Coffee International Day - Laos

On 1st October 2016 Lao PDR celebrated Coffee International Day for the first time and the rich history of coffee in Laos. The day’s events of roasting, tasting and good practice discussions brought together coffee producers, development agencies, service providers, café owners (Maison Coffee, Slurt Coffee, Doi Chang, Amazon) and NGOs. Outspan Bolovens Limited (subsidiary of Olam International) poster presentation got people talking and debating coffee production processes in Laos. Coffee production is an export-oriented, transformational commodity for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Laos. It provides an entry point to the ASEAN Economic Community and wider international markets, opportunities for the 20,000 smallholder coffee growers in Laos. The consistent belief shared by many participants in Coffee International Day is the great potential for Lao PDR coffee producers to have a better future through value adding to and supplying quality parchment and green bean coffee for niche markets in ASEAN and beyond. These market-oriented changes offer direct opportunities for women, ethnic minorities and youth. Children got behind this theme during Coffee Day in Laos - drawing posters to promote Laos coffee while others enjoyed tasting the different roasts and varieties from the Bolaven Plateau.

For further information please contact:

Vicente Partida

Communications Officer

International Coffee Organization

office: +44 (0)20 7612 0625

@vincepartida: Twitter | LinkedIn

@icocoffeeorg: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Flickr | YouTube | Mailing list

Questions to ask politicians in the lead up to the Federal Election

With an election coming it is a good time to consider what questions we should ask of political parties, their leaders and local representatives concerning Australia’s aid program.

The first question is why we invest in development assistance.

The Comprehensive Aid Policy Framework (www.ausaid.gov.au/about/Documents/capf.pdf ) sets out five strategic goals for the aid program – which seem to have bipartisan support.  These are consistent with contemporary needs of developing communities as well as with international commitments made by Australia.  They also have a clear link with national interest.

The second question is where we invest our development assistance.

Under the current government Australia expanded the geographical scope for Australian Aid to include Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.  There are good national interests for this coverage as well as comparative advantages that Australia has in addressing priority needs in these regions.  For example, Australia has expertise in effective governance of public service delivery and water resource management that is relevant to Latin America and we have rainfed agriculture and livestock systems expertise that is relevant to East and West Africa.  This Australian expertise is already making a difference to people living in these regions, and more is possible for relatively small investments.  Particularly in Latin America – where partner countries place higher value on Australian expertise than our money (for example, did you know that in 2012 there were 35,000 people from Latin America studying in Australia, almost all of them funded by their own governments or families?)  The public diplomacy opportunities that aid provides Australia in the emerging economies of Latin America and Africa are an added benefit to Australians.

The third question is how quickly Australia will deliver on its commitment to 0.5% GNI ODA.

The Australian Parliament has committed to achieving 0.5% GNI for official development assistance.  The target date for achieving this has been pushed out, and it would be sensible to have a realistic data for this (say 2020).  Committing to a realistic date for this target would allow AusAID and other agencies delivering ODA to work with partner countries and delivery agencies to program additional investments prudently and professionally.  It would also allow this new programming to be conducted as a true partnership, which takes additional time.

It would be a positive development for Australian Aid to be fully debated during the lead up to the 2013 Federal election.  Ask your local Member for their response to these three broad questions and let us know how you got on.