International Coffee Organization launches 2026 campaign for equity and climate resilience

The International Coffee Organization launched a year-long global communications campaign titled "Coffee Is Part of the Solution" on February 26, 2026, announcing a digital push to position coffee as a vehicle for climate resilience and equitable livelihoods. ICO Executive Director Vanusia Nogueira framed the effort in stark terms: "Coffee has always been more than a commodity. It is a catalyst for development, dialogue and cooperation."

ICO said the campaign will run across its digital platforms throughout 2026 and will be supported by institutional videos, data insights, case studies and engagement with members and partners worldwide. The Cooperator noted the campaign will include a flagship video released in four languages on the ICO YouTube channel, and GCRmag highlighted the use of the hashtag #CoffeeIsPartOfTheSolution to collect impact examples from the global coffee community.

The organization plans to spotlight concrete contributions from producers and partners, with messaging that highlights farmer livelihoods, rural development, carbon sequestration and cultural heritage. "Through this campaign, we want to show that when the sector works together, coffee can support resilience, improve livelihoods, and contribute meaningfully to solutions," Nogueira said, framing the initiative around collaboration between producers, governments, the private sector, financial institutions and civil society.

QahwaWorld provided a scale statistic the campaign can leverage, reporting that "Coffee provides income for approximately 12.5 million farming families worldwide." That figure appears in QahwaWorld's coverage of the launch and helps quantify the human stakes ICO aims to highlight as it showcases evidence and initiatives during the year.

The campaign comes from an organization with a long institutional history. Daily Coffee News noted that the ICO was established in 1963 under the International Coffee Agreement framework, that the United States withdrew from the agreement in 2018, and that the ICO has sought to broaden participation by private-sector actors and civil society through the International Coffee Agreement 2022. DCN also underscored ICO’s continuing role as a primary source of coffee sector data, including monthly market reports and macro-level analyses.

Across outlets covering the announcement, several datelines reference London as the announcement location while one outlet used a Kampala dateline; all agree the campaign launched on February 26, 2026. Throughout 2026 the ICO intends to publish data, case studies and evidence to demonstrate "measurable results on the ground," inviting industry members and the wider coffee community to share impact-driven projects under #CoffeeIsPartOfTheSolution as the campaign moves from launch to sustained digital storytelling and stakeholder engagement.