International Development News Round-Up (Issue 97)

Starbucks to support Rwandan farmers

Starbucks, the global coffee chain, will be opening a Farmer Support Centre in Rwanda it was announced on December 1. The aim of the support centre is to improve coffee quality and growing practices as well as strengthening ties with East African coffee communities. It will also work towards increasing the number of farmers who are participating in the Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices (CAFE) – Starbucks’ sustainable coffee buying guidelines. Starbucks opened such a centre in Costa Rica in 2004 and has seen increased coffee yields per hectare, reductions in the use of pesticide and a 5% increase in the suppliers’ CAFE practice scores. Contact Starbucks 020 7878 4900 www.starbucks.co.uk

Global Corruption Barometer 2007

The world’s poorest people are the hardest hit by corruption according to the Global Corruption Barometer 2007 published on December 6 by Transparency International. The anti-corruption campaign organisation, with headquarters in Berlin, further found that the general public believes that political parties, parliament, the police and the judiciary are the most corrupt institutions in society and that government efforts to fight corruption are ineffective. The GCB is a public opinion survey that has been carried out annually since 2003 and explores how corruption affects the lives of ordinary people on a day-to-day basis. For the GCB 2007 survey, 63,199 people were interviewed in 60 countries between June and September 2007. Contact Transparency International 0049 30 3438 200www.transparency.org