Uganda Mwanyi Women and Youth Project

In Uganda, our five-year partnership, launched in 2022 with Italian roaster Caffè Borbone, the ‘Mwani Women and Youth Project’, is working to empower young men and women through vocational training to improve the viability of coffee production for the next generation of farmers.

By the end of 2025, 1,000 young coffee farmers – both men and women - received training on financial literacy, record keeping and entrepreneurship, to help them to run their farms as a viable business. The project is also working with young adults in the local communities to improve rural employment opportunities through forming Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) with US$87,000 saved so far between 660+ members, among which 78% are women.

Over 40 of the participants aged 18-24 from the Bushenyi and Ibanda districts are now professional service providers to local farmers, earning US$68 monthly. They received training on the gamut of Good Agricultural Practices from mulching and de-suckering to pest-management and proper post-harvest handling. A new cohort of 50 youth are currently being mentored, which should bring to nearly 100 service providers by end 2026.

An additional 20 young adults were also able to sell up to 49,000 coffee seedlings growing in four UCDA certified coffee nurseries that they were helped to establish. Covering around 45 ha of coffee replanting, this activity generated US$8,500 which was reinvested to diversify small enterprises.

For Borbone, the project provides a powerful provenance story that they are communicating to their consumers.

“The Mwanyi project reflects Borbone/ Italmobiliare and ofi’s investment in the communities of coffee origin and our shared commitment to the families, especially to women and young people, by helping them develop agricultural skills and rural opportunities for the long-term.”

Marco Schiavon

CEO, Caffè Borbone