mbula Musau again. After the morning sessions, she applied her excellent organizational skill in "herding" the participants with an interest in the International Women in Coffee Alliance (IWCA) to sit together at one table for lunch.

At the table we had Angelique KAREKEZI, Rwashoscco (not in photo); Ben Carlson, Long Miles Coffee; Claudine Kantengwa, Kivu Belt Coffee; Adam Pesce, Reunion Island Coffee; Laetitia Kaytesire, Sake Farm Ltd.; Grant (did not get the co. name!); Mbula Musau, IWCA; and myself, Ruth Church, representing both Artisan Coffee Group and IWCA, as the IWCA Rwanda chapter mentor.

The discussion at the table included defining how, if at all, the IWCA program had tangibly benefited producers. Mbula and I both emphasized how the IWCA Burundi chapter is like a poster-child for bringing premiums in the form of higher prices and "bonus goats" to the members of IWCA. Word has spread and now many men also want to join IWCA because they have been so successful.

There was also discussion about improving quality, and whether that can be done in a way that benefits producers. In other words, if they have to invest more, can they get that value back in cherry prices - plus some? Here it was helpful to have Angelique Karekezi describe how one of their coops, Dakunda Kawa, has installed a mechanical sorter at the front end of one of their washing stations to sort cherry by density. This was just done towards the end of the 2014-2015 season, so the next season will show how much additional value the sorter will bring the coop members.  In the 2014-2015 season, simple organizational improvements (lowering unnecessary labor costs) reduced expenses so much, the coop was able to pay 30 Rwf/kg to producers instead of the typical 5-10 Rwf/kg. A three to six times improvement!

Minani Anastase, Dakunde Kawa; Pascal Kalisa, KZ Noir; Angelique Karekezi, Rwashoscco

Mbula Musau, IWCA East Africa; Daniel Rukazambuga, University of Rwanda

Note: Thank you to all the Sustainable Harvest staff for producing an excellent conference and for their willingness to collaborate with and support IWCA!

40. Let's Talk Coffee Rwanda - First Rwandan Latte Art Compeition

Nov. 11, 2015
Serena Hotel, Kigali, Rwanda

Congratulations Sustainable Harvest Rwanda!  A "pat on the back" is due to Marcus Young, Christine Condo, Ruth Coleman, and of course David Griswold, for hosting a fantastic, engaging Latte Art Competition. The first in Rwanda! It was at one of the best hotels in Kigali, the Serena. There were giant screen TVs, there were spotlights, action -- the public was welcome.

I brought my 2 kids and seven friends! But the most important guests at this event were the 100 female coffee producers Sustainable Harvest (with some modest assistance from IWCA) hosted to attend the event and the conference in the following days. Importantly, these 100 producers from Nyaruguru (South) and Kayonz (Eastern) represent 4000 producers "back home." There was hype and it was clear that coffee preparation can be exciting and fun. It was a magical way to say "Dear Rwanda - welcome to the world of Specialty Coffee!"

The significance of this event is by no means small for our research project -- although it is a bit removed, so let me explain. An important objective of the Michigan State University - USAID project (the Africa Great Lakes Coffee, AGLC, project) is to improve productivity and minimize antestia bug problems so as to improve incentives and motivation of Rwanda and Burundi's coffee producers. Another way to state this goal is to say we must help Rwanda & Burundi's value chain focus on the areas where coffee produces value -- namely the specialty coffee sector. In addition to the kind of solid research the USAID project will produce, two BIG things that help are:

• Opportunities at origin for producers to see specialty coffee marketed and consumed, (i.e. Colombia and Brazil are working very hard to increase coffee consumption within their borders). Rwanda and Burundi can do the same. I've seen it! This process is well underway in both Kigali and Bujambura! (And at LTC!)
• Motivation often comes from pride. By seeing my product in the spotlight, I have a non-financial motivation to do what I do every day. Pride is not sufficient -- I want to also make that clear, and that is part of the importance of the AGLC project. To clarify the cost of producing quality coffee. But the element of farmer pride is significant and was beautifully captured and understood at this Latte Art Competition event.

At the Serena Hotel: Marlu (NL), Laura (NL), Isaac, Naomi & Ruth (USA), Steena (former barista, S), Anna, Emily and friend (S)

Swedish guest and Eric Hoest, Stumptown, "Talk Coffee"

100 female coffee producers from Nyaruguru and Kayonza were guests.

Devorah Fralach, Equator Coffees & Teas, assisting at the espresso machine.

Contestants in the latte art competition congratulate each other.

Yum!

The winner jumps with excitement!

Four top latte artists of Rwanda!

David Griswold, Pres. of Sustainable Harvest, gives closing remarks.

Great to see old friends -- Grace Izerwe and Joel Arusha!

39. Monitoring and Evaluation for a Multi-disciplinary Policy Project

Oct. 18, 2015
Ann Arbor, MI -- East Lansing, MI -- Kigali, Rwanda

Today we submitted the first draft of the "Monitoring & Evaluation"  (M&E) plan for the Africa Great Lakes Coffee (AGLC) project to USAID.  The process of putting together a professional M&E plan has been interesting. A few bullet points:

1. An M&E plan must be designed with the funder's persective in mind. In the case of AGLC the funder is USAID so the indicators and the M&E plan have to keep USAID's processes, schedule and requirements in mind. Note -- the funders' requirements often change! (Requirements last year may change this year.)
2. The M&E plan must keep the key goals and most essential objectives "front and center." An experienced M&E professional I talked with gave me some wise advice -- "get the goals of the project defined in a way that can be said and written in 2 short sentences." Only with such a concise and understandable goal, can a project be sure to deliver results. Otherwise disorganization and confusion happens, instead of synergy and cohesion.
3. The field of M&E is evolving -- in fact it is no longer being called M&E at USAID, rather "Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning" or MEAL. This makes sense and in fact became a topic on our AGLC project already. One of our partners, Global Knowledge Institute (GKI), has "communication" as part of their scope of work. But today, MEAL is about creating feedback loops and "learning processes" within and during the project, which, of course, involves a lot of communication among the partners. So Andrew (with GKI) and I realized we will have some coordinating to do to avoid duplication. 

So M&E today asks: What are we learning as the project gets started? How can that learning be transmitted so that all project components benefit?  This is the vital role of MEAL in my view. I think of it as "turbo charging" the learning and effectiveness of a project.