Prosperity for Coffee Producers Through SDG-Based Coffee Plans

Coffee production faces a growing crisis. Across major coffee-growing regions, millions of farmers and rural communities are caught in cycles of poverty, rising vulnerability from climate change, environmental degradation, and chronic underinvestment in basic services. Despite coffee’s central role in rural livelihoods and export revenues, most farmers remain price-takers at the end of a volatile global supply chain. The result is persistent poverty, deforestation, a lack of basic services, and increased pressure on already fragile ecosystems. Addressing these structural challenges demands not just technical fixes, but coordinated and inclusive strategies that align investments, governance reforms, and local priorities. 

CCSI, in collaboration with the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), has put together a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)-based Handbook that responds to this urgent need. It provides governments and stakeholders with a practical methodology to diagnose development gaps, identify investment priorities, and coordinate collective action for resilient, prosperous coffee-growing communities.

The approach was developed and refined through field simulations in Cerrado Mineiro (Brazil), Huila (Colombia), and Brunca (Costa Rica), where stakeholder consultations helped shape methods for data collection, costing, and financing strategies. While global in scope, the methodology is designed to be highly adaptable, responding to diverse institutional capacities, governance dynamics, poverty levels, and the unique characteristics of coffee-producing regions.

The core methodology of the Handbook is structured around three components:

• Territorial diagnosis: Combines SDG-based analysis with field interviews to identify development gaps.
• Financing pathways: Uses a bottom-up unit cost model to estimate financial needs at the national or subnational level.
• Investment roadmap: Prioritizes actions and clarifies the respective roles of public and private actors in addressing financing gaps.

The Handbook concludes with recommendations for advancing Coffee SDG Plans through inclusive and collaborative approaches:

• Application of the methodology presented in this Handbook by government leadership to develop their own Coffee SDG Plan.
• Establishment of a multistakeholder partnership to guide the implementation of the Coffee SDG Plan. The platform should have a shared vision and agenda to prioritize actions, and mobilize public and private investment.
• Identification of policy and governance reforms to improve institutional coordination, foster meaningful stakeholder participation, reduce conflict around land, and decrease anthropogenic pressure on natural ecosystems.
• Alignment between national or subnational Coffee SDG Plans and global initiatives, including the Global Coffee Sustainability and Resilience Fund.