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.

38. Project Kick-Off at Lemigo Hotel

Oct. 13, 2015
Lemigo Hotel, Kigali, Rwanda

Participants at the AGLC Kick-Off meeting included top Rwandan and US government officials, NAEB, implementing partners including IPAR, AgroPy, Starbucks, CEPAR, NAEB, GKI, U. of Ngozi, U. of Gitega, U. of Rwnada, MSU.

Tuesday, 13 October, 2015 marked the official launch of the collaborative 3-year Africa Great Lakes Coffee program. The program aims to strengthen the productivity and quality of specialty coffee in the Africa Great Lakes region through research and policy support.

The launch workshop was hosted by the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR) and co-hosted by Global Knowledge Initiative (GKI) Michigan State University (MSU) and the University of Rwanda (UR). Amb. George Kayonga the CEO of the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) gave the welcome. His remarks set the vision for the impact that can be accomplished through the program implementation. Welcome remarks were also delivered by the Executive Director of IPAR, while the key address was from USAID-Rwanda.

Participants at the workshop were drawn from stakeholders in the coffee industry and they included high-level Rwandan and US government officials, the stakeholders in Rwanda’s coffee sector, a representative of USAID Burundi, and Drs. Bonaventure Minani and Gustav Nkurunziza from Ngozi, and Gitega Universities (respectively) who are the implementing partners of the project in

Burundi.

Speakers during the opening ceremony thanked the different stakeholders for their role and support in making the workshop a success. They underscored the timeliness of this workshop and requested for maximum participation from everyone. They also stressed the importance of building policies based on research and evidence.

The New Times, Rwanda's English language newspaper, published an article here: http://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/article/2015-10-14/193485/

A key activity during the day-long program involved all participants collaborating to clarify the research situation in which this project is about to launch. Participants first mapped challenges related to antestia/productivity and related to building an enabling environment to resolve these challenges.  They took the top 18 challenges, and analyzed this - exploring what we know, what we don't know, and what we might be assuming about the challenges. Then, based on what they had learned, the group honed this list of 18 down to 11 "How Might We's" (HMW):

No. 1: HMW understand the most effective pesticide

No. 1: HMW improve knowledge on how to eliminate PTD

No. 1: HMW understand the necessary incentives to decrease PTD?

No. 4: HMW make agronomic guidelines available to farmers

No. 5: HMW improve market access for farmers

No. 5: HMW address risks associated with coffee production

No. 7: HMW encourage full implementation of IPM

No. 7: HMW make enough fertilizer available to all farmers?

No. 9: HMW improve extension services to coffee farmers?

No 10: HMW connect coffee quality to coffee prices?

No. 11: HMW improve the information dissemination system along the coffee value chain? 

Post kick-off meetings followed the kick-off conference on the next day. These were productive, allowing the implementing partners the face-to-face time needed to design the next steps of the many components of this project:

Key components include:

1. Field research with 64 demonstration plots in each country.
2. Field research with a baseline, mid-term, and end-line survey of 1024 farmers in 4 districts in each country (the mid-term survey will be a sub-set). 
3. The two field research components will feed the capacity building (training) and policy development components.