Our efforts focus on two areas that contribute to our desired impact: ensuring individuals and families in cocoa-growing regions in selected countries have decent and resilient livelihoods, while also protecting local ecosystems.
1. Income diversification and economic empowerment:
In many cocoa-growing regions, individuals and families face economic challenges due to their reliance on cocoa farming. Factors such as low productivity, price volatility, climate risks, and limited access to financial services and markets hinder their ability to diversify income and achieve financial stability. Women and youth, in particular, face barriers including limited access to skills training, financial services, land ownership, and market opportunities. This reduces their ability to contribute to household and community resilience.
At the same time, many farmers lack the organizational capacity to engage in decision-making processes that affect their livelihoods. Weak farmer organizations prevent them from influencing policies and systems that shape their economic opportunities.
We aim to empower farmers and rural entrepreneurs to diversify income, improve profitability, strengthen resilience, and enhance farmer organization and representation.
We focus on strengthening key actors across public, private, and civil society sectors to provide access to financial services, business development, and market opportunities and to promote sustainable farming practices. Moreover, we work to build the capacity of farmer organizations, enabling them to better support their members and actively engage in governance.
2. Ecosystem protection and regeneration:
The long-term sustainability of rural communities depends on environmental health, which is crucial for economic development. Ecosystem protection and regeneration are essential for maintaining healthy landscapes, preventing further degradation, and supporting future generations.
Our objective is to support ecosystem protection and regeneration efforts by strengthening key actors that promote climate-smart practices and lead conservation efforts. Moreover, we collaborate with research institutions to provide data-driven insights into scalable conservation strategies.
Through these efforts, we aim to safeguard ecosystems while enhancing the prosperity of rural communities.