Women in Coffee: Strengthening Economic and Social Participation in Central America
In Honduras and Guatemala, women coffee farmers are gaining the skills and confidence they need to actively participate in economic and social decision-making.
Women make up around 40% of the world’s agricultural workforce, but remain largely excluded from leadership roles and economic decision-making. This exclusion limits individual opportunities and weakens the sector’s overall potential.
How Nespresso and TechnoServe Are Supporting Women in Coffee
Since 2023, TechnoServe—in partnership with Nespresso—has implemented the Empowered Families, Prosperous Communities (FECP) project. FECP aims to empower women and increase their participation and leadership in coffee production by working with over 700 families to promote joint decision-making within households, enhance communication, and recognize women as vital contributors to family farms and businesses. The project also encouraged coffee farmer organizations to adopt practices that support the participation and leadership of both women and men within these organizations.
To date, the project has largely worked in parallel with Nespresso partners in the regions where Nespresso sources its coffee. EFICO and ECOM in Guatemala and CoHonducafe in Honduras will remain long after TechnoServe’s activities end in the region, making it essential that they can continue key elements of the FECP project.
Women in Coffee: Challenges and Successes
TechnoServe recently trained 35 agricultural professionals who provide technical assistance to coffee producers from Nespresso partners on how to use the tools and materials developed for the program.
Most of these professionals were familiar with delivering agronomy advice. They were less used to engaging farmers and their families on topics such as well-being, household decision-making dynamics, and nutrition. The training, therefore, focused on teaching agronomists how to use participatory approaches and tools for working with coffee-growing families.
Catheryn Cabrera Silva, Nespresso AAA ambassador for Retrillas del Pacífico (ECOM) in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, explained the value of the methodology.
“The methodology allows us [as professionals] to express ourselves,” she shared. “There are interactive and visual tools that we can transfer to the producers in the organizations that are part of the cluster.”
A cluster is the geographic area from which Nespresso buys its coffee.
Elsa Marina González, coordinator of Nespresso’s Child Welfare program in the Fraijanes cluster, reported positive outcomes. “The success of the transfer has been resounding,” she said. “There has been openness from the technicians, and the group became involved thanks to the dynamics used by TechnoServe to introduce them to the topics.”
Jesús Alvarado, technical director of FEDECOCAGUA (EFICO), emphasized the practical value of the training. “The workshops have left us with learning,” he shared. “The challenge now is to replicate the content of these materials and tools transferred by TechnoServe. It was interesting to learn about the program. We have learned and reflected on our own lives and on the lives of the people we work with.”
Organizational Impact and Future Applications
The participating Nespresso suppliers showed great enthusiasm and commitment to sharing what they learned. Oscar García Estrada, Nespresso AAA ambassador for the San Marcos and Huehuetenango cluster, confirmed the program’s effectiveness: “The information transferred was effective, and the knowledge acquired by the methodology implementers [the TechnoServe team] allows us [as ECOM] to improve the quality of our processes.”
The potential for broader application became clear through the initiative. “It is an opportunity to be able to replicate this experience to the rest of the producer groups that belong to Nespresso’s AAA program,” Julio Enrique Cano, coordinator of ECOM’s sustainability department, said. “The activities are very practical and are adapted to work with men and women, young people and adults.”
What’s Next for Women in Coffee? Scaling Impact
FECP helps increase women’s economic and social participation in coffee-producing communities by equipping Nespresso partners with proven tools and methodologies. The program’s success demonstrates that targeted capacity building can effectively address structural barriers to women’s participation in agricultural value chains.
