by ALLISON AUBREY originally published http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/11/07/164347078/meet-four-african-women-who-are-changing-the-face-of-coffee November 07, 2012 1:37 PM Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. These four women are at the forefront of change, empowering other women in the coffee industry (clockwise from top left): Angele Ciza, Fatima Aziz Faraji, Immy Kamarade and Mbula Musau. Karen Castillo Farfán / NPR If you're a coffee drinker, chances are the cup of java you drank this morning was made from beans that were produced or harvested by women. Women's handprints can be found at every point in coffee production. In fact, on family-owned coffee farms in Africa, about 70 percent of maintenance and harvesting work is done by women, according to an analysis by the International Trade Centre, but only rarely do women own the land or have financial control. The International Women's Coffee Alliance
The goal of the Forum is for participants to share practical experiences on the successes and challenges of sustainable coffee production, processing and trading. Against this premise, the rationale of the forum is to draw input from participants to generate ideas, innovations, best practices, recommendations and proposals on how documented success can be sustained and scaled up and how challenges can be addressed to ensure an effective implementation of sustainable coffee practices.