For more than a decade, the global chocolate and cocoa industry and individual chocolate/cocoa processing companies have been working in partnership with Governments and Non-governmental organizations to bring about real and lasting change to cocoa farming practices in West Africa.
Together, we now have some 38 programs throughout West Africa that provide cocoa farming families and their communities with opportunities for economic development, improvements in labor practices and access to education.
Key partners include:
The International Cocoa Initiative
The ICI is an independent foundation aiming to address the worst forms of child labor and forced adult labor on cocoa farms in West Africa. Established in 2002, it works closely with producer governments to offer a real and sustainable solution to the worst forms of child labor and forced labor in the cocoa supply chain.
Supported by individual chocolate and cocoa companies, the ICI is led by a Board composed equally of industry and civil society (NGO) representatives. The International Labor Organization (ILO) is an advisor to the Board. The ICI is focused exclusively in labor practices (and related issues) on cocoa farms and is the only foundation of its kind.
Learn more about the International Cocoa Initiative and its mission.
The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) is a nonprofit membership based organization established in 2000 to support a sustainable cocoa economy through partnership programs focused on economic and social development as well as environmental stewardship in cocoa-growing communities around the world, including in West Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. WCF’s membership consists of approximately 90 companies involved in the worldwide cocoa and chocolate industry, representing more than 80 percent of the global market.
WCF achieves its goals by engaging in public-private partnerships that bring together donors, industry members, producing country governments, research institutes and other non-governmental organizations. WCF implements programs that work with farmers on a pre-competitive basis, before sale or commercialization of their cocoa. These programs provide farmers and their families with the skills they need to grow more and better cocoa, market it successfully and make greater profits.
- ICI has conducted child-labour awareness-building for more than 330,000 people on child labour in cocoa
- ICI is supporting the implementation of 236 Community Action Plans (CAPs), and the development of 54 new ones.
- ICI has supported the construction or rehabilitation of a total of 423 classrooms to accommodate 21,000 schoolchildren.
- 215 trained teachers in total have been placed, ensuring better access to quality education for more than 11,000 children.
World Cocoa Foundation carries out programs to make cocoa farming a sustainable way of life for cocoa farming families:
- 480,000 cocoa farmers and their families in cocoa-growing countries worldwide have benefited from WCF programs
- More than 11,000 teachers in cocoa-growing communities have been trained in WCF programs
- Nearly 200,000 cocoa-growing families have benefited from WCF income raising programs
- Cocoa farmers earn 20%-55% more income as a result of WCF farmer training programs
Non-Governmental Organizations
Partners with industry in these efforts include: Africare, CARE International, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GTZ, International Fund for Education and Self Help, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, Winrock International, CARITAS, and Family Health International, among many others.