Briefing note on climate-resilient coffee production in Ethiopia

How can better use of evidence help Ethiopia build a coffee sector that supports farmers, strengthens climate resilience and contributes to thriving forest landscapes?

This briefing note distils findings from the British Academy-funded Strengthening Evidence-use for Equitable Climate Resilient Coffee Policies (STEEP) project into practical implications for policy and practice.

Ethiopia’s coffee sector sits at the intersection of rural livelihoods, economic development, climate change and nature recovery. Its diverse coffee systems include forest and semi-forest landscapes of global biodiversity importance, while new international requirements, particularly the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), are changing expectations around traceability and evidence of deforestation-free production.

The brief highlights priorities across four areas.

1. Production: connect research, local knowledge and farm-level decision-making, recognising the diversity of Ethiopia’s coffee landscapes.
2. Governance: strengthen coordination, institutional learning and evidence flows across different levels of government.
3. Trade: develop practical and inclusive approaches to traceability and compliance that work for smallholder producers.
4. Evidence systems: improve data infrastructure, institutional memory and learning, while valuing farmer and community knowledge alongside formal evidence.

Achieving Ethiopia’s ambitions for a competitive, equitable and climate-resilient coffee sector will depend in part on building evidence systems that support implementation, coordination and learning.

The brief sets out practical actions for making that happen.

This briefing note summarises a longer report on how to strengthen the use of evidence for equitable, climate-resilient coffee processes in Ethiopia.