2025 Reports
Prosperity for Coffee Producers Through SDG-Based Coffee Plans
This Handbook offers a practical, step-by-step methodology to guide the development of SDG-based Coffee Plans, referred throughout this manual as Coffee Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Plans. The Coffee SDG Plans are comprehensive national or subnational strategies aimed at advancing the SDGs in coffee-growing regions. Designed for use by governments, multilateral development banks (MDBs), coffee associations, the private sector, and other stakeholders, the Handbook outlines how to conduct integrated assessments of livelihoods, infrastructure, and social services to identify priority investment needs and translate them into targeted, actionable investment roadmaps that promote the prosperity of coffee farmers.
The Handbook builds on simulations conducted in Cerrado Mineiro (Brazil), Huila (Colombia), and Brunca (Costa Rica), where the methodology was field-tested and refined through stakeholder consultations. These experiences were instrumental in shaping the approach to data collection, costing, and investment prioritization, resulting in a flexible methodology that can be adjusted to each country’s specific priorities and constraints. Indeed, although the methodology presented in the Handbook is global in scope, it is designed to be locally adaptable and responsive to the wide variation among coffee-producing countries, including differences in institutional capacity, poverty levels, geography, governance, and coffee sector characteristics.
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.
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More About This Work
- Academic Units
- Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
- Published Here
- April 22, 2026
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Notes
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.
