Twin and its trading arm Twin Trading are delighted to announce they have taken the top prize in the International Aid & Development category at this year’s Charity Awards, the longest-running and most prestigious awards scheme in the charity sector.
Twin & Twin Trading won the award for their work on two coffee cooperatives in Peru to address a variety of issues that threatened the viability of the industry.
The project built the resilience of coffee farming in Peru. It was run in collaboration with Marks & Spencer, Matthew Algie and Taylors of Harrogate and two coffee cooperatives in Peru – Pangoa and San Juan Del Oro. It was the first time Twin worked on a project across an entire supply chain.
A detailed survey of farmers in the two cooperatives revealed that the biggest challenges for the producers were: a changing climate, gender inequality and youth disengagement with coffee. It was clear these issues couldn’t be resolved in isolation, and so, Twin designed a three-year project to address the issues together. The holistic approach meant that coffee yields increased by 56%, more women took on leadership positions within the cooperatives and youth accessed loans to start businesses to run in conjunction with coffee farming.
Alongside the nine other category winners, the Overall Winner and the recipient of the Daniel Phelan Award for Outstanding Achievement, Twin & Twin Trading were presented with the trophy at a black-tie ceremony at the Tower of London on Wednesday 5 June, hosted by broadcaster, former pop star and Church of England priest the Rev Richard Coles.
The Charity Awards shortlist is chosen by an independent panel of expert judges, themselves all eminent figures in the charity sector. The judges score each entry against six Hallmarks of Excellence before coming together for two days of challenge and discussion to select the winners.
Richard Anstead, Managing Director at Twin & Twin Trading, said:
““Twin has always pioneered new ways of working and this project is another example of how we develop innovative solutions. Working across a whole supply chain proved to be very effective and efficient– all the project partners were able to learn from one another and the results are very impressive. It’s fantastic to see the hard work awarded and honoured in a prestigious event like this.”
Matt Nolan, chief executive of Civil Society Media which organises the Charity Awards, congratulated Twin & Twin Trading on winning the highly-coveted award. He said: “We had more entries than ever before this year, and the standard was as high as ever, so Twin should be very proud to have won their category. Their work delivers great results.” “For 20 years the Charity Awards have been recognising and celebrating the fantastic work that large and small charities do up and down the UK every day of the week, and the rigorous judging process ensures that only the very best-run charities win awards.”
Sir John Low, chief executive at Charities Aid Foundation, Charity Awards supporter, said: “It is a magnificent achievement to be recognised at the Charity Awards and a real badge of honour for those involved in the charity sector.
