Cote D´Ivoire Sustainable Cocoa Initiative

 
Introduction: Cocoa is the economic engine of Cote d’Ivoire with a share of 40% of the cocoa world production, providing the main source of income for one fifth of the Ivorian population. Approximately 700,000 small holder families (about 4 million people) depend on the sector for their main source of income. Despite its prominence and importance to the country (about 17 percent of public revenues), the challenges of cocoa farming are many.  Similar to other West African cocoa-producing countries, cocoa farmers in Cote d’Ivoire share economic, social and environmental constraints.
 
Objective: The overall objective of the partnership is to contribute to the promotion of a sustainable cocoa system by institutionalizing sustainable production practices and supporting policy development/enforcement and the national institutions with the mandate for providing long-term assistance to the sector. A specific objective for this collaboration is to develop an effective model of collaboration through the development of a national platform that supports a sustainable cocoa system. It is envisaged that the development of such a national platform will hold the key to achieving sustainability at scale.  
 
Timeline: This is a large scale, long-term objective, requiring integrated and comprehensive interventions best achieved through a 10 year programme.
 
Project description/approach: The approach of the project is to adapt to the particular complexities of Ivory Coast and focus on the long term capacity building of government, institutions, cocoa producers, NGOs, CBOs and other service delivery organizations.  It also responds to the needs of the chocolate companies to move quickly and realize short term improvements in the cocoa communities, as soon as possible while building the model for longer term wide scale sustainable change. This is achieved through establishing space for dialogue between the different stakeholders (national platform), and developing systemic capacities in government, particularly the prefecture level so that government resources are applied to reflect the needs of communities and effective service delivery to farmers.  This approach avoids third party short term training as the sole solution which is limited in scale and duration. 
 
Project Outcomes: (i) Support productivity improvements for cocoa farming families and increase capacity of farmer organizations; (ii) Support child-centered development and community-based activities, focused on vulnerable children; (iii) Support formal school education for children, and education and training opportunities for out of school children, youth and adults; (iv) Improve environmental management of cocoa farms and landscapes and access to carbon markets; (v) Develop institutional capacity, dialogue, and coordination within prefectures, through improved ¨bottom-up¨ planning, resource allocation and linkages with communities; and (vi) strengthen national institutional capacities and support reform of national policies, and investments that influence the economic, social (education and labor) and environmental aspects of cocoa production and communities.
 
Stakeholders/Partners: NORAD, World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), Echoes – Youth Education and Livelihoods Program, UNDP and the Associations of Chocolate Manufacturers from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.