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.
The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2000 for the purpose of promoting social and economic development as well as environmental stewardship in cocoa-growing communities. The foundation is a membership-based organization with approximately 70 member companies involved in the cocoa and chocolate industries around the world, representing over 80% of the global market.
The WCF works through public-private partnerships that bring together donors, industry members, producing country governments, research institutes and non-governmental organizations to achieve its goals. The foundation supports programs that work with farmers on a pre-competitive basis, prior to sale or commercialization of their cocoa. In this way, the programs provide farmers with the skills they need to operate productive farms and make sound business decisions.
- Organized 7,076 community meetings and sensitized 268,949 community members
- Helped implement 234 Community Action Plans (CAPs)
- New or rehabilitated school blocks are available in 129 communities; benefiting 16,450 pupils
- 157 new qualified teachers
World Cocoa Foundation supports programs to make cocoa farming a sustainable way of life for cocoa farming families
- 340, 000 Children have already benefited from WCF programs
- Over 9,000 teachers will have been trained
- More than 121,000 families have benefited from income raising programs
- Farmers earn 20-55% more income as a result of 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.