SCAN National Platform Meeting held in Tanzania

Platform to focus on Quality Management Systems in 2010

An initial SCAN Tanzania national platform meeting was held in Moshi on February 16, 2010 the focus of which was to further consolidate the development of the platform and to create a concrete work plan focusing, for the coming year, on developing Quality Management Systems (QMS) for low-entry level producer groups. This project has been made possible thanks to funding generously provided by Hivos.

The creation of the national platform was proceeded by a national consultation of the Tanzanian coffee sector led by the Tanzanian Coffee Board (TCB) in 2009. Cafe Africa and SCAN lent support to this effort and to the drafting of a needs assessment for small producers in Tanzania. The results were subsequently presented at the Tanzanian National Coffee Conference in December 2009.

The Tanzania national platform meeting was dynamic, results-oriented, and provided an excellent opportunity for SCAN platform partners to discuss the key issues related to sustainability in the coffee sector and QMS, as well as the possibility of the partners lending their collective knowledge for the development of a Good Agricultural Practices Manual.

Tanzania Coffee Board Director, Mr. Adolph Kumburu, participated in the meeting and made a formal presentation in which he stated the TCB's strong support for the SCAN platform.

The platform participants include representatives from the following entities: Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB), Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TACRI), representatives of the Zonal Committees (Arusha, Kagera, and Kigoma), Solidaridad, EDE/ICP, Cafe Africa, FLO/Fairtrade, Tanzania Organic Certification Association (TANCERT), ECOM Coffee, Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement (TOAM), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), 4C Association, Utz Certified, Sustainable Harvest, Technoserve, Tanzania Exporters Association (TANEXA), Kilimanjaro Native Co-operative Union (KNCU), Kilicafe, Envirocare, Kagera Co-operative Union (KCU) and the Tanzania Ministry of Agriculture.

The next meeting of the SCAN Tanzania national platform will be held on April 27-29 and will concentrate on reviewing QMS manuals and training curricula as a basis for training trainers and bringing these services to targeted producer groups through the Hivos funded project.

For more information on the Sustainable Commodity Assistance Network (SCAN) see: Capacity Building-Technical Assistance

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