Discover the impactful review of the Trade for Development Centre’s (TDC) initiatives enhancing coffee producer organisations across Africa.
Overview
This comprehensive report analyses TDC’s long-term strategic support to coffee cooperatives in Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Tanzania, and now Ethiopia. It combines capacity building – through coaching in marketing, financial management (FiBuMa), and human rights/environmental due diligence (HREDD) – with targeted financial grants for infrastructure, certification, and innovation.
The goal is to empower these organisations to overcome systemic challenges like governance weaknesses, limited finance access, and evolving sustainability regulations, fostering resilience and better farmer incomes.
Key impacts across five axes
TDC’s interventions are contributing to noteworthy and measurable transformations, such as:
- Governance and management: cooperatives gain transparent leadership, strategic planning, and role clarity, as seen in BOCU (Uganda) appointing dedicated marketing roles.
- Financial viability: enhanced tools like cash flow forecasts improve bank credibility; RAEK (DRC) averted bankruptcy via pre-financing negotiations.
- Market access: turnover surges through branding and diversification; LAVISKSCOF (Uganda) grew 144% from 2019–2022.
- Quality and productivity: grants fund hullers, labs, and tree renewal; AMKA (DRC) boosted Grade A coffee from 65% to 85%.
- Sustainability compliance: targeted funding helps prepare for EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR); SOPACDI (DRC) deploys traceability apps for 11,786 producers.
These efforts support 43 organisations and business support bodies like the African Fine Coffees Association (AFCA).
Inspiring case studies
Three case studies were selected to showcase the diverse pathways to success enabled by TDC’s support: ACPCU’s journey of comprehensive, multi-phase growth; Dukunde Kawa’s strategic pivot in a moment of crisis; and Muungano’s use of market diversification as a tool for profound resilience.
Download the Full Report
Explore detailed data and strategies in this 2025 review.
