Survey on the International Coffee Agreement (ED-2354/20)

This survey is intended to provide ICO Members with an opportunity to present their views on three aspects of a new International Coffee Agreement: (A) Governance structure; (B) Votes and contributions; and (C) Participation of the private sector. In order to understand better the issues involved, we highly recommend that, before answering the questions, you read document WGFA-43/20 ‘Discussion Paper – Proposal on the reform of the International Coffee Agreement’, the password for this document is: wgfa2020. We also recommend reading the report of the 8th meeting of the Working Group on the Future of the International Coffee Agreement (WGFA-44/20).
1.Country
2.Name of institution
3.Full name of the respondent
4.Are you the official designated contact for the ICO?
A. Governance structure

The questions in this section relate to the governance structure and decision-making procedures of the ICO. (Please refer to pages 13-17 and Table 1 of WGFA-43/20).
5.The supreme decision-making body (Council) of most international commodity bodies (ICBs) meets either once or meets twice a year. This allows, for example, for the Council to review the first draft of the budget in the spring and then approve the final draft in the autumn.

How often should the International Coffee Council meet every year?
6.In the current International Coffee Agreement, the duration of the mandate of the Chair and Vice Chair of Council is one year. The practice in other ICBs varies. In some it is only one year, while in others it is two years, in order to allow the officeholders to gain experience in their posts.

How long should the mandate of the Chair and Vice Chair of the Council be?
7.Among the ICBs, the ICO has the greatest number of advisory bodies (committees etc.) Should the Promotion and Market Development, Projects and Statistics Committees be merged into a single Economics Committee?
8.How often should the World Coffee Conference be held?
B. Votes and contributions

The questions in this section relate to the way in which votes are calculated within the ICO. Since contributions are directly proportional to votes, any changes in the calculation of votes will also affect contributions. (Please refer to pages 17-20 and Table 2 of WGFA-43/20)

9.Within the current International Coffee Agreement, Members are divided into two categories: exporting and importing. Should this division be maintained in the new Agreement?
10.Within the current International Coffee Agreement, votes and contributions are based on the volume of exports (in the case of exporting Members) or imports (in the case of importing Members). Should this method of calculation be maintained in the new Agreement?
11.What other criteria should be used to calculate votes and contributions?
C. Participation of the private sector

The questions in this section relate to the ways in which to integrate the private sector into the work of the ICO. (Please refer to pages 3-13 of WGFA-43/20)
12.Do you think that the new International Coffee Agreement should consider how to better integrate the private sector?
13.Which elements of the private sector should be eligible to participate in the work of the ICO?
14.Do you think the ICO should create a new category of “Sector” or “Affiliate” membership, without voting rights, for private sector and civil society stakeholders?
15.If the answer to the preceding question is yes, how would private sector and civil society organizations become members of the ICO?
16.Please add any other comments here
Current Progress,
0 of 16 answered