Make it a Double: Key issues brief for VOCAL Network
VOCAL’s vision is a coffee sector in which value, risk, resources and power are shared equitably between actors in order for smallholder farmers and workers to earn a living income or wage under decent working conditions, where inequalities are reduced and human rights are respected within a thriving and healthy environment and climate. Unfortunately, this is not the case for most coffee producers.
This Key Issues Brief is a first step for the VOCAL Network to share its advocacy positions for people, planet and accountability in the coffee sector. Parts I and II on Dignified and Prosperous People, and a Healthy and Thriving Environment, respectively, each begin with a vision for the sector related to people and planet, including acknowledgements for the actions, investments and policies that already exist. These sections’ visions are followed by contrasting realities that expose how the sector fails to meet its potential – especially for the most vulnerable. Part III on Responsibility and Transparency explores the responsibility of individual entities and stakeholders, and the role of collective action, in turning coffee’s potential into a fair and sustainable sector in lived reality, with acknowledgements for historical context and diversity. Part IV on Unfiltered Accountability provides recommendations for stakeholders across industry, policy and finance. Part V offers annexes on living income and wage gap calculations and analyses.
This document should be read as a ‘living document’ that captures the VOCAL Network’s evolving advocacy positions in a moment in time. As VOCAL Network is a coalition of diverse civil society organizations, our advocacy positions will transform as industry action and the policy environment change, and as our membership and our members’ priorities change.
Author(s): Ashlee Tuttleman
Organisation/institution: VOCAL Network