Becca has over 20 years experience in the coffee sector, with a focus on gender since 2011. She started in green offer buying and in the cupping lab with Twin / Twin Trading and quickly became involved with training members and young staff of producer organizations. This interest in training and capacity building has led her to work as a consultant in the coffee and cocoa sectors in different areas, including price risk and cooperative management. Over the last ten years she has focused particularly on gender equity and inclusion and has collaborated as a trainer and researcher with multilateral organizations, companies and supply chain partners to promote greater gender awareness and women’s inclusion in coffee, cocoa and other tropical supply chains.

Cristina has twenty years’ experience in development and humanitarian work that gave her first-hand involvement in gender and development, theory and practice. Since 2015 the focus of her work moved to building sustainable value chains (coffee, cocoa and other commodities), connecting smallholder farmers with high value markets. This is when she experienced in practical ways the impact gender equity has on companies and organizations, and how gender is not only a development and human rights issue but a business strategy to improve performance and sustainability of businesses.