India and Sustainability Standards: International Conference

Jane has been working at the ETP for over eleven years’ implementing and overseeing programme activity in Kenya. Jane has a wealth of experience working across tea supply chains having previously worked for the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) for seven years and three years at Partner Africa.

Jane brings a wealth of knowledge to her role as Stakeholder and Partnerships Manager, with extensive experience of managing and developing strategic stakeholder relationships to develop and implement programmes to improve livelihoods of tea farmers.

Jane holds an MBA in Strategic Management and is passionate about improving the working environment to improve gender equality for those in the tea industry and wider tea communities.

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Thwango Ndalama is a result oriented and accomplished Programme Manager with over 15 years’ experience working with international organisations on sustainable development. Her areas of expertise are livelihoods programme design and management, food security and agricultural value chains, client donor relationship management and monitoring and evaluation.

Thwango is now in her fourth year at the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), leading the team in Malawi, overseeing the delivery of all ETP’s activity in this African country. Thwango is passionate about helping the most marginalised tea workers and smallholder farmers to develop their skills and diversify their incomes to improve economic resilience.

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David Meek is an experienced, innovative and growth orientated board chair and non-executive director with a proven track record of leadership and strategic execution across multiple global and regional businesses and charity organisations.

Having chosen a career in global finance more than 30 years ago, David successfully expanded into other areas of interest including technology, real estate, conservation and sustainability, bringing a unique range of expertise. David has operated at the highest level across the UK, Europe, Asia, Latin America, the US and the Middle East, embracing cultural differences to strengthen organisations for the benefit of stakeholders and wider society.

David is Chair of the regulated financial services company, Equiti Capital, and a non executive director of sustainable real estate developer, This Land, where he also chairs the Investment Committee. In the third sector he is Chair of Getting on Board, a trustee of the British Liver trust and chair of their Audit & Risk committee, a trustee of Twycross Zoo and a mentor at Cambridge University’s Enterprise programme.

A strong believer in the importance of lifelong learning, David most recently completed his MSc in Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability at Birkbeck, University of London. When not travelling David is based in London and also enjoys the fresh sea air on the South coast with his partner and two dogs, with interests ranging from painting to motor sport and many things in between.

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Rachel has been with the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) for over ten years, working previously as a Senior Programme Manager with strong experience delivering multi-stakeholder programmes and projects to address challenging sector wide sustainability issues.

Rachel now is ETP’s Environment and Climate Lead and has a strong passion in understanding the environmental impact on tea supply chains. Rachel is focused on delivering impact across all of ETP’s programmes and pilots, with a lens focused on climate resilient agriculture, zero deforestation, and carbon counting to encourage a ‘net zero’ tea industry.

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Jenny Costelloe leads the Ethical Tea Partnership’s (ETP) global team to drive long-term, systemic change across three areas in tea – economics, equality and environment. Jenny is passionate about mobilising ETP’s global team to develop programmes, run pilots and influence policies, and create transformative change across tea supply chains to achieve ETP’s vision of a thriving, socially just and environmentally sustainable tea sector.

She has extensive experience in delivering sustainable development through multi-stakeholder partnerships. Jenny lived in Singapore for 11 years, and was Director of Country Partnerships at Grow Asia (a World Economic Forum initiative focused on sustainable agriculture in ASEAN). Jenny was appointed as an Ambassador for the World Economic Forum’s “New Vision for Agriculture” in 2016.

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With over fifteen years’ of experience in value chain development, Leena is passionate about reducing inequality through market systems and gender transformative approaches.

Leena was a Senior Advisor at Oxfam prior to joining the Ethical Tea Partnership and her experience ranges from directly implementing grassroots training programmes in rural Nicaragua to ethical sourcing as well as working with multinational companies to address sustainability and human rights issues in their supply chains.

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Project Officer

Bharat.Nayak@ethicalteapartnership.org

Bharat works directly with communities on the ground, as part of our innovative Plantation Community Empowerment Programme. This grassroots initiative brings communities and estate management together to jointly resolve issues, and so improve living and working conditions on tea estates in Assam, India.

Bharat joins with strong experience of the tea sector, having previously worked at Soumer Organic Farmers’ Producer Organisation. Bharat also spent five years working on a community-led project on tea estates, supporting workers to tackle health issues.

Project Officer

Joshila.Horo@ethicalteapartnership.org

Based in Assam, India, Joshila supports our ground-breaking Plantation Community Empowerment Programme in the region, which empowers tea communities to identify and jointly resolve the challenges they face.

Joshila joins with experience from the development sector, having previously worked on projects tackling gender equality, child rights and education issues in tea estates.

Stakeholder & Partnerships Manager

Tejo.Jatmiko@ethicalteapartnership.org

As Stakeholder and Partnerships Manager, Tejo works closely with tea farmers, workers, estate management, and key industry stakeholders to drive ETP’s Strategy2030 across Indonesia.

Tejo joins with over 13-years of experience in the agricultural sector, spanning palm oil, corn, cocoa and tobacco. Most recently, Tejo worked at the Partnership for Action Against Child Labour in Agriculture, where he was responsible for managing partnerships to tackle child labour.

Tejo draws on his robust stakeholder engagement experience to ensure that our initiatives in Indonesia appropriately respond to tea communities’ needs.

Regional Director (East Asia)

Xing.Ma@ethicalteapartnership.org

Leading our activity across East Asia, Xing Ma works directly with tea communities in China and Indonesia to ensure ETP’s programmes have real impact in both countries.

Prior to joining ETP, Xing worked as a Research Scientist at Unilever. She draws upon her strong experience of global tea supply chains and sustainable agronomy to ensure that our work in East Asia is pertinent to the tea sector.

Country Manager

Ranjana.Das@ethicalteapartnership.org

As Country Manager, Ranjana oversees the timely and effective implementation of projects, identifies and nurtures business pilots, advises on policy, supports the communication of ETP’s work, enables shared learning, builds partnerships and drives ETP’s strategy for India.

Ranjana joins the Ethical Tea Partnership from a 12-year tenure at Oxfam India, where she most recently led the Responsible Supply Chain programmes in tea and sugar. Whilst at Oxfam India, Ranajana worked extensively on gender, livelihood and health initiatives, alongside developing programmes, training and the strategic management of grants and stakeholder engagement.

Prior to Oxfam, Ranaja worked across several national and International organisations. She holds a Masters in Economics from Kolkata University, and Masters in Development Studies from Institute of Social Studies Netherlands. She is a Humphrey Hubert Fulbright Fellow from Cornell University (2017-18).

Programme Manager

Lickson.Mchepa@ethicalteapartnership.org

Working on the ground with tea farmers in Malawi, Lickson supports them with our lending and saving scheme as well as environmental programmes. In the final stages of a postgraduate degree in Transformative Community Development at Mzuzu University, Lickson has worked on a number of climate change and economic resilience programmes with international development organisations.

The Sri Lanka tea industry’s “Ceylon Tea Roadmap 2030” aims to create a socially responsible, sustainable business model for the entire value chain. Its goal is to positively impact the lives and livelihoods of 2 million people; almost 10% of the national population, mostly women. The Roadmap’s reach also spans climate and nature, as well as overall business performance.

The Roadmap focuses on short, mid, and long-term objectives to improve industry viability, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and other sustainability frameworks. Phase I is already operational at ground level.

During this very challenging time for Sri Lanka, the industry invited corporates, development and donor agencies to support the rollout of the Roadmap – the first in the tea world done at this scale.

Oxfam GB CEO Danny Sriskandarajah shared his takeaways from the day’s dynamic sessions as he closed the conference by asking how businesses can best implement their learnings from this year’s TEAM UP.

Danny has been Chief Executive Officer of Oxfam GB since January 2019. Prior to that he spent six years as Secretary General of CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance. He has previously been Director General of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Interim Director of the Commonwealth Foundation and held various posts at the Institute for Public Policy Research.

From 2018 to 2019 he was a member of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, co-chaired by Jack Ma and Melinda Gates, and from 2015 to 2016 a member of the High Level Panel on Humanitarian Finance. He is a Trustee of the Disasters Emergency Committee.

Globally, women are more vulnerable than their male counterparts. Women in tea communities are particularly vulnerable, due to cultural norms in many tea-producing countries, poverty and gender-biased workplaces. Gender-based violence (GBV) remains evident in tea communities.

In this session, leaders who have made commitments and been implementing guidance and frameworks that aim to address GBV shared their stories and experiences. Our panel of experts invited delegates to discuss:

– How do you make sure that frameworks are contextualised?
– What steps can you take in your business to reduce the risk of GBV in your supply chain?
– Who are the key actors that we need to engage with to reduce GBV, and what are their roles?
– What outcomes would you expect to see on the ground as a result of effective framework implementation?
– How do you measure impact?

Following COP26 in Glasgow, governments and companies have set themselves ambitious targets to reach Net Zero by 2050. Implementing plans to reach this target is no small ask.

In this opening session, we heard from the Ethical Tea Partnership’s expert climate lead on how the tea sector can drive net-zero transformation. A multi-stakeholder panel assessed how players across the tea value chain can transition from strategy to practice, as together we discussed what this means for the future of tea.

Andy Brown joined Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate as Group Finance Director in 2001, becoming Managing Director of Taylors of Harrogate in 2009. Andy is also a member of the Collaborative CEO, a group of five key executives, who take shared responsibility for the organisational strategy and development of the Bettys & Taylors Group.

Before joining Bettys & Taylors, Andy spent his early career working in various finance and general management roles within the food and consumer goods industry at companies including Procter & Gamble, Mars and Asda. Andy has a degree in Chemical Engineering from Birmingham University and is a Chartered Management Accountant.

Andy has previously been a Governor at Leeds Beckett University and is also actively involved in a number of trade and sustainability bodies within the tea and coffee industries, including being a Board member of the UK Tea and Infusions Association. He is currently co-chair of the Global Tea Coalition.

Click here to read some initial insights from Andy on living wage and income, ahead of him sharing more at TEAM UP on 21 June.

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Zbigniew is Chief R&D and Sustainability Officer of ekaterra (Unilever’s tea division), shaping global innovation and ESG strategy for the largest botanical beverages business with vertically integrated supply chains. He is a Board Member of the Ethical Tea Partnership, contributing to work on the 2030 Tea Industry Roadmap.

He has spent 25 years in various leadership roles in Unilever, including Pepsi-Lipton Joint Venture. His purpose is to enable sustainable food chains, and to build activist teams. Zbigniew invests in sustainability start-ups, and is a smallholder of an ecological farmland in the north of Poland.

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Giles is Sustainability Director at Tesco. He leads a team of human rights, environment, agriculture and waste experts around the world, responsible for ensuring good working conditions and sustainable practices across Tesco’s supply chain.

Prior to joining Tesco, Giles worked for the UK Govt’s Department for International Development for ten years, including in countries such as Kenya, Rwanda and Iraq. In 2007 he wrote the activist book ‘Aid and Other Dirty Business’, on how western aid, trade and globalisation affect Africa, published in the UK, US and Canada.

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Dr Sharon Hall is the Chief Executive of the United Kingdom Tea and Infusions Association (UKTIA), a role she took on in 2018. Her previous roles include Director General of both the Potato Processors’ Association (PPA) and the Snack, Nut & Crisp Manufacturers’ Association (SNACMA), where she gained extensive experience of high-level stakeholder engagement, strategic leadership, communications and issues management.

She is currently Vice President of Tea & Herbal Infusions Europe (THIE) and chairs THIE’s EU Green Deal Steering Group and the Plastics & Packaging Working Group. Sharon also represents THIE on environmental and sustainability matters at FoodDrinkEurope.

Sharon has the honour of being the current Chair of the FAO-Inter-Governmental Group on Tea.

Sharon has an honours degree in Applied Biology, a Masters in Science Communication and a PhD in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (Plant Science).

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Priya has over seventeen years’ experience in sustainability and climate change; including sustainable strategy development, resource efficiency (energy, carbon, water, waste, wastewater, biodiversity), sustainable supply chain management, sustainable product stewardship, ESG analytics, circular economy/end of use as well as sustainable transparency and disclosure.

Priya has worked across the retail and apparel, FMCG, real estate, agri-commodities and cement sectors, among others. Priya has also worked with multilateral agencies including The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation on low carbon growth and waste management policy development at a national level.

Priya has co-authored several thought leadership documents on waste management, water management, green growth, sustainability in the real estate sector and sustainability reporting, as well as sustainability trends in the financial, oil and gas industries.

Priya currently heads sustainability at Tata Consumer Products.

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Ruchira Joshi is the Executive Director at IDH UK. IDH brings governments, companies, CSOs and financiers together in action driven coalitions to progress on achieving Better Jobs, Better Incomes and a Better Environment – its three impact areas.

Ruchira has previously held roles as the Head of Responsible Sourcing at ASOS, and Programme Director at the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). She has life-long passion for working towards ensuring that global supply chains are inclusive of smallholder farmers and workers as integral stakeholders. Her key achievements include designing an innovative Volume Based Fee financing mechanism for smallholder capacity building at BCI, setting up the ASOS Responsible Sourcing Programme for third-party brands, and establishing IDH in the UK.

Ruchira has an MA from SOAS in International Development and has served as a trustee of the Sustainable Fibre Alliance, a standard holding body for responsible cashmere production in Mongolia and China.

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Tony’s Chocolonely exists to revolutionise the chocolate industry and make 100% slave free the norm in chocolate. Not just their own chocolate, but all chocolate worldwide. As Impactus Prime, Paul is first in line to make change happen: leading Tony’s impact strategy and heading up the Impact team.

On the surface, Impact is all about outcomes and effects. But at its heart, it’s all about relationships. From collaborating with the cocoa farmers who supply Tony’s – including all programs and activities involving partner cooperatives in Ghana and Ivory Coast — to working with governments, NGOs and certifiers to accelerate change in the industry. Including working to get legislation in place that holds companies accountable for human rights violations in their supply chains.

Paul and his team also measure the impact of Tony’s 5 Sourcing Principles (100% traceable beans, paying a higher price that enables a living income, strong farmers, long-term relationships and quality & productivity). Not just reporting on progress, but improving on it by using the data to do things better.

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Amarpal Takk Group General Counsel and Company Secretary, Amarpal advises the Board on legal, regulatory, governance, compliance, risk and ESG issues. He is a member of the Strategy Committee and other Board committees.

The world’s largest privately owned tea producer, Camellia is a global group investing in agricultural as well as food service and engineering operations.

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With over fifteen years’ of experience in value chain development, Leena is passionate about reducing inequality through market systems and gender transformative approaches.

Leena was a Senior Advisor at Oxfam prior to joining the Ethical Tea Partnership and her experience ranges from directly implementing grassroots training programmes in rural Nicaragua to ethical sourcing as well as working with multinational companies to address sustainability and human rights issues in their supply chains.

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Evangelyn is based in Sri Lanka, and she supports and implements the Ethical Tea Partnership’s project activity on the ground. Prior to joining the Ethical Tea Partnership, Evangelyn worked at World Vision Lanka (WVL) and the Plantation Communities Project for more than 10 years and brings a wealth of experience working directly with tea workers, resident communities, and tea estate management.

Evangelyn’s strengths are her ability to understand complex issues on tea estates, and working across multi stakeholder partnerships to deliver impactful programmes and initiatives.

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Programme Manager

Evangelyn.Perera@ethicalteapartnership.org

Evangelyn is based in Sri Lanka, and she supports and implements the Ethical Tea Partnership’s project activity on the ground. Prior to joining the Ethical Tea Partnership, Evangelyn worked at World Vision Lanka (WVL) and the Plantation Communities Project for more than 10 years and brings a wealth of experience working directly with tea workers, resident communities, and tea estate management.

Evangelyn’s strengths are her ability to understand complex issues on tea estates, and working across multi stakeholder partnerships to deliver impactful programmes and initiatives.

Jane has been working at the ETP for over eleven years’ implementing and overseeing programme activity in Kenya. Jane has a wealth of experience working across tea supply chains having previously worked for the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) for seven years and three years at Partner Africa.

Jane brings a wealth of knowledge to her role as Stakeholder and Partnerships Manager, with extensive experience of managing and developing strategic stakeholder relationships to develop and implement programmes to improve livelihoods of tea farmers.

Jane holds an MBA in Strategic Management and is passionate about improving the working environment to improve gender equality for those in the tea industry and wider tea communities.

Book your TEAM UP 2022 ticket.

Thwango Ndalama is a result oriented and accomplished Programme Manager with over 15 years’ experience working with international organisations on sustainable development. Her areas of expertise are livelihoods programme design and management, food security and agricultural value chains, client donor relationship management and monitoring and evaluation.

Thwango is now in her fourth year at the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), leading the team in Malawi, overseeing the delivery of all ETP’s activity in this African country. Thwango is passionate about helping the most marginalised tea workers and smallholder farmers to develop their skills and diversify their incomes to improve economic resilience.

Book your TEAM UP 2022 ticket.

Rachel has been with the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) for over ten years, working previously as a Senior Programme Manager with strong experience delivering multi-stakeholder programmes and projects to address challenging sector wide sustainability issues.

Rachel now is ETP’s Environment and Climate Lead and has a strong passion in understanding the environmental impact on tea supply chains. Rachel is focused on delivering impact across all of ETP’s programmes and pilots, with a lens focused on climate resilient agriculture, zero deforestation, and carbon counting to encourage a ‘net zero’ tea industry.

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Dr Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah has been Chief Executive Officer of Oxfam Great Britain since January 2019. Prior to that he spent six years as Secretary General of CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance. He has previously been Director General of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Interim Director of the Commonwealth Foundation and held various posts at the Institute for Public Policy Research. From 2018 to 2019 he was a member of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, co-chaired by Jack Ma and Melinda Gates, and from 2015 to 2016 a member of the High Level Panel on Humanitarian Finance. He is a Trustee of the Disasters Emergency Committee.

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As Head of Operations, ACT on Living Wages, Bea Ruoff leads ACT’s work on responsible purchasing practices – from development to monitoring and accountability measures – and oversees operations of the foundation.

Prior to joining ACT, she was a researcher and teacher with a focus on labour market development, inequality, and wage setting in global production networks and has designed and managed multi-stakeholder research projects at the Institute for International Political Economy, Berlin School of Economics and Law.

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Jordy van Honk works as global director agriculture commodities at IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative. In this role, he leads the IDH sector programs in cocoa, tea and coffee, and has a specific focus on engaging business on the themes of living wage and living income. Jordy is part of the management team of IDH.

Over the past years he has been part of many leading initiatives on living wage and living income, including the Malawi Tea 2020 program (as Chair of the Steering Committee), the Dutch retail bananas commitment, the Taskforce for Coffee Living Income and living income initiatives in cocoa including the Dutch Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (DISCO) and Beyond Chocolate.

Jordy has worked for IDH for 11 years. He holds a Master degree in Economics from the University of Amsterdam. Before joining IDH in 2010, Jordy worked for the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of the Government of The Netherlands in its industry and trade department.

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Winnie is a Kenyan by birth. She is an experienced human rights lawyer, strategist and a gender specialist. She has over 14 years’ cumulative experience in human rights, gender, and sustainability work in both private and nonprofit sector. Winfridah has extensive experience in the implementation of human rights due diligence procedures, identification, and remediation of endemic human rights issues across global value chains.

Before joining Unilever, she worked with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights as a human rights officer for over 5 years. She then went on to join Unilever in December 2013 as the Welfare Manager responsible for embedding human rights in the tea plantations in Kenya. While in the tea plantations, Winfridah was instrumental in setting and implementing the women safety program as part of the over human rights strategy. Thereafter, she moved to regional role as the Integrated Social Sustainability Manager, Africa at Unilever.

Currently Winfridah is a senior manager social sustainability with Unilever. Winnie is part of the global tam responsible for the implementation of the human rights strategy for the business. In this role, Winfridah provides global supply chain thematic leadership on gender and child labour and geographically supports the implementation of the human rights strategy in Africa and South Asia.

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Manisha Majumdar is the Women’s Safety Accelerator Fund Manager at IDH – the Sustainable Trade Initiative. The Fund will accelerate the scale of the UN Women ‘Global Women’s Safety Framework in Rural Spaces’, created with the support of Unilever.

A postgraduate from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Manisha has two decades of evolved experience on gender equality, social inclusion, and human rights at policy and programme levels both in development and humanitarian settings. Manisha has previously worked at Christian Aid, Oxfam, Concern Worldwide in India, Asia, the Middle East region, and on short-term assignments with the Government of Odisha, the United Nations.

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Dr Paula Hamilton is the Ethical Trading Initiative’s (ETI) Head of Collective Action, leading the organisation’s collective action with its members in response to Human Rights at work abuses and proactive strategies for innovation, policy change and other areas linked to ETI’s mission and vision.

Previously she held a number of senior roles within the International Transport Workers Federation, including leading its work on logistics and global supply chains, union capacity building and sectoral representation at international level, and senior roles within the UK trade union movement.

Her interests include social, economic and reproductive justice, including non-executive director roles at a number of charities and not for profit organisations. She has a doctorate from Queen Mary University of London in the field of labour and economic geography, along with a Masters in Social and Public Policy from the University of Brighton and a BA Hons in Politics and Development Studies from the University of Sussex.

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John Davison joined Unilever in March 2021 as Chief Executive Officer of its tea business which was renamed ekaterra in July.

John is a highly accomplished and experienced international business leader with a diverse background in several consumer product companies. Before Unilever, he was Chief Executive Officer of Zuellig Pharma, Asia’s leading Healthcare Services Group based in Singapore with $13 billion sales and 13,500 employees across the region. Prior to his successful six-year tenure at the helm of Zuellig Pharma, John held senior executive positions at Danone, Royal Numico B.V. and Diageo PLC.

He has lived and worked in Asia, Europe and US. He is a British citizen, from Newcastle. Holding a Masters degree in Modern and Medieval Languages from Cambridge University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, John’s early career was spent in consulting at McKinsey.

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Jenny Costelloe leads the Ethical Tea Partnership’s (ETP) global team to drive long-term, systemic change across three areas in tea – economics, equality and environment. Jenny is passionate about mobilising ETP’s global team to develop programmes, run pilots and influence policies, and create transformative change across tea supply chains to achieve ETP’s vision of a thriving, socially just and environmentally sustainable tea sector.

She has extensive experience in delivering sustainable development through multi-stakeholder partnerships. Jenny lived in Singapore for 11 years, and was Director of Country Partnerships at Grow Asia (a World Economic Forum initiative focused on sustainable agriculture in ASEAN). Jenny was appointed as an Ambassador for the World Economic Forum’s “New Vision for Agriculture” in 2016.

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Claude Bizimana is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB), a commercial public institution in Rwanda in charge of exports of agricultural and livestock products.

As the CEO of NAEB, Claude strives to establish relations and cooperation with regional and international organisations with the aim of improving operations in the tea value chain and collaboration among stakeholders.

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Sudi Biko Matara is a public and private sector specialist with over 15 years’ experience in strategy and business sustainability; participatory development; project management; networks and partnership building; gender, policy and advocacy; monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning; knowledge management; external relations; resource mobilisation; establishing governance structures and systems; designing and implementing communication strategies; grants administration and management.

Currently, Sudi is the Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) Foundation, a subsidiary of KTDA Holdings Ltd, and oversees the Group’s Corporate Social Investments as part of organisational business sustainability.

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Alice Allan has 20 years’ experience working for equality and decent work. She specialises in facilitating engagement between the private sector, civil society and government. She also works at Business Fights Poverty as Challenge Director, and has previously worked at the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, CARE International and Amnesty International.

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ETP Executive Director

Jenny Costelloe’s focus is on leading the Ethical Tea Partnership’s global team to drive forward long-term, systemic change across three areas in tea – economics, equality and environment.

Jenny has extensive experience in delivering sustainable development through multi-stakeholder partnerships. Jenny lived in Singapore for 11 years, and was Director of Country Partnerships at Grow Asia (a World Economic Forum initiative focused on sustainable agriculture in ASEAN). Jenny was appointed as an Ambassador for the World Economic Forum’s “New Vision for Agriculture” in 2016.

Jenny is passionate about mobilising ETP’s global team to develop programmes, run pilots and influence policies and create transformative change across tea supply chains to achieve our vision of a thriving, socially just and environmentally sustainable tea sector.

ETP Vice-Chair

Simon Hotchkin has worked in the tea and coffee industry for over twenty years, in which ten years have been at Taylors of Harrogate – where he is currently the Head of Sustainable Development.

Under Simon’s leadership, Taylors of Harrogate was awarded the UN Global Climate Action Award at COP26 for its work on Carbon Neutrality and improving farmer livelihoods in Kenya.

Simon is committed to working on projects and programmes that help slow down the climate crisis and benefit tea famers and their wider communities.

ETP Chair

David Meek has over 30 years’ experience in senior leadership positions spanning numerous global and regional businesses worldwide.

David started his career in global finance before moving into technology, real estate, conservation, and sustainability. David has a wealth of knowledge and expertise in governance, risk, and transformative change.

A strong believer in the importance of lifelong learning, David most recently completed his MSc in Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability at Birkbeck, University of London.

David is interested in utilising his wealth of knowledge and expertise to help the Ethical Tea Partnership build on its strategic partnerships to address deep-rooted issues in tea supply chains.

Executive Director

Jenny.Costelloe@ethicalteapartnership.org

Jenny leads operations and strategy at the Ethical Tea Partnership, including overseeing the delivery of programmes, business pilots and policy work in seven tea-producing origins in Africa and Asia. Her focus is on driving long-term, systemic change across three themes in tea: economics, equality and environment. With a specialist focus on the food and agriculture sector, Jenny has built a varied and extensive career in delivering sustainable development through multi-stakeholder partnerships.

Jenny lived in Singapore for 11 years, where her passion for sustainable and inclusive agriculture value chains was nurtured. Whilst in Singapore, she held the position of Director, Country Partnerships at Grow Asia (a World Economic Forum initiative focused on sustainable agriculture in ASEAN). Prior to Grow Asia, Jenny enjoyed a number of consulting roles where she provided sustainability advisory to organisations including GIC, Singapore Exchange, Unilever, PepsiCo, Mondelez International, Cargill, Diageo, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Singapore Management University, government of Singapore, Ministry of Agriculture (Cambodia), Brookings Institute, Food Industry Asia, Verdant Bioscience, Mercy Corps and CSIRO (Australia).

Jenny has a BSc in Natural Sciences (Physics) from the University of Bath, a professional diploma in Marketing Communications, and an MBA (Strategy) from Nanyang Business School in Singapore. In 2016, she was appointed as an Ambassador for the World Economic Forum’s “New Vision for Agriculture” and became a partnership practitioner, completing The Partnering Initiative’s certification. In 2017 she was selected for the Global Institute for Tomorrow’s “Global Leaders Programme”. Jenny sat on the board of the Rice Bowl Index (a food security ranking for Asia) until 2017 and was Vice-Chair of the board of The Island Foundation (a charity focused on education in rural Indonesia) from 2018 to 2020, and currently sits on the advisory board for her Alma Matter, Nanyang Business School.

VSLA Officer

Amos.Bandawe@ethicalteapartnership.org

Amos works directly with tea farmers, driving forward our programmes in Malawi. He focuses on our Village Savings and Loans (VSLA) project – community saving schemes that support farmers’ livelihoods and improve economic resilience.

Amos has strong experience of delivering development programmes from his involvement with the Mwanza Pigeon Peas Market Development project in Malawi – an initiative by Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM), with funding from the UK government through Christian Aid. As part of the project Amos worked closely with farmer groups on several pertinent issues, including: income diversification; sustainable land management; nutrition; and climate change.

At ETP, Amos draws on his robust experience to ensure that our work in Malawi appropriately responds to tea farmers’ needs.

Programme Manager

Anjan.Bordoloi@ethicalteapartnership.org

Anjan draws on his vast experience of working directly with tea workers in India to drive forward our Plantation Community Empowerment Programme in Assam. Our grassroots initiative empowers communities to identify and resolve the challenges they face every day.

Anjan has a thorough understanding of the impact of rural development projects in Assam, having worked for close to 20 years on community-led programmes within tea estates and with other vulnerable groups in the state. This includes government flagship projects, as well as working with international organisations such as ActionAid and Mercy Corps.

He draws on his experience of delivering programmes focused on gender equality and livelihoods, among other impact areas, to ensure that our work in Assam remains pertinent to tea workers’ needs. Tapping in to his extensive network, Anjan also works to strengthen our strategic partnerships in the region.

Programme Manager

Peter.Kangacha@ethicalteapartnership.org

Drawing on his extensive experience of delivering development projects in supply chains, Peter drives forward our programmes in Kenya. Specifically, Peter has a thorough understanding of the impact of livelihood programmes in commodity value chains, having previously worked on such projects in tea, coffee and horticulture. This is complemented by his knowledge of trade policies.

Peter has strong experience in agricultural development, including gender empowerment work, and previously led programmes for international organisations such as Christian Aid and Farm Africa. He draws on his robust project management experience to ensure that our programmes in Kenya appropriately respond to tea communities’ needs.

Senior Programme Officer

Irene.Zhang@ethicalteapartnership.org

With over 15 years’ experience in ethical trade, spanning brands, suppliers and consultancies, Irene has a thorough understanding of supply chains. This is complemented by her knowledge of Chinese labour laws and industry standards.

Drawing on her extensive experience of delivering training and projects, Irene drives forward our work on the ground in China and focuses on equality for women and young people in tea.

VSLA Intern

cecilia.chidothi@ethicalteapartnership.org

Cecilia works directly with tea workers in Malawi as part of our Ulalo programme. She focuses on our Village Savings and Loans (VSLA) project – a community saving scheme that supports livelihoods and improves economic resilience.

With a Bachelors Degree in Agricultural Enterprise Development and Microfinance, Cecilia’s theoretical knowledge is supported by her practical experience of working on VSLA projects with local development agency the Catholic Development Commission in Malawi. Cecilia has experience of mentoring women to develop their business acumen, and is well versed in the VSLA methodology.

Chair

david.meek@ethicalteapartnership.org

David Meek is an experienced, innovative and growth orientated board chair and non-executive director with a proven track record of leadership and strategic execution across multiple global and regional businesses and charity organisations.

Having chosen a career in global finance more than 30 years ago, David successfully expanded into other areas of interest including technology, real estate, conservation and sustainability, bringing a unique range of expertise. David has operated at the highest level across the UK, Europe, Asia, Latin America, the US and the Middle East, embracing cultural differences to strengthen organisations for the benefit of stakeholders and wider society.

David is Chair of the regulated financial services company, Equiti Capital, and a non executive director of sustainable real estate developer, This Land, where he also chairs the Investment Committee. In the third sector he is Chair of Getting on Board, a trustee of the British Liver trust and chair of their Audit & Risk committee, a trustee of Twycross Zoo and a mentor at Cambridge University’s Enterprise programme.

A strong believer in the importance of lifelong learning, David most recently completed his MSc in Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability at Birkbeck, University of London. When not travelling David is based in London and also enjoys the fresh sea air on the South coast with his partner and two dogs, with interests ranging from painting to motor sport and many things in between.

Rodgers is a 43 year old tea farmer in Malawi. As well as farming, he is a volunteer trainer of small-scale tea farmers, teaching them the best farming methods of tea and nutrition.

“These participants were being trained on how they could prepare nutritious food at home. I taught them about the six food groups and gave examples of each. I was teaching them so that when they go back to their respective homes they could prepare and eat these foods in order to be healthy. As farmers with physical jobs, they need to be healthy, or it poses a threat to their income and business in general.”

The nutrition training is not just aimed at improving tea farmers diets and health, but also reaches their families.

“When parents are taught about nutrition, not only do they benefit, but their children and future generations become healthy as well.” 

As well as nutrition training, farmers also receive sanitation training that outlines basic hygiene and hand-washing protocols. The COVID-19 pandemic makes this training all the more important.

“When we talk of fighting COVID-19, we need to emphasise that although we are eating all the required food groups, we need to also follow all the hygiene protocols. If we go against these measures, no matter how nutritious our diet is, we will not win the battle against COVID-19, if we do not wash our hands with soap, mask up and maintain social distance.” 

Esinala is a 42 year old married, tea farmer in Malawi with responsibility for three children, two of whom are orphans. Through the programme, she has been taking part in training sessions that are teaching tea farmers about the best foods for a healthy diet.

Esinala has been growing a small kitchen garden of cabbages, vegetables and other crops. Before the training she did not enjoy a wide and varied diet with her family, and most of the foods they consumed were “whatever was available”.

During the training sessions Esinala learnt about the best foods to eat and now says that her and her family are consuming a diet of at least six food groups.

“I attended a nutrition workshop where we were taught about the six food groups. These are energy-giving foods, such as vegetables, oils, fruits and proteins. This has been helpful because most of the children in the village do not like eating vegetables, but the workshop taught us how to mix them in with our foods. 
 
“Before learning all this, we used to buy groceries from marketplaces. Initially, we would eat whatever was available, but after the training, we now ensure that we eat the six food groups.” 

VSLA Officer

Charles.Kambale@ethicalteapartnership.org

Charles works directly with tea communities in Malawi, supporting their livelihoods and improving economic resilience as part of our Ulalo programme. His focus is on supporting Village Savings and Loans (VSLAs) – a community saving scheme.

With a background in monitoring and facilitating economic and environment projects on the ground, Charles recognises the needs of Malawian tea communities. He has an excellent understanding of implementing meaningful programmes to support livelihoods.

Monitoring Officer

Eston.Sichali@ethicalteapartnership.org

Eston’s remit is focused on our Healthy Diets for Tea Communities programme with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition. Working hand-in-hand with farmers, workers, estates and project partners, he supports project implementation – capturing robust monitoring and evaluation data.

Eston joins from a range of project implementation and monitoring roles with international institutions, including agricultural research organisation International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. He is well versed in data collection and monitoring, and experienced at working directly with farming communities.

The Kuwala programme is supporting tea workers and their families to access solar light technology and to take part in community savings groups.

John has worked on a tea estate for 35 years. His work on the estate is his main source of income, and he supplements this income with farming work in his village. Access to solar technology has made a real difference to workers like John and his family.

“Before receiving this solar lamp, I used to buy batteries to light my house. It was expensive. But when I got this solar lamp, it was a relief. Now, we can just charge the solar lamp in the day, so we no longer have the expense of batteries.

“This solar lamp is helping us in many ways. When it is dark, we use it to light the house, but more importantly, the children use this solar lamp for their homework until late in the night.”

John’s children are also looking forward to the benefits of the solar lamp. His 14-year-old daughter Efelo is in Standard 5 at her school.

The solar lamp is providing light in the evenings so that she can complete her studies and succeed at her exams.

“This solar lamp has helped me because, unlike in the past, I am now able to read and study after school every night. Before the solar lamp, studying was impossible in the evenings. Now I can study whenever I want, and I am confident that I will pass the examinations.”

Through the Kuwala programme, community savings groups are supporting workers to supplement their incomes. The groups help workers save money and access loans, which they use to invest in businesses or to cover household expenses.

Tea worker Bertha, 48 years old, is married with one child. Taking part in her local savings group has helped Bertha invest in her food stall business, which is providing her with an additional income. “Before joining the group, my business was literally collapsing, but I have managed to revamp it when I got the shares (from the group).”

The community savings group has also had a significant impact on her family’s life. She was able to build her house, and is looking forward to completing it with her next loan. Most importantly, she was able to use a loan when her family needed it most.

“The group has changed my family’s life. At first, we used to lack most of our household needs. The cash that I used to earn was not enough at all. For example, last December, my daughter got sick and I used the loan to pay all the hospital bills.”

VSLA Officer

Humphrey.Munthali@ethicalteapartnership.org

As part of our Ulalo programme in Malawi, Humphrey work directly with tea communities. His focus is on our Village Savings and Loans (VSLA) project – a community saving scheme that supports livelihoods and improves economic resilience.

With a background in agribusiness, Humphrey has previously worked on community development activities in Malawi with international organisations, including the US African Development Foundation. He is well versed in training and mentoring groups and individuals in business and partnerships.

ETP’s vision is for a thriving tea industry that is socially just and environmentally sustainable.

Economics: Improving the economic sustainability of the industry so that everyone involved in producing tea in our supply chains has good livelihoods, workers earn a living wage and farmers earn a living income.

Environment: Achieving a carbon neutral tea sector that does not contribute to deforestation, and where estates and farmers are resilient to climate change.

Equality: Developing empowered, safe tea communities with good opportunities for women and children.

ETP projects, business pilots and policy work.

• Business innovation.
• Fund pilots, project and policy work.
• Mobilise stakeholders for action.
• Generate data and conduct research.
• Advance knowledge.
• Create accountability.
• Educate and influence.

Platform Foundations

Leadership; Trust; Commitment; Financial sustainability; Shared vision; Representation; Accountability and transparency; Community engagement.

Interim Regional Director (Africa)

Liberal.Seburikoko@ethicalteapartnership.org

Based in Kigali, Rwanda, and overseeing our activity across Africa, Liberal supports our regional teams in Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda to further ETP’s mission. An advocate for the power of business to have a positive impact, Liberal has a strong experience in leadership for development, advising on climate finance and strategy, leading NGOs and working with donors. He joins with strategic management experience from his time at Grow Africa, an organisation that works to increase responsible private sector investment in agriculture, as well as at the Green Climate Fund – among others.

Liberal draws upon his strong experience of systemic, transformational change and agriculture to ensure that our work across Africa has real impact for tea communities.

Project Coordinator

karishma.gogoi@ethicalteapartnership.org

Karishma works directly with tea workers in Assam to support our life-changing projects. She holds a Masters in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Guwahati and has been working with NGOs in Assam for the past six years. Karishma has a longstanding and earnest passion to uplift tea communities through our projects.

Field Officer

probin.baruah@ethicalteapartnership.org

Based in Assam, Probin works directly with tea workers in the region across our projects. With 30 years experience of working within tea estates, he has a thorough, practical understanding of tea communities and their needs.

Village Savings and Loans Support Officer

Limbani.Ngalauka@ethicalteapartnership.org

Limbani works with smallholder tea farmers on the ground, teaching them entrepreneurial skills and supporting economic empowerment through our community saving scheme. Limbani’s work on building, developing and strengthening the skills, abilities, and resources that farmers need to adapt to industry and environmental changes is critical. Alongside his work at ETP, he is currently pursuing an MA in behaviour change at the University of Malawi.

We work to build tea farmers and workers’ economic resilience, meaning that they are better able to adapt to future shocks. We also address the heightened lack of access to basic necessities, such as food.

Sri Lankan tea plucker Mummorothy works on her family’s kitchen garden, which ETP helped her to establish

Some examples of our work include:

> Our programmes across India, Kenya, Malawi and Sri Lanka promote better nutrition and tackle food scarcity by supporting kitchen gardens. Expanding our reach, in Malawi we’ve provided more than 4,000 farmers with extra vegetable seeds to enrich their kitchen gardens. We worked in partnership with IDH – Sustainable Trade Initiative and ETP member Tata Consumer Products, with funding available as part of the Malawi Tea 2020 programme.

Distributing food aid via our Community Empowerment Programme in Assam

> In Assam, India, tea estate management and local government are issuing essential provisions to tea communities. We are also distributing food aid to 700 of the most vulnerable families in two of the estates involved in our Community Empowerment Programme. We’re making sure that those most in need across the estates are aware of the support available to them. We have been closely monitoring access to the government’s Covid-19 cash benefit scheme aimed at women and have been supporting those eligible to open bank accounts.

> In Kenya, an estimated 4,000 farmers and 20,000 workers are using the 550 water tanks we’ve installed. Aside from handwashing, the water will also help irrigate their vegetable gardens.

Malawian tea farmer Efelo with the strong box that stores the savings made by her community group

> In Malawi we have been working with farmers for many years to develop and support community savings schemes. It helps farmers access credit, as well as functioning as a savings deposit. Often farmers will invest their credit in new, entrepreneurial businesses to add to their income. These groups are vital – now, more than ever. They help farmers to keep their businesses running, and allow those most in need to access crisis funds. We’ve issued PPE and implemented safety measures across all our savings groups, so that farmers can continue to tap in to this essential resource. We’re working in partnership with IDH – Sustainable Trade Initiative and ETP member Tata Consumer Products, with funding available as part of the Malawi Tea 2020 programme.

> One of the ways we help farmers in Rwanda to increase their yields, incomes and savings is by working together in our Farmer Field Schools. While current guidelines mean that these groups cannot meet, our trainers are supporting farmers to continue with the good agricultural practices they’ve learnt via one-on-one, distanced visits. The visits are also an opportunity to inform farmers about the latest health and sanitation advice.

> Women involved in our Community Empowerment Programme in Assam have taken up mask-making as an additional income source. So far, 18,200 masks have been made across four estates and will be distributed to tea workers in key plucking areas.

> To minimise any disruption of education on estates in Assam, ETP staff have introduced precautionary measures in learning centres, including more frequent ‘pocket classes’ of ten students. Additional exams have been launched to monitor progress and extra-curricular activities have also been encouraged. Young people have also been able to access online career counselling sessions.

Not only does protective equipment limit the spread of the virus, it is critical in enabling tea farmers and workers to continue making a living from tea.

Some examples of our work include:

> In Assam, India we’ve organised hand washing demonstrations in line with national guidelines, across the tea estates and factories involved in our Community Empowerment Programme.

Tea pluckers in Assam, India wearing face masks distributed by our Community Empowerment Programme

> Over 35,000 masks have been issued to workers by tea estate management in Assam. Members of our Community Empowerment Programme have supported this by hand making some face masks to give to workers on their estates.

> As part of our pilot project in Sri Lanka, so far we’ve supplied 550 face shields to tea leaf collectors, meaning that more than 30,000 farmers can safely continue to sell the tea they grow.

ETP Programme Manager Jane Nyambura donates reusable protective masks to Kenyan smallholder farmers

> In Kenya, we distributed a total of 112,500 reusable face masks for workers and smallholder farmers through our work with local partners.

> Our community savings schemes with IDH – Sustainable Trade Initiative in Kenya help farmers and workers of farmers to save money, and learn new, entrepreneurial skills like soap making – which is particularly critical at this time. Group members and their families now have better to access to soap. Some worker groups have also gone on to sell 1,200 excess soap bars and 990 litres of liquid soap to tea factories.

> To enable our programmes to operate in Malawi, we’ve issued PPE for 40 lead trainer farmers and five ETP field team members meaning farmers can continue to be trained.

> We’ve distributed hand washing equipment for 800 farming families in Malawi.

> For both these initiatives in Malawi, we worked in partnership with IDH – Sustainable Trade Initiative and ETP member Tata Consumer Products, with funding available as part of the Malawi Tea 2020 programme.

> In Rwanda, we’ve supplied 42,000 face masks for farmers and workers so far. Not only does this limit the virus’ spread, it also means they can adhere to local authorities’ guidelines and safely continue to make their living from tea.

> Across Rwanda, we’ve distributed soap to the 356 tea buying centres that needed it, meaning that all the country’s farmers can wash their hands.

ETP team member Charles Kambale issues Protective Personal Equipment (PPE) to a health centre in Malawi

Our work also supports wider community needs, responding to a lack of government funding. Examples include:

> In Malawi, we’ve distributed PPE, hand washing and cleaning equipment to seven health centres, which serve up to 170,000 people in tea growing areas. This includes surgical gloves, aprons, goggles and face masks. The health centres are now also stocked with infrared thermometers, disinfectant and paracetamol.

> In Assam, India, we’ve provided PPE to three estate hospitals, as well as dispensing sanitation items to the communities they serve.

By raising awareness in tea communities, we can help prevent the virus from spreading.

In Malawi, our work informs tea communities how best to protect themselves and others

Some examples of our work include:

> In Malawi, our radio broadcasts are running for three weeks to alert tea communities to the latest government advice. Many families, particularly in rural areas, rely on radio news broadcasts. We’ve also shared guidance via strategically placed posters – such as in health centres. We worked in partnership with IDH – Sustainable Trade Initiative and ETP member Tata Consumer Products, with funding available as part of the Malawi Tea 2020 programme.

> Our posters and banners in health centres, schools and tea buying centres across all of Rwanda’s tea communities share the latest hygiene and sanitation guidance.

> In Assam, India, our Community Empowerment Programme brings together the estate community, management and the District health department. We’re working closely with doctors from the Assam state health service, the National Health Mission, to alert tea workers and their families to the latest guidance and safety protocols. We’ve set up awareness camps and distributed pamphlets across the estates, sharing details of COVID-19 causes, symptoms and preventive measures.

> For those returning to work on the estates in Assam, we’ve organised training to share the latest health and safety protocols– including advice on social distancing. The training has been a success, with measures being followed and young people raising awareness among their peers in accordance with government guidelines.

> By facilitating a webinar series with the Colombo Tea Trade Association Roadmap 2030 Committee in Sri Lanka, we’ve created an effective platform for the sector to discuss ways to best protect communities during the pandemic.

> In Kenya, our radio broadcasts were picked up by 1,055,000 devices, with the number of listeners expected to be far greater. This has informed rural communities on how to reduce the spread of the virus and stay safe during the pandemic and helped to combat the spread of any false information about the virus.

Project Officer

Kamini.Gohain@ethicalteapartnership.org

Working closely on the ground with tea communities in Assam, Kamini has a well-developed understanding of their needs. Graduating with an MA from Tezpur Central University and beginning his career in the development sector in 2009, Kamini brings a broad range of expertise to ETP. He has worked with both international agencies and state-level platforms on projects relating to farmers’ livelihoods, children’s education and rights and Disaster Risk Reduction.

Project Officer

Gaurav.sarma@ethicalteapartnership.org

As Project Officer, Gaurav works directly with tea communities in Assam to deliver our projects. Having obtained a Masters in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Science (where he focused his research on the socio-economic status of plantation communities), Gaurav has a sound understanding of how to assess programme impact within the tea sector.

Programme Manager

Nirbhay.Singh@ethicalteapartnership.org

As Programme Manager, Nirbhay works directly with tea communities in India, providing on the ground support and managing the delivery of our life-changing projects in Assam. Having worked in the tea industry across multiple regions for over 30 years, Nirbhay brings invaluable insight and knowledge of the tea sector to the role. Thanks to his extensive experience in the industry, he has a comprehensive understanding of tea communities and their needs.

Africa Strategy Lead

Wanja.Michuki@ethicalteapartnership.org

Wanja is responsible for developing high-level, strategic relationships with businesses, governments and development partners in Africa to enable us to go further, faster in tea-growing regions. She has hands-on experience of the tea sector, having founded her own speciality tea business. Wanja also worked closely with farmers during her time as a Trade and Investment Diplomat in the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and was part of the tea farming community in Central Kenya. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Wanja also travels to Malawi and Rwanda to support these regions. Her role is key to driving forward the longer-term sustainability of tea across Africa.

Bhagyawati is 19 years old. She has taken part in the ETP-UNICEF Improving Lives programme and through her involvement in her local adolescent girls’ group has learnt about the importance of nutritious diet to improve her health.

She explains that “before joining the group, I had no idea of what a proper nutritious diet was. I would eat anything that came my way. After joining the group, I learned about the benefits of locally grown vegetables and developed a taste for them!”.

“Since I was growing these vegetables fresh in my own garden, this gave me confidence and improved my health. I used to face problems with anaemia – (I was) fatigued, didn’t feel like working and always felt sleepy the whole day. After my diet changed, these small steps have led to big improvements. I have much more energy”.

Bhagyawati has also been an inspiration for her friends in her community and her friend Sangeeta has not only been inspired to set up her own kitchen garden to grow fresh vegetables but has been big plans for her future. “I would like to be a chef, like Sanjeev Kapoor. I just love cooking!”.

Beno Winesi is a smallholder tea farmer and father to six children. He has purchased two solar lamps through a credit scheme funded by the Ethical Tea Partnership.

“This lamp is very good. I don’t need to buy batteries anymore. Once it is charged, it lasts for five days. The air is so nice and clean now. None of us are coughing any more. And it’s so bright!

I have two, a small one just for light and a big one that has a radio and a USB charger so I can charge my phone.

I listen to the news on the radio. I love the news. I get news from Malawi and nearby countries like Mozambique. My wife and I listen to music on the radio and we dance together.

I also listen to football matches. My favourite team is Nassau Big Bullets. They are very popular in Malawi. My favourite international team is Manchester United”.

Martha Khembo is an extension worker, liaising between the Lujeri Tea Estate and smallholder farmers represented by the Sukambizi Association Trust, one of four trusts in Malawi that represent smallholder farmers.

“My job is to connect smallholder farmers to the estate, to provide them with extension services such as credit and access to GAP (good agricultural practice) training.

We have been providing solar lamps for about two years. Now at night you will see almost every house has a light on. Two years ago the place would look dark. Some families were using firewood to light a small area of the house or using paraffin lamps, but these don’t have a very wide range.

The best thing about these lamps is what they do for kids. They can do their homework at night which means they can play when they come home from school. Play is an important part of a child’s development and now they know their homework can wait until it is dark.

Cooking outside is hard when it is raining. Now families can cook inside with this light.

What I’d love to see for this community is more green and less deforestation. I want to see a solar light in every house. I’d like to see healthier people and better houses”.

“I am councillor for this ward. I encourage people to work hard in this area. This is a tea-growing area. I’m encouraging people to grow more tea.

I understand the importance of trees in tea. They provide shade and they help mitigate against climate change. Deforestation has affected this community. Heavy rains are associated with high winds which blow roofs off houses. The rivers dry up. This didn’t happen before.

Slowly but surely we will increase the production of seedlings along the riverbanks and on the mountains. Next time you come you will not see bare mountains.

I grew up in this area. There was a thick forest which has gone now. The rivers had water all year round. We used to have rains even in June but those rains have completely gone.

As a leader in this community, the mere fact that I come here to encourage them supports the initiative”.

Veronica, has been part of her farmer field school group in Malawi and taken part in cookstove production. Through the group Veronica makes and sells cookstoves that help her earn an additional income.

She has earned 37, 000 Kwacha in four months from the cookstove production, which helps her pay her children’s school fees. She’s hoping that the additional income will mean that her daughter, who has graduated from secondary school, will be able to go on to further education.

Veronica has a small tea farm and her husband works on a tea estate, but this income wasn’t fully able to meet her family’s needs. She explained that “when my children didn’t have school books or school uniform, I felt sad whenever they asked for something and I couldn’t give it to them. Now I can help my husband to provide all these things”.

She is now also using less fuelwood as the cookstove has reduced the amount of wood Veronica needs to cook. She says that the wood she would have previously used over a month now lasts many more months.

42-year-old tea farmer, Gervais, is married with seven children. By being part of one of ETP’s community savings group, he’s been able to achieve his long-term ambition of owning a dairy cow. He had managed to save 150,000 RWF and was able to borrow 100,000 RWF from the VSLA group. This topped up his savings, meaning he could buy his dream cow.

Gervais has been successful with his cow business. The cow produces eight litres a day, five of which sells for 800 RFW a day. So far, he has been able to make around 220,000 RWF (£190). The rest of the milk is used at home, improving his family’s diets.

The cow gave birth to a female calf five months ago, and he plans to sell her next August for 250,000 RWF (£216). With the money, Gervais plans to renovate his house and bring electricity to his home. Gervais is one of more than two thousand farmers in Rwanda who ETP supported to have better incomes.

Thebronia, a tea farmer in Malawi, has become the secretary of her local tea nursery. She hopes to be able to make a profit from the tea she grows in the nursery.

She explains, “Our main cash crop is tea and our children depend on it. Because of climate change, the rains are not falling at they used to. We were depending on pineapple as an extra cash crop but that is failing. So we are really dependent on tea. There is hidden treasure in tea”.

As well as planting tea crops, her nursery group are also planting crops like sweet potato which help to protect the soil and are an important nutritious food.

Thebronia has high hopes for the project and hopes that the nursery will continue to grow and help her to support her children and grandchildren. She is ever more reliant on improving her tea growing in order to better her financial circumstances and hopes to use the skills she has learnt through the FFS group to open her own nursery and further increase her production (with tea clones resistant to the impacts of climate change).

Jane has been working at the ETP for over eleven years’ implementing and overseeing programme activity in Kenya. Jane has a wealth of experience working across tea supply chains having previously worked for the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) for seven years and three years at Partner Africa.

Jane brings a wealth of knowledge to her role as Stakeholder and Partnerships Manager, with extensive experience of managing and developing strategic stakeholder relationships to develop and implement programmes to improve livelihoods of tea farmers.

Jane holds an MBA in Strategic Management and is passionate about improving the working environment to improve gender equality for those in the tea industry and wider tea communities.

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Thwango Ndalama is a result oriented and accomplished Programme Manager with over 15 years’ experience working with international organisations on sustainable development. Her areas of expertise are livelihoods programme design and management, food security and agricultural value chains, client donor relationship management and monitoring and evaluation.

Thwango is now in her fourth year at the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), leading the team in Malawi, overseeing the delivery of all ETP’s activity in this African country. Thwango is passionate about helping the most marginalised tea workers and smallholder farmers to develop their skills and diversify their incomes to improve economic resilience.

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David Meek is an experienced, innovative and growth orientated board chair and non-executive director with a proven track record of leadership and strategic execution across multiple global and regional businesses and charity organisations.

Having chosen a career in global finance more than 30 years ago, David successfully expanded into other areas of interest including technology, real estate, conservation and sustainability, bringing a unique range of expertise. David has operated at the highest level across the UK, Europe, Asia, Latin America, the US and the Middle East, embracing cultural differences to strengthen organisations for the benefit of stakeholders and wider society.

David is Chair of the regulated financial services company, Equiti Capital, and a non executive director of sustainable real estate developer, This Land, where he also chairs the Investment Committee. In the third sector he is Chair of Getting on Board, a trustee of the British Liver trust and chair of their Audit & Risk committee, a trustee of Twycross Zoo and a mentor at Cambridge University’s Enterprise programme.

A strong believer in the importance of lifelong learning, David most recently completed his MSc in Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability at Birkbeck, University of London. When not travelling David is based in London and also enjoys the fresh sea air on the South coast with his partner and two dogs, with interests ranging from painting to motor sport and many things in between.

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Rachel has been with the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) for over ten years, working previously as a Senior Programme Manager with strong experience delivering multi-stakeholder programmes and projects to address challenging sector wide sustainability issues.

Rachel now is ETP’s Environment and Climate Lead and has a strong passion in understanding the environmental impact on tea supply chains. Rachel is focused on delivering impact across all of ETP’s programmes and pilots, with a lens focused on climate resilient agriculture, zero deforestation, and carbon counting to encourage a ‘net zero’ tea industry.

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Jenny Costelloe leads the Ethical Tea Partnership’s (ETP) global team to drive long-term, systemic change across three areas in tea – economics, equality and environment. Jenny is passionate about mobilising ETP’s global team to develop programmes, run pilots and influence policies, and create transformative change across tea supply chains to achieve ETP’s vision of a thriving, socially just and environmentally sustainable tea sector.

She has extensive experience in delivering sustainable development through multi-stakeholder partnerships. Jenny lived in Singapore for 11 years, and was Director of Country Partnerships at Grow Asia (a World Economic Forum initiative focused on sustainable agriculture in ASEAN). Jenny was appointed as an Ambassador for the World Economic Forum’s “New Vision for Agriculture” in 2016.

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With over fifteen years’ of experience in value chain development, Leena is passionate about reducing inequality through market systems and gender transformative approaches.

Leena was a Senior Advisor at Oxfam prior to joining the Ethical Tea Partnership and her experience ranges from directly implementing grassroots training programmes in rural Nicaragua to ethical sourcing as well as working with multinational companies to address sustainability and human rights issues in their supply chains.

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Project Officer

Bharat.Nayak@ethicalteapartnership.org

Bharat works directly with communities on the ground, as part of our innovative Plantation Community Empowerment Programme. This grassroots initiative brings communities and estate management together to jointly resolve issues, and so improve living and working conditions on tea estates in Assam, India.

Bharat joins with strong experience of the tea sector, having previously worked at Soumer Organic Farmers’ Producer Organisation. Bharat also spent five years working on a community-led project on tea estates, supporting workers to tackle health issues.

Project Officer

Joshila.Horo@ethicalteapartnership.org

Based in Assam, India, Joshila supports our ground-breaking Plantation Community Empowerment Programme in the region, which empowers tea communities to identify and jointly resolve the challenges they face.

Joshila joins with experience from the development sector, having previously worked on projects tackling gender equality, child rights and education issues in tea estates.

Stakeholder & Partnerships Manager

Tejo.Jatmiko@ethicalteapartnership.org

As Stakeholder and Partnerships Manager, Tejo works closely with tea farmers, workers, estate management, and key industry stakeholders to drive ETP’s Strategy2030 across Indonesia.

Tejo joins with over 13-years of experience in the agricultural sector, spanning palm oil, corn, cocoa and tobacco. Most recently, Tejo worked at the Partnership for Action Against Child Labour in Agriculture, where he was responsible for managing partnerships to tackle child labour.

Tejo draws on his robust stakeholder engagement experience to ensure that our initiatives in Indonesia appropriately respond to tea communities’ needs.

Regional Director (East Asia)

Xing.Ma@ethicalteapartnership.org

Leading our activity across East Asia, Xing Ma works directly with tea communities in China and Indonesia to ensure ETP’s programmes have real impact in both countries.

Prior to joining ETP, Xing worked as a Research Scientist at Unilever. She draws upon her strong experience of global tea supply chains and sustainable agronomy to ensure that our work in East Asia is pertinent to the tea sector.

Country Manager

Ranjana.Das@ethicalteapartnership.org

As Country Manager, Ranjana oversees the timely and effective implementation of projects, identifies and nurtures business pilots, advises on policy, supports the communication of ETP’s work, enables shared learning, builds partnerships and drives ETP’s strategy for India.

Ranjana joins the Ethical Tea Partnership from a 12-year tenure at Oxfam India, where she most recently led the Responsible Supply Chain programmes in tea and sugar. Whilst at Oxfam India, Ranajana worked extensively on gender, livelihood and health initiatives, alongside developing programmes, training and the strategic management of grants and stakeholder engagement.

Prior to Oxfam, Ranaja worked across several national and International organisations. She holds a Masters in Economics from Kolkata University, and Masters in Development Studies from Institute of Social Studies Netherlands. She is a Humphrey Hubert Fulbright Fellow from Cornell University (2017-18).

Programme Manager

Lickson.Mchepa@ethicalteapartnership.org

Working on the ground with tea farmers in Malawi, Lickson supports them with our lending and saving scheme as well as environmental programmes. In the final stages of a postgraduate degree in Transformative Community Development at Mzuzu University, Lickson has worked on a number of climate change and economic resilience programmes with international development organisations.

The Sri Lanka tea industry’s “Ceylon Tea Roadmap 2030” aims to create a socially responsible, sustainable business model for the entire value chain. Its goal is to positively impact the lives and livelihoods of 2 million people; almost 10% of the national population, mostly women. The Roadmap’s reach also spans climate and nature, as well as overall business performance.

The Roadmap focuses on short, mid, and long-term objectives to improve industry viability, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and other sustainability frameworks. Phase I is already operational at ground level.

During this very challenging time for Sri Lanka, the industry invited corporates, development and donor agencies to support the rollout of the Roadmap – the first in the tea world done at this scale.

Oxfam GB CEO Danny Sriskandarajah shared his takeaways from the day’s dynamic sessions as he closed the conference by asking how businesses can best implement their learnings from this year’s TEAM UP.

Danny has been Chief Executive Officer of Oxfam GB since January 2019. Prior to that he spent six years as Secretary General of CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance. He has previously been Director General of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Interim Director of the Commonwealth Foundation and held various posts at the Institute for Public Policy Research.

From 2018 to 2019 he was a member of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, co-chaired by Jack Ma and Melinda Gates, and from 2015 to 2016 a member of the High Level Panel on Humanitarian Finance. He is a Trustee of the Disasters Emergency Committee.

Globally, women are more vulnerable than their male counterparts. Women in tea communities are particularly vulnerable, due to cultural norms in many tea-producing countries, poverty and gender-biased workplaces. Gender-based violence (GBV) remains evident in tea communities.

In this session, leaders who have made commitments and been implementing guidance and frameworks that aim to address GBV shared their stories and experiences. Our panel of experts invited delegates to discuss:

– How do you make sure that frameworks are contextualised?
– What steps can you take in your business to reduce the risk of GBV in your supply chain?
– Who are the key actors that we need to engage with to reduce GBV, and what are their roles?
– What outcomes would you expect to see on the ground as a result of effective framework implementation?
– How do you measure impact?

Following COP26 in Glasgow, governments and companies have set themselves ambitious targets to reach Net Zero by 2050. Implementing plans to reach this target is no small ask.

In this opening session, we heard from the Ethical Tea Partnership’s expert climate lead on how the tea sector can drive net-zero transformation. A multi-stakeholder panel assessed how players across the tea value chain can transition from strategy to practice, as together we discussed what this means for the future of tea.

Andy Brown joined Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate as Group Finance Director in 2001, becoming Managing Director of Taylors of Harrogate in 2009. Andy is also a member of the Collaborative CEO, a group of five key executives, who take shared responsibility for the organisational strategy and development of the Bettys & Taylors Group.

Before joining Bettys & Taylors, Andy spent his early career working in various finance and general management roles within the food and consumer goods industry at companies including Procter & Gamble, Mars and Asda. Andy has a degree in Chemical Engineering from Birmingham University and is a Chartered Management Accountant.

Andy has previously been a Governor at Leeds Beckett University and is also actively involved in a number of trade and sustainability bodies within the tea and coffee industries, including being a Board member of the UK Tea and Infusions Association. He is currently co-chair of the Global Tea Coalition.

Click here to read some initial insights from Andy on living wage and income, ahead of him sharing more at TEAM UP on 21 June.

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Zbigniew is Chief R&D and Sustainability Officer of ekaterra (Unilever’s tea division), shaping global innovation and ESG strategy for the largest botanical beverages business with vertically integrated supply chains. He is a Board Member of the Ethical Tea Partnership, contributing to work on the 2030 Tea Industry Roadmap.

He has spent 25 years in various leadership roles in Unilever, including Pepsi-Lipton Joint Venture. His purpose is to enable sustainable food chains, and to build activist teams. Zbigniew invests in sustainability start-ups, and is a smallholder of an ecological farmland in the north of Poland.

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Giles is Sustainability Director at Tesco. He leads a team of human rights, environment, agriculture and waste experts around the world, responsible for ensuring good working conditions and sustainable practices across Tesco’s supply chain.

Prior to joining Tesco, Giles worked for the UK Govt’s Department for International Development for ten years, including in countries such as Kenya, Rwanda and Iraq. In 2007 he wrote the activist book ‘Aid and Other Dirty Business’, on how western aid, trade and globalisation affect Africa, published in the UK, US and Canada.

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Dr Sharon Hall is the Chief Executive of the United Kingdom Tea and Infusions Association (UKTIA), a role she took on in 2018. Her previous roles include Director General of both the Potato Processors’ Association (PPA) and the Snack, Nut & Crisp Manufacturers’ Association (SNACMA), where she gained extensive experience of high-level stakeholder engagement, strategic leadership, communications and issues management.

She is currently Vice President of Tea & Herbal Infusions Europe (THIE) and chairs THIE’s EU Green Deal Steering Group and the Plastics & Packaging Working Group. Sharon also represents THIE on environmental and sustainability matters at FoodDrinkEurope.

Sharon has the honour of being the current Chair of the FAO-Inter-Governmental Group on Tea.

Sharon has an honours degree in Applied Biology, a Masters in Science Communication and a PhD in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (Plant Science).

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Priya has over seventeen years’ experience in sustainability and climate change; including sustainable strategy development, resource efficiency (energy, carbon, water, waste, wastewater, biodiversity), sustainable supply chain management, sustainable product stewardship, ESG analytics, circular economy/end of use as well as sustainable transparency and disclosure.

Priya has worked across the retail and apparel, FMCG, real estate, agri-commodities and cement sectors, among others. Priya has also worked with multilateral agencies including The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation on low carbon growth and waste management policy development at a national level.

Priya has co-authored several thought leadership documents on waste management, water management, green growth, sustainability in the real estate sector and sustainability reporting, as well as sustainability trends in the financial, oil and gas industries.

Priya currently heads sustainability at Tata Consumer Products.

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Ruchira Joshi is the Executive Director at IDH UK. IDH brings governments, companies, CSOs and financiers together in action driven coalitions to progress on achieving Better Jobs, Better Incomes and a Better Environment – its three impact areas.

Ruchira has previously held roles as the Head of Responsible Sourcing at ASOS, and Programme Director at the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). She has life-long passion for working towards ensuring that global supply chains are inclusive of smallholder farmers and workers as integral stakeholders. Her key achievements include designing an innovative Volume Based Fee financing mechanism for smallholder capacity building at BCI, setting up the ASOS Responsible Sourcing Programme for third-party brands, and establishing IDH in the UK.

Ruchira has an MA from SOAS in International Development and has served as a trustee of the Sustainable Fibre Alliance, a standard holding body for responsible cashmere production in Mongolia and China.

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Tony’s Chocolonely exists to revolutionise the chocolate industry and make 100% slave free the norm in chocolate. Not just their own chocolate, but all chocolate worldwide. As Impactus Prime, Paul is first in line to make change happen: leading Tony’s impact strategy and heading up the Impact team.

On the surface, Impact is all about outcomes and effects. But at its heart, it’s all about relationships. From collaborating with the cocoa farmers who supply Tony’s – including all programs and activities involving partner cooperatives in Ghana and Ivory Coast — to working with governments, NGOs and certifiers to accelerate change in the industry. Including working to get legislation in place that holds companies accountable for human rights violations in their supply chains.

Paul and his team also measure the impact of Tony’s 5 Sourcing Principles (100% traceable beans, paying a higher price that enables a living income, strong farmers, long-term relationships and quality & productivity). Not just reporting on progress, but improving on it by using the data to do things better.

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Amarpal Takk Group General Counsel and Company Secretary, Amarpal advises the Board on legal, regulatory, governance, compliance, risk and ESG issues. He is a member of the Strategy Committee and other Board committees.

The world’s largest privately owned tea producer, Camellia is a global group investing in agricultural as well as food service and engineering operations.

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With over fifteen years’ of experience in value chain development, Leena is passionate about reducing inequality through market systems and gender transformative approaches.

Leena was a Senior Advisor at Oxfam prior to joining the Ethical Tea Partnership and her experience ranges from directly implementing grassroots training programmes in rural Nicaragua to ethical sourcing as well as working with multinational companies to address sustainability and human rights issues in their supply chains.

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Evangelyn is based in Sri Lanka, and she supports and implements the Ethical Tea Partnership’s project activity on the ground. Prior to joining the Ethical Tea Partnership, Evangelyn worked at World Vision Lanka (WVL) and the Plantation Communities Project for more than 10 years and brings a wealth of experience working directly with tea workers, resident communities, and tea estate management.

Evangelyn’s strengths are her ability to understand complex issues on tea estates, and working across multi stakeholder partnerships to deliver impactful programmes and initiatives.

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Programme Manager

Evangelyn.Perera@ethicalteapartnership.org

Evangelyn is based in Sri Lanka, and she supports and implements the Ethical Tea Partnership’s project activity on the ground. Prior to joining the Ethical Tea Partnership, Evangelyn worked at World Vision Lanka (WVL) and the Plantation Communities Project for more than 10 years and brings a wealth of experience working directly with tea workers, resident communities, and tea estate management.

Evangelyn’s strengths are her ability to understand complex issues on tea estates, and working across multi stakeholder partnerships to deliver impactful programmes and initiatives.

Jane has been working at the ETP for over eleven years’ implementing and overseeing programme activity in Kenya. Jane has a wealth of experience working across tea supply chains having previously worked for the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) for seven years and three years at Partner Africa.

Jane brings a wealth of knowledge to her role as Stakeholder and Partnerships Manager, with extensive experience of managing and developing strategic stakeholder relationships to develop and implement programmes to improve livelihoods of tea farmers.

Jane holds an MBA in Strategic Management and is passionate about improving the working environment to improve gender equality for those in the tea industry and wider tea communities.

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Thwango Ndalama is a result oriented and accomplished Programme Manager with over 15 years’ experience working with international organisations on sustainable development. Her areas of expertise are livelihoods programme design and management, food security and agricultural value chains, client donor relationship management and monitoring and evaluation.

Thwango is now in her fourth year at the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), leading the team in Malawi, overseeing the delivery of all ETP’s activity in this African country. Thwango is passionate about helping the most marginalised tea workers and smallholder farmers to develop their skills and diversify their incomes to improve economic resilience.

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Rachel has been with the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) for over ten years, working previously as a Senior Programme Manager with strong experience delivering multi-stakeholder programmes and projects to address challenging sector wide sustainability issues.

Rachel now is ETP’s Environment and Climate Lead and has a strong passion in understanding the environmental impact on tea supply chains. Rachel is focused on delivering impact across all of ETP’s programmes and pilots, with a lens focused on climate resilient agriculture, zero deforestation, and carbon counting to encourage a ‘net zero’ tea industry.

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Dr Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah has been Chief Executive Officer of Oxfam Great Britain since January 2019. Prior to that he spent six years as Secretary General of CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance. He has previously been Director General of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Interim Director of the Commonwealth Foundation and held various posts at the Institute for Public Policy Research. From 2018 to 2019 he was a member of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, co-chaired by Jack Ma and Melinda Gates, and from 2015 to 2016 a member of the High Level Panel on Humanitarian Finance. He is a Trustee of the Disasters Emergency Committee.

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As Head of Operations, ACT on Living Wages, Bea Ruoff leads ACT’s work on responsible purchasing practices – from development to monitoring and accountability measures – and oversees operations of the foundation.

Prior to joining ACT, she was a researcher and teacher with a focus on labour market development, inequality, and wage setting in global production networks and has designed and managed multi-stakeholder research projects at the Institute for International Political Economy, Berlin School of Economics and Law.

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Jordy van Honk works as global director agriculture commodities at IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative. In this role, he leads the IDH sector programs in cocoa, tea and coffee, and has a specific focus on engaging business on the themes of living wage and living income. Jordy is part of the management team of IDH.

Over the past years he has been part of many leading initiatives on living wage and living income, including the Malawi Tea 2020 program (as Chair of the Steering Committee), the Dutch retail bananas commitment, the Taskforce for Coffee Living Income and living income initiatives in cocoa including the Dutch Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (DISCO) and Beyond Chocolate.

Jordy has worked for IDH for 11 years. He holds a Master degree in Economics from the University of Amsterdam. Before joining IDH in 2010, Jordy worked for the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of the Government of The Netherlands in its industry and trade department.

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Winnie is a Kenyan by birth. She is an experienced human rights lawyer, strategist and a gender specialist. She has over 14 years’ cumulative experience in human rights, gender, and sustainability work in both private and nonprofit sector. Winfridah has extensive experience in the implementation of human rights due diligence procedures, identification, and remediation of endemic human rights issues across global value chains.

Before joining Unilever, she worked with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights as a human rights officer for over 5 years. She then went on to join Unilever in December 2013 as the Welfare Manager responsible for embedding human rights in the tea plantations in Kenya. While in the tea plantations, Winfridah was instrumental in setting and implementing the women safety program as part of the over human rights strategy. Thereafter, she moved to regional role as the Integrated Social Sustainability Manager, Africa at Unilever.

Currently Winfridah is a senior manager social sustainability with Unilever. Winnie is part of the global tam responsible for the implementation of the human rights strategy for the business. In this role, Winfridah provides global supply chain thematic leadership on gender and child labour and geographically supports the implementation of the human rights strategy in Africa and South Asia.

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Manisha Majumdar is the Women’s Safety Accelerator Fund Manager at IDH – the Sustainable Trade Initiative. The Fund will accelerate the scale of the UN Women ‘Global Women’s Safety Framework in Rural Spaces’, created with the support of Unilever.

A postgraduate from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Manisha has two decades of evolved experience on gender equality, social inclusion, and human rights at policy and programme levels both in development and humanitarian settings. Manisha has previously worked at Christian Aid, Oxfam, Concern Worldwide in India, Asia, the Middle East region, and on short-term assignments with the Government of Odisha, the United Nations.

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Dr Paula Hamilton is the Ethical Trading Initiative’s (ETI) Head of Collective Action, leading the organisation’s collective action with its members in response to Human Rights at work abuses and proactive strategies for innovation, policy change and other areas linked to ETI’s mission and vision.

Previously she held a number of senior roles within the International Transport Workers Federation, including leading its work on logistics and global supply chains, union capacity building and sectoral representation at international level, and senior roles within the UK trade union movement.

Her interests include social, economic and reproductive justice, including non-executive director roles at a number of charities and not for profit organisations. She has a doctorate from Queen Mary University of London in the field of labour and economic geography, along with a Masters in Social and Public Policy from the University of Brighton and a BA Hons in Politics and Development Studies from the University of Sussex.

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John Davison joined Unilever in March 2021 as Chief Executive Officer of its tea business which was renamed ekaterra in July.

John is a highly accomplished and experienced international business leader with a diverse background in several consumer product companies. Before Unilever, he was Chief Executive Officer of Zuellig Pharma, Asia’s leading Healthcare Services Group based in Singapore with $13 billion sales and 13,500 employees across the region. Prior to his successful six-year tenure at the helm of Zuellig Pharma, John held senior executive positions at Danone, Royal Numico B.V. and Diageo PLC.

He has lived and worked in Asia, Europe and US. He is a British citizen, from Newcastle. Holding a Masters degree in Modern and Medieval Languages from Cambridge University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, John’s early career was spent in consulting at McKinsey.

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Jenny Costelloe leads the Ethical Tea Partnership’s (ETP) global team to drive long-term, systemic change across three areas in tea – economics, equality and environment. Jenny is passionate about mobilising ETP’s global team to develop programmes, run pilots and influence policies, and create transformative change across tea supply chains to achieve ETP’s vision of a thriving, socially just and environmentally sustainable tea sector.

She has extensive experience in delivering sustainable development through multi-stakeholder partnerships. Jenny lived in Singapore for 11 years, and was Director of Country Partnerships at Grow Asia (a World Economic Forum initiative focused on sustainable agriculture in ASEAN). Jenny was appointed as an Ambassador for the World Economic Forum’s “New Vision for Agriculture” in 2016.

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Claude Bizimana is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB), a commercial public institution in Rwanda in charge of exports of agricultural and livestock products.

As the CEO of NAEB, Claude strives to establish relations and cooperation with regional and international organisations with the aim of improving operations in the tea value chain and collaboration among stakeholders.

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Sudi Biko Matara is a public and private sector specialist with over 15 years’ experience in strategy and business sustainability; participatory development; project management; networks and partnership building; gender, policy and advocacy; monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning; knowledge management; external relations; resource mobilisation; establishing governance structures and systems; designing and implementing communication strategies; grants administration and management.

Currently, Sudi is the Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) Foundation, a subsidiary of KTDA Holdings Ltd, and oversees the Group’s Corporate Social Investments as part of organisational business sustainability.

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Alice Allan has 20 years’ experience working for equality and decent work. She specialises in facilitating engagement between the private sector, civil society and government. She also works at Business Fights Poverty as Challenge Director, and has previously worked at the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, CARE International and Amnesty International.

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ETP Executive Director

Jenny Costelloe’s focus is on leading the Ethical Tea Partnership’s global team to drive forward long-term, systemic change across three areas in tea – economics, equality and environment.

Jenny has extensive experience in delivering sustainable development through multi-stakeholder partnerships. Jenny lived in Singapore for 11 years, and was Director of Country Partnerships at Grow Asia (a World Economic Forum initiative focused on sustainable agriculture in ASEAN). Jenny was appointed as an Ambassador for the World Economic Forum’s “New Vision for Agriculture” in 2016.

Jenny is passionate about mobilising ETP’s global team to develop programmes, run pilots and influence policies and create transformative change across tea supply chains to achieve our vision of a thriving, socially just and environmentally sustainable tea sector.

ETP Vice-Chair

Simon Hotchkin has worked in the tea and coffee industry for over twenty years, in which ten years have been at Taylors of Harrogate – where he is currently the Head of Sustainable Development.

Under Simon’s leadership, Taylors of Harrogate was awarded the UN Global Climate Action Award at COP26 for its work on Carbon Neutrality and improving farmer livelihoods in Kenya.

Simon is committed to working on projects and programmes that help slow down the climate crisis and benefit tea famers and their wider communities.

ETP Chair

David Meek has over 30 years’ experience in senior leadership positions spanning numerous global and regional businesses worldwide.

David started his career in global finance before moving into technology, real estate, conservation, and sustainability. David has a wealth of knowledge and expertise in governance, risk, and transformative change.

A strong believer in the importance of lifelong learning, David most recently completed his MSc in Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability at Birkbeck, University of London.

David is interested in utilising his wealth of knowledge and expertise to help the Ethical Tea Partnership build on its strategic partnerships to address deep-rooted issues in tea supply chains.

Executive Director

Jenny.Costelloe@ethicalteapartnership.org

Jenny leads operations and strategy at the Ethical Tea Partnership, including overseeing the delivery of programmes, business pilots and policy work in seven tea-producing origins in Africa and Asia. Her focus is on driving long-term, systemic change across three themes in tea: economics, equality and environment. With a specialist focus on the food and agriculture sector, Jenny has built a varied and extensive career in delivering sustainable development through multi-stakeholder partnerships.

Jenny lived in Singapore for 11 years, where her passion for sustainable and inclusive agriculture value chains was nurtured. Whilst in Singapore, she held the position of Director, Country Partnerships at Grow Asia (a World Economic Forum initiative focused on sustainable agriculture in ASEAN). Prior to Grow Asia, Jenny enjoyed a number of consulting roles where she provided sustainability advisory to organisations including GIC, Singapore Exchange, Unilever, PepsiCo, Mondelez International, Cargill, Diageo, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Singapore Management University, government of Singapore, Ministry of Agriculture (Cambodia), Brookings Institute, Food Industry Asia, Verdant Bioscience, Mercy Corps and CSIRO (Australia).

Jenny has a BSc in Natural Sciences (Physics) from the University of Bath, a professional diploma in Marketing Communications, and an MBA (Strategy) from Nanyang Business School in Singapore. In 2016, she was appointed as an Ambassador for the World Economic Forum’s “New Vision for Agriculture” and became a partnership practitioner, completing The Partnering Initiative’s certification. In 2017 she was selected for the Global Institute for Tomorrow’s “Global Leaders Programme”. Jenny sat on the board of the Rice Bowl Index (a food security ranking for Asia) until 2017 and was Vice-Chair of the board of The Island Foundation (a charity focused on education in rural Indonesia) from 2018 to 2020, and currently sits on the advisory board for her Alma Matter, Nanyang Business School.

VSLA Officer

Amos.Bandawe@ethicalteapartnership.org

Amos works directly with tea farmers, driving forward our programmes in Malawi. He focuses on our Village Savings and Loans (VSLA) project – community saving schemes that support farmers’ livelihoods and improve economic resilience.

Amos has strong experience of delivering development programmes from his involvement with the Mwanza Pigeon Peas Market Development project in Malawi – an initiative by Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM), with funding from the UK government through Christian Aid. As part of the project Amos worked closely with farmer groups on several pertinent issues, including: income diversification; sustainable land management; nutrition; and climate change.

At ETP, Amos draws on his robust experience to ensure that our work in Malawi appropriately responds to tea farmers’ needs.

Programme Manager

Anjan.Bordoloi@ethicalteapartnership.org

Anjan draws on his vast experience of working directly with tea workers in India to drive forward our Plantation Community Empowerment Programme in Assam. Our grassroots initiative empowers communities to identify and resolve the challenges they face every day.

Anjan has a thorough understanding of the impact of rural development projects in Assam, having worked for close to 20 years on community-led programmes within tea estates and with other vulnerable groups in the state. This includes government flagship projects, as well as working with international organisations such as ActionAid and Mercy Corps.

He draws on his experience of delivering programmes focused on gender equality and livelihoods, among other impact areas, to ensure that our work in Assam remains pertinent to tea workers’ needs. Tapping in to his extensive network, Anjan also works to strengthen our strategic partnerships in the region.

Programme Manager

Peter.Kangacha@ethicalteapartnership.org

Drawing on his extensive experience of delivering development projects in supply chains, Peter drives forward our programmes in Kenya. Specifically, Peter has a thorough understanding of the impact of livelihood programmes in commodity value chains, having previously worked on such projects in tea, coffee and horticulture. This is complemented by his knowledge of trade policies.

Peter has strong experience in agricultural development, including gender empowerment work, and previously led programmes for international organisations such as Christian Aid and Farm Africa. He draws on his robust project management experience to ensure that our programmes in Kenya appropriately respond to tea communities’ needs.

Senior Programme Officer

Irene.Zhang@ethicalteapartnership.org

With over 15 years’ experience in ethical trade, spanning brands, suppliers and consultancies, Irene has a thorough understanding of supply chains. This is complemented by her knowledge of Chinese labour laws and industry standards.

Drawing on her extensive experience of delivering training and projects, Irene drives forward our work on the ground in China and focuses on equality for women and young people in tea.

VSLA Intern

cecilia.chidothi@ethicalteapartnership.org

Cecilia works directly with tea workers in Malawi as part of our Ulalo programme. She focuses on our Village Savings and Loans (VSLA) project – a community saving scheme that supports livelihoods and improves economic resilience.

With a Bachelors Degree in Agricultural Enterprise Development and Microfinance, Cecilia’s theoretical knowledge is supported by her practical experience of working on VSLA projects with local development agency the Catholic Development Commission in Malawi. Cecilia has experience of mentoring women to develop their business acumen, and is well versed in the VSLA methodology.

Chair

david.meek@ethicalteapartnership.org

David Meek is an experienced, innovative and growth orientated board chair and non-executive director with a proven track record of leadership and strategic execution across multiple global and regional businesses and charity organisations.

Having chosen a career in global finance more than 30 years ago, David successfully expanded into other areas of interest including technology, real estate, conservation and sustainability, bringing a unique range of expertise. David has operated at the highest level across the UK, Europe, Asia, Latin America, the US and the Middle East, embracing cultural differences to strengthen organisations for the benefit of stakeholders and wider society.

David is Chair of the regulated financial services company, Equiti Capital, and a non executive director of sustainable real estate developer, This Land, where he also chairs the Investment Committee. In the third sector he is Chair of Getting on Board, a trustee of the British Liver trust and chair of their Audit & Risk committee, a trustee of Twycross Zoo and a mentor at Cambridge University’s Enterprise programme.

A strong believer in the importance of lifelong learning, David most recently completed his MSc in Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability at Birkbeck, University of London. When not travelling David is based in London and also enjoys the fresh sea air on the South coast with his partner and two dogs, with interests ranging from painting to motor sport and many things in between.

Rodgers is a 43 year old tea farmer in Malawi. As well as farming, he is a volunteer trainer of small-scale tea farmers, teaching them the best farming methods of tea and nutrition.

“These participants were being trained on how they could prepare nutritious food at home. I taught them about the six food groups and gave examples of each. I was teaching them so that when they go back to their respective homes they could prepare and eat these foods in order to be healthy. As farmers with physical jobs, they need to be healthy, or it poses a threat to their income and business in general.”

The nutrition training is not just aimed at improving tea farmers diets and health, but also reaches their families.

“When parents are taught about nutrition, not only do they benefit, but their children and future generations become healthy as well.” 

As well as nutrition training, farmers also receive sanitation training that outlines basic hygiene and hand-washing protocols. The COVID-19 pandemic makes this training all the more important.

“When we talk of fighting COVID-19, we need to emphasise that although we are eating all the required food groups, we need to also follow all the hygiene protocols. If we go against these measures, no matter how nutritious our diet is, we will not win the battle against COVID-19, if we do not wash our hands with soap, mask up and maintain social distance.” 

Esinala is a 42 year old married, tea farmer in Malawi with responsibility for three children, two of whom are orphans. Through the programme, she has been taking part in training sessions that are teaching tea farmers about the best foods for a healthy diet.

Esinala has been growing a small kitchen garden of cabbages, vegetables and other crops. Before the training she did not enjoy a wide and varied diet with her family, and most of the foods they consumed were “whatever was available”.

During the training sessions Esinala learnt about the best foods to eat and now says that her and her family are consuming a diet of at least six food groups.

“I attended a nutrition workshop where we were taught about the six food groups. These are energy-giving foods, such as vegetables, oils, fruits and proteins. This has been helpful because most of the children in the village do not like eating vegetables, but the workshop taught us how to mix them in with our foods. 
 
“Before learning all this, we used to buy groceries from marketplaces. Initially, we would eat whatever was available, but after the training, we now ensure that we eat the six food groups.” 

VSLA Officer

Charles.Kambale@ethicalteapartnership.org

Charles works directly with tea communities in Malawi, supporting their livelihoods and improving economic resilience as part of our Ulalo programme. His focus is on supporting Village Savings and Loans (VSLAs) – a community saving scheme.

With a background in monitoring and facilitating economic and environment projects on the ground, Charles recognises the needs of Malawian tea communities. He has an excellent understanding of implementing meaningful programmes to support livelihoods.

Monitoring Officer

Eston.Sichali@ethicalteapartnership.org

Eston’s remit is focused on our Healthy Diets for Tea Communities programme with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition. Working hand-in-hand with farmers, workers, estates and project partners, he supports project implementation – capturing robust monitoring and evaluation data.

Eston joins from a range of project implementation and monitoring roles with international institutions, including agricultural research organisation International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. He is well versed in data collection and monitoring, and experienced at working directly with farming communities.

The Kuwala programme is supporting tea workers and their families to access solar light technology and to take part in community savings groups.

John has worked on a tea estate for 35 years. His work on the estate is his main source of income, and he supplements this income with farming work in his village. Access to solar technology has made a real difference to workers like John and his family.

“Before receiving this solar lamp, I used to buy batteries to light my house. It was expensive. But when I got this solar lamp, it was a relief. Now, we can just charge the solar lamp in the day, so we no longer have the expense of batteries.

“This solar lamp is helping us in many ways. When it is dark, we use it to light the house, but more importantly, the children use this solar lamp for their homework until late in the night.”

John’s children are also looking forward to the benefits of the solar lamp. His 14-year-old daughter Efelo is in Standard 5 at her school.

The solar lamp is providing light in the evenings so that she can complete her studies and succeed at her exams.

“This solar lamp has helped me because, unlike in the past, I am now able to read and study after school every night. Before the solar lamp, studying was impossible in the evenings. Now I can study whenever I want, and I am confident that I will pass the examinations.”

Through the Kuwala programme, community savings groups are supporting workers to supplement their incomes. The groups help workers save money and access loans, which they use to invest in businesses or to cover household expenses.

Tea worker Bertha, 48 years old, is married with one child. Taking part in her local savings group has helped Bertha invest in her food stall business, which is providing her with an additional income. “Before joining the group, my business was literally collapsing, but I have managed to revamp it when I got the shares (from the group).”

The community savings group has also had a significant impact on her family’s life. She was able to build her house, and is looking forward to completing it with her next loan. Most importantly, she was able to use a loan when her family needed it most.

“The group has changed my family’s life. At first, we used to lack most of our household needs. The cash that I used to earn was not enough at all. For example, last December, my daughter got sick and I used the loan to pay all the hospital bills.”

VSLA Officer

Humphrey.Munthali@ethicalteapartnership.org

As part of our Ulalo programme in Malawi, Humphrey work directly with tea communities. His focus is on our Village Savings and Loans (VSLA) project – a community saving scheme that supports livelihoods and improves economic resilience.

With a background in agribusiness, Humphrey has previously worked on community development activities in Malawi with international organisations, including the US African Development Foundation. He is well versed in training and mentoring groups and individuals in business and partnerships.

ETP’s vision is for a thriving tea industry that is socially just and environmentally sustainable.

Economics: Improving the economic sustainability of the industry so that everyone involved in producing tea in our supply chains has good livelihoods, workers earn a living wage and farmers earn a living income.

Environment: Achieving a carbon neutral tea sector that does not contribute to deforestation, and where estates and farmers are resilient to climate change.

Equality: Developing empowered, safe tea communities with good opportunities for women and children.

ETP projects, business pilots and policy work.

• Business innovation.
• Fund pilots, project and policy work.
• Mobilise stakeholders for action.
• Generate data and conduct research.
• Advance knowledge.
• Create accountability.
• Educate and influence.

Platform Foundations

Leadership; Trust; Commitment; Financial sustainability; Shared vision; Representation; Accountability and transparency; Community engagement.

Interim Regional Director (Africa)

Liberal.Seburikoko@ethicalteapartnership.org

Based in Kigali, Rwanda, and overseeing our activity across Africa, Liberal supports our regional teams in Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda to further ETP’s mission. An advocate for the power of business to have a positive impact, Liberal has a strong experience in leadership for development, advising on climate finance and strategy, leading NGOs and working with donors. He joins with strategic management experience from his time at Grow Africa, an organisation that works to increase responsible private sector investment in agriculture, as well as at the Green Climate Fund – among others.

Liberal draws upon his strong experience of systemic, transformational change and agriculture to ensure that our work across Africa has real impact for tea communities.

Project Coordinator

karishma.gogoi@ethicalteapartnership.org

Karishma works directly with tea workers in Assam to support our life-changing projects. She holds a Masters in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Guwahati and has been working with NGOs in Assam for the past six years. Karishma has a longstanding and earnest passion to uplift tea communities through our projects.

Field Officer

probin.baruah@ethicalteapartnership.org

Based in Assam, Probin works directly with tea workers in the region across our projects. With 30 years experience of working within tea estates, he has a thorough, practical understanding of tea communities and their needs.

Village Savings and Loans Support Officer

Limbani.Ngalauka@ethicalteapartnership.org

Limbani works with smallholder tea farmers on the ground, teaching them entrepreneurial skills and supporting economic empowerment through our community saving scheme. Limbani’s work on building, developing and strengthening the skills, abilities, and resources that farmers need to adapt to industry and environmental changes is critical. Alongside his work at ETP, he is currently pursuing an MA in behaviour change at the University of Malawi.

We work to build tea farmers and workers’ economic resilience, meaning that they are better able to adapt to future shocks. We also address the heightened lack of access to basic necessities, such as food.

Sri Lankan tea plucker Mummorothy works on her family’s kitchen garden, which ETP helped her to establish

Some examples of our work include:

> Our programmes across India, Kenya, Malawi and Sri Lanka promote better nutrition and tackle food scarcity by supporting kitchen gardens. Expanding our reach, in Malawi we’ve provided more than 4,000 farmers with extra vegetable seeds to enrich their kitchen gardens. We worked in partnership with IDH – Sustainable Trade Initiative and ETP member Tata Consumer Products, with funding available as part of the Malawi Tea 2020 programme.

Distributing food aid via our Community Empowerment Programme in Assam

> In Assam, India, tea estate management and local government are issuing essential provisions to tea communities. We are also distributing food aid to 700 of the most vulnerable families in two of the estates involved in our Community Empowerment Programme. We’re making sure that those most in need across the estates are aware of the support available to them. We have been closely monitoring access to the government’s Covid-19 cash benefit scheme aimed at women and have been supporting those eligible to open bank accounts.

> In Kenya, an estimated 4,000 farmers and 20,000 workers are using the 550 water tanks we’ve installed. Aside from handwashing, the water will also help irrigate their vegetable gardens.

Malawian tea farmer Efelo with the strong box that stores the savings made by her community group

> In Malawi we have been working with farmers for many years to develop and support community savings schemes. It helps farmers access credit, as well as functioning as a savings deposit. Often farmers will invest their credit in new, entrepreneurial businesses to add to their income. These groups are vital – now, more than ever. They help farmers to keep their businesses running, and allow those most in need to access crisis funds. We’ve issued PPE and implemented safety measures across all our savings groups, so that farmers can continue to tap in to this essential resource. We’re working in partnership with IDH – Sustainable Trade Initiative and ETP member Tata Consumer Products, with funding available as part of the Malawi Tea 2020 programme.

> One of the ways we help farmers in Rwanda to increase their yields, incomes and savings is by working together in our Farmer Field Schools. While current guidelines mean that these groups cannot meet, our trainers are supporting farmers to continue with the good agricultural practices they’ve learnt via one-on-one, distanced visits. The visits are also an opportunity to inform farmers about the latest health and sanitation advice.

> Women involved in our Community Empowerment Programme in Assam have taken up mask-making as an additional income source. So far, 18,200 masks have been made across four estates and will be distributed to tea workers in key plucking areas.

> To minimise any disruption of education on estates in Assam, ETP staff have introduced precautionary measures in learning centres, including more frequent ‘pocket classes’ of ten students. Additional exams have been launched to monitor progress and extra-curricular activities have also been encouraged. Young people have also been able to access online career counselling sessions.

Not only does protective equipment limit the spread of the virus, it is critical in enabling tea farmers and workers to continue making a living from tea.

Some examples of our work include:

> In Assam, India we’ve organised hand washing demonstrations in line with national guidelines, across the tea estates and factories involved in our Community Empowerment Programme.

Tea pluckers in Assam, India wearing face masks distributed by our Community Empowerment Programme

> Over 35,000 masks have been issued to workers by tea estate management in Assam. Members of our Community Empowerment Programme have supported this by hand making some face masks to give to workers on their estates.

> As part of our pilot project in Sri Lanka, so far we’ve supplied 550 face shields to tea leaf collectors, meaning that more than 30,000 farmers can safely continue to sell the tea they grow.

ETP Programme Manager Jane Nyambura donates reusable protective masks to Kenyan smallholder farmers

> In Kenya, we distributed a total of 112,500 reusable face masks for workers and smallholder farmers through our work with local partners.

> Our community savings schemes with IDH – Sustainable Trade Initiative in Kenya help farmers and workers of farmers to save money, and learn new, entrepreneurial skills like soap making – which is particularly critical at this time. Group members and their families now have better to access to soap. Some worker groups have also gone on to sell 1,200 excess soap bars and 990 litres of liquid soap to tea factories.

> To enable our programmes to operate in Malawi, we’ve issued PPE for 40 lead trainer farmers and five ETP field team members meaning farmers can continue to be trained.

> We’ve distributed hand washing equipment for 800 farming families in Malawi.

> For both these initiatives in Malawi, we worked in partnership with IDH – Sustainable Trade Initiative and ETP member Tata Consumer Products, with funding available as part of the Malawi Tea 2020 programme.

> In Rwanda, we’ve supplied 42,000 face masks for farmers and workers so far. Not only does this limit the virus’ spread, it also means they can adhere to local authorities’ guidelines and safely continue to make their living from tea.

> Across Rwanda, we’ve distributed soap to the 356 tea buying centres that needed it, meaning that all the country’s farmers can wash their hands.

ETP team member Charles Kambale issues Protective Personal Equipment (PPE) to a health centre in Malawi

Our work also supports wider community needs, responding to a lack of government funding. Examples include:

> In Malawi, we’ve distributed PPE, hand washing and cleaning equipment to seven health centres, which serve up to 170,000 people in tea growing areas. This includes surgical gloves, aprons, goggles and face masks. The health centres are now also stocked with infrared thermometers, disinfectant and paracetamol.

> In Assam, India, we’ve provided PPE to three estate hospitals, as well as dispensing sanitation items to the communities they serve.

By raising awareness in tea communities, we can help prevent the virus from spreading.

In Malawi, our work informs tea communities how best to protect themselves and others

Some examples of our work include:

> In Malawi, our radio broadcasts are running for three weeks to alert tea communities to the latest government advice. Many families, particularly in rural areas, rely on radio news broadcasts. We’ve also shared guidance via strategically placed posters – such as in health centres. We worked in partnership with IDH – Sustainable Trade Initiative and ETP member Tata Consumer Products, with funding available as part of the Malawi Tea 2020 programme.

> Our posters and banners in health centres, schools and tea buying centres across all of Rwanda’s tea communities share the latest hygiene and sanitation guidance.

> In Assam, India, our Community Empowerment Programme brings together the estate community, management and the District health department. We’re working closely with doctors from the Assam state health service, the National Health Mission, to alert tea workers and their families to the latest guidance and safety protocols. We’ve set up awareness camps and distributed pamphlets across the estates, sharing details of COVID-19 causes, symptoms and preventive measures.

> For those returning to work on the estates in Assam, we’ve organised training to share the latest health and safety protocols– including advice on social distancing. The training has been a success, with measures being followed and young people raising awareness among their peers in accordance with government guidelines.

> By facilitating a webinar series with the Colombo Tea Trade Association Roadmap 2030 Committee in Sri Lanka, we’ve created an effective platform for the sector to discuss ways to best protect communities during the pandemic.

> In Kenya, our radio broadcasts were picked up by 1,055,000 devices, with the number of listeners expected to be far greater. This has informed rural communities on how to reduce the spread of the virus and stay safe during the pandemic and helped to combat the spread of any false information about the virus.

Project Officer

Kamini.Gohain@ethicalteapartnership.org

Working closely on the ground with tea communities in Assam, Kamini has a well-developed understanding of their needs. Graduating with an MA from Tezpur Central University and beginning his career in the development sector in 2009, Kamini brings a broad range of expertise to ETP. He has worked with both international agencies and state-level platforms on projects relating to farmers’ livelihoods, children’s education and rights and Disaster Risk Reduction.

Project Officer

Gaurav.sarma@ethicalteapartnership.org

As Project Officer, Gaurav works directly with tea communities in Assam to deliver our projects. Having obtained a Masters in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Science (where he focused his research on the socio-economic status of plantation communities), Gaurav has a sound understanding of how to assess programme impact within the tea sector.

Programme Manager

Nirbhay.Singh@ethicalteapartnership.org

As Programme Manager, Nirbhay works directly with tea communities in India, providing on the ground support and managing the delivery of our life-changing projects in Assam. Having worked in the tea industry across multiple regions for over 30 years, Nirbhay brings invaluable insight and knowledge of the tea sector to the role. Thanks to his extensive experience in the industry, he has a comprehensive understanding of tea communities and their needs.

Africa Strategy Lead

Wanja.Michuki@ethicalteapartnership.org

Wanja is responsible for developing high-level, strategic relationships with businesses, governments and development partners in Africa to enable us to go further, faster in tea-growing regions. She has hands-on experience of the tea sector, having founded her own speciality tea business. Wanja also worked closely with farmers during her time as a Trade and Investment Diplomat in the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and was part of the tea farming community in Central Kenya. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Wanja also travels to Malawi and Rwanda to support these regions. Her role is key to driving forward the longer-term sustainability of tea across Africa.

Bhagyawati is 19 years old. She has taken part in the ETP-UNICEF Improving Lives programme and through her involvement in her local adolescent girls’ group has learnt about the importance of nutritious diet to improve her health.

She explains that “before joining the group, I had no idea of what a proper nutritious diet was. I would eat anything that came my way. After joining the group, I learned about the benefits of locally grown vegetables and developed a taste for them!”.

“Since I was growing these vegetables fresh in my own garden, this gave me confidence and improved my health. I used to face problems with anaemia – (I was) fatigued, didn’t feel like working and always felt sleepy the whole day. After my diet changed, these small steps have led to big improvements. I have much more energy”.

Bhagyawati has also been an inspiration for her friends in her community and her friend Sangeeta has not only been inspired to set up her own kitchen garden to grow fresh vegetables but has been big plans for her future. “I would like to be a chef, like Sanjeev Kapoor. I just love cooking!”.

Beno Winesi is a smallholder tea farmer and father to six children. He has purchased two solar lamps through a credit scheme funded by the Ethical Tea Partnership.

“This lamp is very good. I don’t need to buy batteries anymore. Once it is charged, it lasts for five days. The air is so nice and clean now. None of us are coughing any more. And it’s so bright!

I have two, a small one just for light and a big one that has a radio and a USB charger so I can charge my phone.

I listen to the news on the radio. I love the news. I get news from Malawi and nearby countries like Mozambique. My wife and I listen to music on the radio and we dance together.

I also listen to football matches. My favourite team is Nassau Big Bullets. They are very popular in Malawi. My favourite international team is Manchester United”.

Martha Khembo is an extension worker, liaising between the Lujeri Tea Estate and smallholder farmers represented by the Sukambizi Association Trust, one of four trusts in Malawi that represent smallholder farmers.

“My job is to connect smallholder farmers to the estate, to provide them with extension services such as credit and access to GAP (good agricultural practice) training.

We have been providing solar lamps for about two years. Now at night you will see almost every house has a light on. Two years ago the place would look dark. Some families were using firewood to light a small area of the house or using paraffin lamps, but these don’t have a very wide range.

The best thing about these lamps is what they do for kids. They can do their homework at night which means they can play when they come home from school. Play is an important part of a child’s development and now they know their homework can wait until it is dark.

Cooking outside is hard when it is raining. Now families can cook inside with this light.

What I’d love to see for this community is more green and less deforestation. I want to see a solar light in every house. I’d like to see healthier people and better houses”.

“I am councillor for this ward. I encourage people to work hard in this area. This is a tea-growing area. I’m encouraging people to grow more tea.

I understand the importance of trees in tea. They provide shade and they help mitigate against climate change. Deforestation has affected this community. Heavy rains are associated with high winds which blow roofs off houses. The rivers dry up. This didn’t happen before.

Slowly but surely we will increase the production of seedlings along the riverbanks and on the mountains. Next time you come you will not see bare mountains.

I grew up in this area. There was a thick forest which has gone now. The rivers had water all year round. We used to have rains even in June but those rains have completely gone.

As a leader in this community, the mere fact that I come here to encourage them supports the initiative”.

Veronica, has been part of her farmer field school group in Malawi and taken part in cookstove production. Through the group Veronica makes and sells cookstoves that help her earn an additional income.

She has earned 37, 000 Kwacha in four months from the cookstove production, which helps her pay her children’s school fees. She’s hoping that the additional income will mean that her daughter, who has graduated from secondary school, will be able to go on to further education.

Veronica has a small tea farm and her husband works on a tea estate, but this income wasn’t fully able to meet her family’s needs. She explained that “when my children didn’t have school books or school uniform, I felt sad whenever they asked for something and I couldn’t give it to them. Now I can help my husband to provide all these things”.

She is now also using less fuelwood as the cookstove has reduced the amount of wood Veronica needs to cook. She says that the wood she would have previously used over a month now lasts many more months.

42-year-old tea farmer, Gervais, is married with seven children. By being part of one of ETP’s community savings group, he’s been able to achieve his long-term ambition of owning a dairy cow. He had managed to save 150,000 RWF and was able to borrow 100,000 RWF from the VSLA group. This topped up his savings, meaning he could buy his dream cow.

Gervais has been successful with his cow business. The cow produces eight litres a day, five of which sells for 800 RFW a day. So far, he has been able to make around 220,000 RWF (£190). The rest of the milk is used at home, improving his family’s diets.

The cow gave birth to a female calf five months ago, and he plans to sell her next August for 250,000 RWF (£216). With the money, Gervais plans to renovate his house and bring electricity to his home. Gervais is one of more than two thousand farmers in Rwanda who ETP supported to have better incomes.

Thebronia, a tea farmer in Malawi, has become the secretary of her local tea nursery. She hopes to be able to make a profit from the tea she grows in the nursery.

She explains, “Our main cash crop is tea and our children depend on it. Because of climate change, the rains are not falling at they used to. We were depending on pineapple as an extra cash crop but that is failing. So we are really dependent on tea. There is hidden treasure in tea”.

As well as planting tea crops, her nursery group are also planting crops like sweet potato which help to protect the soil and are an important nutritious food.

Thebronia has high hopes for the project and hopes that the nursery will continue to grow and help her to support her children and grandchildren. She is ever more reliant on improving her tea growing in order to better her financial circumstances and hopes to use the skills she has learnt through the FFS group to open her own nursery and further increase her production (with tea clones resistant to the impacts of climate change).