Lecture by Prof. Dr. Chinwe Ifejika Speranza, Geography, University of Bern in the context of the Collegium generale Lecture Series: Afrika, Africa, Afrique

Coffee enthusiasts and traders are buzzing about one of the world’s finest brews: a specialty coffee made from 100% Arabica beans, cultivated and hand-picked by small farmers, often promoted as “made by women.” This exceptional coffee hails from Rwanda. But what lies beneath this appealing narrative? A research team from CDE delved into this question in Nyamasheke, the heart of Rwandan coffee cultivation. They explored how agricultural structural changes have affected the local community, especially women. Read the full CDE storymap.

New CDE project that aims to identify enabling mechanisms that Swiss policymakers could use to develop and implement a smallholder-friendlier version of the EUDR, a new EU regulation on deforestation-free supply chains.

Reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) projects and programmes promise to deliver performance-based, cost-effective climate change mitigation. Fifteen years after its conception, we analysed the rigorous counterfactual-based evidence for environmental and welfare effects from such national and subnational initiatives, along with a Theory of Change.