Reading between the gender lines among coffee farming households in Uganda

How can gender be approached in Uganda’s coffee value chain?

Coffee in Uganda is traditionally thought of as a man’s crop—while women provide all of the labor up until the point of marketing, men get all of the proceeds.

In the rural areas in Uganda where coffee is grown, men, women, and youth share some common challenges in securing sustainable livelihoods. These include poor infrastructure, lack of timely access to financial capital, few income opportunities and unpredictable weather and droughts.

Women, however, face additional challenges and constraints. For instance, women typically have an extraordinarily heavy workload, as they have to take care of the family and the household’s daily needs, in addition to typically contributing up to 70% of the labor in coffee production.

Understanding what gender encompasses for coffee growing households differs across stakeholders in coffee production.