Supporting Women Coffee Growers and Farmers in Myanmar

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The first Farmer-to-Farmer assignment that Partners of the Americas carried out in Myanmar took place between December 1st to 18th of 2019 with the host Myanmar Women Coffee Alliance (MWCA). The chosen volunteer for the assignment was Neelam Dhinsa Canto-Lugo, a retired Professor from Yuba College in California.

MCWA was formed in 2018 with 58 female entrepreneurs who want to improve the sector by empowering and connecting women. They are supported by the International Women's Coffee Alliance (IWCA) and are present in five states and three regions of the country. Since they are so new; they have not exercised a participatory, bottom-up approach but only a top-down one. However, the chairwoman wants the organization to have a collective voice so that they can have more leverage when dealing with other associations and ensure their products have a wider reach. 

During her assignment, Neelam trained women entrepreneurs in the coffee sector in soft skills for business, which included topics like communication strategies, SWOT analysis, SMART goal setting, marketing, agenda-setting, minute-taking, business planning, consensus building, and networking. The workshops, which took place in Yangon and Hopone in the Shan state, helped to strengthen MWCA’s organizational development and to build the capacities of its female members.

During the workshops, some trainees reported that they had already started to apply training content such as having a positive attitude, being emotionally intelligent, having good interpersonal relations, and being ethical with their family, colleagues, and fellow members. After Neelam’s support, MWCA’s members decided to meet monthly and have been conducting brainstorming sessions to define the roles and responsibilities of all the officers. Additionally, they have provided clear and timely communication to MWCA members and chapters in all regions with the results and conclusions of their meetings and events.

Neelam was very thankful for her assignment: “I am very grateful to Partners of the Americas for giving me this opportunity to help the capacity building of women coffee growers and farmers. The participants in Hopone came on buses from as far as two- or three-hour distances bringing students and farmers along with them. Coffee growers came from snow-covered areas, and local students not only actively participated in the workshops but also helped in preparing and serving delicious lunches and unlimited cups of coffee, tea and baskets of local fruit.

Thank you to the participants who spent precious time in long workshops day after day so that they could strengthen their abilities, gain new techniques for success, and enable their community members to succeed as well. On the last day, they arrived with gifts of proudly grown coffee and beautiful loungis for their teacher, and I will forever cherish these.”

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