30. January 2019

30th January - 1st February 2019

Following tremendous momentum to address poverty in smallholder farming communities, this workshop built on previous events and stimulated dialogue, collaboration and action towards addressing global poverty challenges through the concept of Living Income. The event had 3 main goals:1) promote alignment on best practices of measuring living income benchmarks, actual incomes and the gap between them; 2) exchange learning on strategy effectiveness to close income gaps; and 3) support exchange between sectors working on farmer income.

To review the full agenda and speakers click here.

Workshop session resources

Introduction to the Living Income Community of Practice and work to date on measurement

This session introduced the objectives and main work areas of the Living Income CoP, framed how the workshop contributed to our overall aims, and explain how the agenda fit into the CoP’s objectives on measurement of actual incomes and living income benchmarks. It also reviewed key concepts and definitions. 

Calculating living Income benchmarks – what we have learned and where we are going

A review what we have learned about applying the Anker methodology and aligning around living income benchmarks in tea and cocoa; drawing on lessons from living wage benchmarks. The components and value of the methodology were also explored.

Comparing actual incomes to living income benchmarks: exploring methodological questions

Experience with and issues arising with comparing actual income to living income benchmarks, based on the West Africa cocoa and East Africa coffee experience. This session was also used to consider how the community of practice can create guidance on comparing actual incomes with living income benchmarks. It was discussed that alignment on key principles for income measurement would be useful to support actors in their efforts. 

Measuring and monitoring income change and setting income targets

This session dove into the experiences of CoP participants in measuring and monitoring income change and setting income targets. It provided an overview of various approaches to frame the discussion and then participants had an opportunity to learn more about one of the three experiences presented.

Living Wage & Living Income: what are the common challenges and differences?

This session identified commonalities in challenges in relation to living wage and living income and how our communities can help or work together in solving those. It explored 1) in what ways are organisations working on living wage and/or living income and why are both important; 2) what are the common challenges in working on living wage / income issues? and 3) how could our communities help / work together in solving those?

Framing the challenge and the approaches moving forward

This session drew on on recent research from the Mars Farmer Income Lab and the Living Income CoP to propose a framework for the day to track the interrelationships of strategies to improve farmer incomes. This session highlighted that there is no silver bullet to increasing incomes however achieving income improvements requires learning from other's experiences in trying to do so.

 

Pricing and Trading models

This session highlighted different approaches to pricing to improve farmer income and income security, and engaged participants in questions of which programs can scale and where are the opportunities and challenges around tackling pricing and trading models. 

Affordable Finance for Smallholders ​

This session explored how to increase the access to affordable finance to smallholders and how to couple loans with technical assistance. It focused on how data on smallholder segmentation and needs can be used to create and implement appropriate financial products or services for smallholders to help them to improve their incomes.

The strategies and roles of government actors

In this session we took the opportunity to have a specific conversation around government engagement in Living Income from consumer and producer country governments; focusing on cocoa and beyond. The panel included representation from the Dutch, German, Belgian and Ivorian governments who divulged relevant strategies, initiatives and partnerships to drive income improvements for smallholders.

Income diversification - why do we need it to close income gaps and how can it be done well?

This session explored how to implement professional diversification using examples from the vanilla, coffee and cocoa sectors. What is needed at the cooperative level? What’s needed at farm services level? Discussions were had around the challenges of maintaining investment in secondary crop growth  in primary crop boom periods, however the importance of diversification and identifying viable co-productive crops was emphasised to support the resiliency of smallholder incomes.

Living Wage and Living Income, Malawi 2020 Tea initiative

In this session, we received an update on sector wide collaborative action from tea in Malawi 2020. The initiative shared some of their greatest challenges as well as some of the joint solutions that were devised to push the initiative forward.

Sector Breakouts

In this part of the event, breakouts were held to discuss in further detail the work planned and being done in the Cocoa, Tea and Coffee sectors to improve farmer incomes. The cocoa sector breakout focused on the Cocoa Living Income Task Force, the Tea breakout a continuation of the conversation with the Malawi 2020 stakeholders and the introduction of a pricing tool that was developed to encourage the payment of living wages and incomes for tea and beyond, and the coffee session an initial discussion on the economic viability on the payment of Living Income.

View Cocoa Presentation

View Tea Presentation

Living Income Activity Dashboard

This document provides information to help you and your organisation make connections for working on the topic of Living Income, whether you’re looking for partnerships, collaboration opportunities or support. It is for people to promote activities, needs and services they can provide or need help with on the topic. If your initiative, activity or service is not listed here and you would like to be added please send the appropriate information to livingincome@isealalliance.org