THE MARABA COOPERATIVE

Rwanda

The winner of WIN WIN Gothenburg Sustainability Award 2005 on the theme Sustainable Food Production was the coffee cooperative Maraba Cooperative Abahuzamugambi. 

The cooperative was founded in 1999 in the village of Maraba in one of the poorest and most deprived areas in Rwanda and had 2,000 members at the time, of which more than half were women. They produced coffee without chemical fertilizers and pesticides and exported to abroad. In the local language Kinyarwanda the word Abahuzamugambi I means "We who work together". 

The Maraba Cooperative Abahuzamugambi in Rwanda is a pioneer in their work to produce coffee with methods that are sustainable from a social, financial, and environmental standpoint. They have contributed to a fantastic development in a hard-hit country.

Altogether, Abahuzamugambi represents exactly what the City of Göteborg International Environment Prize wants to promote, namely sustainable development. That comprises not just the actual environment but also, in equal measures, financial and social aspects,” said Lars Hallén, one of seven jury members at the time.