DIALOGUE
In this section:
Mission of the Month: Rwanda
Notes from Schieck
Mission of the Month: Rwanda
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Only red cherries are suitable for Rwanda’s specialty
coffee.
Sybella Wilkes Moumtzis, USAID/Rwanda |
KIBUYE PROVINCE, Rwanda—From a point overlooking
Rwanda’s famous thousand hills, Alfredo Nuno of Starbucks
Corp. took a look at his watch. It not only tells the time
and date, but also measures the altitude—2,200 meters.
“This is perfect for producing the best coffee,”
he said recently.
Nearly 12 years ago, these hills were the center of some
of the worst atrocities of a genocide that left nearly 1 million
Rwandans dead. Today, however, Rwanda is a relatively safe
country in a turbulent neighborhood. Per capita income is
$220 per year, and Rwanda ranks 159 out of 177 in the 2005
Human Development Index, a UN tool that measures wellbeing
throughout the world. With a population growth rate of 2.9
percent, and 329 people per square kilometer, Rwanda has the
highest population density in Africa. Most farms are less
than half a hectare and cannot support families.
Innovative response
Nuno, a green coffee trader for Starbucks, came to Kibuye
Feb. 21 to congratulate Rwandan farmers for producing what
he describes as “one of the world’s best coffees.”
In mid-March, sales of the coffee began in 5,000 Starbucks
outlets around the United States as Rwanda Blue Bourbon, becoming
the 10th Black Apron Exclusive coffee sold by the Seattle-based
coffee giant. Black Apron Exclusive is a category Starbucks
reserves for superior-quality coffees.
“Five years ago, before USAID got involved, Rwanda
produced no specialty coffee,” said Kevin Mullally, USAID/Rwanda’s
mission director, who accompanied Nuno to the community celebration.
“USAID has spent more than $10 million investing in
coffee washing stations, training of farmers, and coffee “cuppers,”
or tasters, and rebuilding local infrastructure,” he
said. “This investment has paid off—Rwandan farmers
are now able to pick, process, and export specialty coffee.
This is one of Africa’s great success stories and we
are proud to be a part of it.
“USAID can justifiably say we created this industry
here in Rwanda.”
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Bernadette Mukambaliye and her baby, Giselle, meet
Alfredo Nuno, a Starbucks green coffee trader, at a
celebration of the coffee giant’s partnership with
some Rwanda coffee growers. During the event, Starbucks
rewarded the coffee growers with gifts of cows and goats.
Mukambaliye received a goat.
Sybella Wilkes Moumtzis, USAID/Rwanda
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Back in 2001, USAID started work to build up Rwanda’s
capacity to produce specialty coffee as part of the Rwanda
Rural and Economic Growth team’s focus on agricultural
products that have a high value for export—over 90 percent
of Rwandans work in agriculture. At the time, the country
was producing only low-grade beans.
Since then, USAID has provided assistance to establish 32
coffee washing stations, trained tasters, improved rural infrastructure,
and facilitated relationships with international coffee buyers.
Approximately 40,000 Rwandan coffee farmers have seen their
incomes double because of the assistance of USAID coffee projects.
Results
“People are working together in a way that we would never
imagine possible,” said Chemonics’ Maurice Wiener,
who is the director for the coffee project. “The owners
of coffee washing stations are telling me that they provide
a forum for reconciliation for the survivors of the genocide,
the local population, returnees, and demobilized soldiers
who work together in the fight against poverty.”
Income from specialty coffee production has helped the community
build schools and individuals make home improvements. All
seven of Helen Nyirangomituje’s children, for example,
are now attending school, a result of her increased income
as a coffee farmer.
The celebration at the Gatare washing station in Kibuye
Province included Nuno, Mullally, the local media, over 400
farmers, 20 cows, and 300 goats. The animals were gifts from
Starbucks to the top-producing farmers of Gatare and Karengera
washing stations to reward their hard work. Cows are the ultimate
status symbol in Rwanda.
“It is an extraordinary achievement,” Nuno said
during the event. “This coffee washing station has only
been up and running for one year, and look at what they have
achieved.” Addressing the audience he said, “we
are here to celebrate today. Starbucks is going to sell your
coffee as one of the world’s best coffees.”
The coffee comes in fuchsia foil bags inside decorative
black boxes—packaging reserved for Starbucks high-end
coffees. A letter written to Starbucks by Theobald Bavugamenshi,
the general manager of the Gatare washing station, will also
be featured at 5,000 of the outlets in March and April. In
it, Bavugamenshi recognizes USAID’s support for the effort.
Last year, Theobald received $90,000 to build a coffee washing
station through the Bank of Kigali as a result of a loan guarantee
through the Development Credit Authority.
Starbucks has approximately 40 million customers per week
worldwide. Over half of the outlets plan to feature the Black
Apron Exclusive. A good cup of coffee translates into a better
quality of life for Rwandan coffee farmers.
Next year, Starbucks says it hopes to buy more coffee from
Rwanda. “This is just the beginning,” Nuno said,
“of what we hope will be a long-term relationship.”
Sybella Wilkes Moumtzis contributed to this article.
Notes from Schieck
Latin American Gangs Take Hold in Organized Crime
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Fred Schieck
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Beginnning this month, television viewers in Guatemala could
tune in to a reality show about 10 ex-gang members trying
to reform their lives and become legitimate businessmen. In
this instance, reality television was indeed a reflection
of real life.
USAID, which helped fund the broadcasts, is working with
other U.S. government agencies, Latin American and Caribbean
nations, and NGOs to go up against what is an emerging and
serious issue in international development.
Gangs no longer confine their turfs to the neighborhoods
where they live. Some of the gangs in Latin America are, in
fact, international criminal organizations with tentacles
that reach outside their borders and into the United States
and beyond. Their international portfolios include kidnappings,
robberies, extortion, assassinations, and trafficking—in
people and contraband. Gangs contribute to crime that accounts
for between 12 percent and 14 percent of the gross domestic
product of some Latin American countries.
Getting a firm handle on their numbers is next to impossible—conservative
estimates put the number at 150,000.
What is less confusing is why young people join gangs: lack
of education, poverty, marginalized urban areas, disjointed
family lives, and ineffective judicial systems, among other
factors. And these are also the kinds of problems where USAID
programs can and do make a difference.
This month, the Agency is releasing a report that assesses
gangs in Latin America. The report focuses its analysis on
El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua. These
are regions I know well—both from my USAID posts in the
region during my early years with the Agency and during my
stint with the Inter-American Development Bank in the 1990s.
The report concludes that there are many problems, and that
they are complex. But there are also many ideas to address
those problems.
The reality show in Guatemala, for example, is one. At the
end of the series taping, the participants opened a car wash
and shoe repair business, and demonstrate to others that there
are genuine alternatives to life as a gang member.
Another is USAID’s Artisan Development Program, which
State Department Undersecretary Karen Hughes visited earlier
this year. This is no effort at giving former gang members
busy work: the program has created more than 3,000 jobs for
ex-gangsters in El Salvador and sales of their products to
stores in Central America, the United States, Canada, Germany,
France, and Australia have hit $1.87 million. Over the next
several years, the program is expected to generate another
$3.8 million in product sales and provide jobs for an additional
4,750 people.
An integrated approach to combating gangs is essential,
as it is the only way to bring a long-term solution to the
problem. For the efforts of USAID and its partners to yield
results, there must be prevention, intervention, and law enforcement.
Though the rest of the international community is just beginning
to focus on the global impact of gangs, I am proud to see
USAID taking a hard look at these issues and already stepping
up to the challenge with a mixture of innovative and tried-and-true
solutions.
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