Common Code for the Coffee Community Association

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Evolution of the initiative (0.1 MB) Download PDF-Document

Presentations 2002 - 2006 (0.3 MB) Download PDF-Document

From a project to an independent Association

The Common Code for the Coffee Community project was conducted as a public-private partnership initiated by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH and the German Coffee Association (DKV) in 2002. In 2004 SECO, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs joined the BMZ as public partner in financing the project, while the European Coffee Federation replaced the DKV as the private partner. During the development process, more than 70 representatives from over 20 countries actively participated in the design of the concept, the majority of them coffee producers. Various international organisations have been involved in the development and implementation of 4C, such as the UN-affiliated International Coffee Organization (ICO), the World Bank, the International Labour Organization (ILO), plus several regional development banks.

In a multi-stakeholder Steering Committee producers, trade and industry and civil society groups developed the basic elements of the concept: the 4C Code of Conduct, the Rules of Participation for Trade and Industry, the Support Component as well as the Governance Structure etc. From 2005 to 2006 the Code was tested and further developed in various projects in coffee producing countries worldwide.

The 1st December 2006 was a milestone in the 4C development process: that day, 37 actors, representing producers, trade and industry and civil society worldwide, founded the 4C Association, an open and inclusive membership Association. Since then, the number of members has been continously growing. For a detailed overview on the evolution of the initiative up to now, please consider the evolution paper.