Details of the Initiative
I have been involved in international aid as a policymaker and a practitioner at the United Nations and JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). My current research focuses on job creation and poverty reduction through industrial development.
Since 2020, undergraduate students of my seminar have studied focusing on coffee and its trade. This is because coffee is a commodity produced in developing countries and consumed mainly in developed countries. As part of a study, the undergraduate students started to sell the Meiji University SDGs Coffee through the university’s official goods online store (https://meidaigoods.net/).
The coffee is made from coffee beans from Colombia, which produces high-quality coffee while employing people with disabilities. In addition, the purchase price is higher than the international market price, which means that the price of coffee is producer friendly. All proceeds from the sale will be used to support the local community. The idea of the students behind this coffee was to contribute to efforts to tackle the SDGs in this way.
For more information on the background of this coffee project, please check out the website of the seminar’s “Jimbocho Coffee Project” (https://jimbocho-coffee.com) (Japanese only).
