MAKING AN IMPACT

Cocoa Life is dedicated to making an impact across the cocoa supply chain—not just in farming communities, but also in the chocolate you enjoy.

In addition to publishing our progress every year, we engage FLOCERT and Ipsos to verify Cocoa Life is accomplishing what we set out to do. It allows us to learn what works and what we can improve.

Our Progress

We hold ourselves accountable for creating real change in cocoa-growing communities. By 2022, Cocoa Life aims to reach 200,000 farmers and one million community members. This will help us reach our goal to source cocoa for all of Mondelēz International's chocolate brands from Cocoa Life by 2025. In this way consumers across the world can be confident that the brands they love are made the right way.

By the end of 2020:
  • farmers tools Created with Sketch.

    Cocoa Life reached
    188,043
    cocoa farmers

  • community Created with Sketch.

    in
    2,169
    communities

  • chocolate Created with Sketch.

    And
    68%
    of Mondelēz International’s chocolate sourced cocoa through Cocoa Life

We recognize that change takes time. But one thing is certain — we are committed to our holistic approach to grow opportunities for our cocoa communities.

Read about our progress
2020 GLOBAL PROGRESS DASHBOARD

This dashboard demonstrates the scale achieved by the end of 2020 and how Cocoa Life is making progress in its key cocoa origin countries. Cocoa Life monitors the below indicators under three areas of intervention, which we put in place with our partners.

Sustainable cocoa farming businesses
Farming icon
Farmers trained, coached or having a farm development plan on Good Agricultural Practices
181,257
Cocoa seedlings distributed
18,129,650
Cocoa-farming demonstration plots
1,013
Nurseries
267
Youth trained on cocoa-related enterprises1
23,112
1. Youth is the age range from 18-35 in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, and 15-24 in Indonesia. ↩
Empowered cocoa communities
Community icon
Communities with a CODEC and Community Action Plan activated2
1,959
CAP projects completed in communities
3,853
Community members trained on gender awareness
49,697
Village Savings and Loan Associations operational
3,205
Community members who participate in VSLAs
82,371
VSLAs linked to finance institutions
499
Community members trained on financial literacy
101,926
Community members trained on business management
72,134
Community members involved in additional Income Generating Activities
29,653
Community members and farmers educated on issues of child labor and forced child labor
324,953
Communities with Child Protection Committees
812
Communities with a Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System or equivalent
649
2. A committee elected by the communtiy develops and presents the plans. ↩
Conserved and restored forests
Environment icon
Community members & farmers trained on Good Environmental Practices
246,262
Economic shade trees distributed
2,216,763
Farms mapped & monitored
167,795
About the Dashboard
Cocoa Life routinely collects monitoring data from our partners as part of the ongoing review of program performance at the local level, so we can apply learnings to improve program outcomes in the future.
See also
Côte d'Ivoire Dashboard
Dominican Republic Dashboard
Indonesia Dashboard
Ghana Dashboard
HOW WE MEASURE PROGRESS
OUR 10 GLOBAL KPIs

Cocoa Life uses Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure how effectively we are achieving our business objectives and fulfilling our commitment to our focus areas.

  • Farming
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    • cocoa income Net income from cocoa
    • cocoa productivity Cocoa productivity
  • Community
    community_rounded Created with Sketch.
    • women's participation Increase in women's participation in decision-making process
    • plan development Increase capacity in the community to plan and advocate for their own social development
  • Livelihoods
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    • net income Net income from sources other than cocoa
    • cocoa farmers Cocoa farmers’ reduced vulnerability to external shocks
  • Youth
    youth_rounded Created with Sketch.
    • child labor reduction Reduction in child labor and forced child labor
    • career opportunity increase Increase in career opportunities for youth in cocoa sector
  • Environment
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    • sustainable natural resources Helping future farming generations through sustainable natural resources use on farm
    • forest conservation Increase in conservation of forests and maintenance of ecosystems


Verification

To verify our impact on farmers and through communities and measure progress towards our goal of sourcing all our cocoa sustainably, consistent evaluation is needed. Two independent third parties—Ipsos and FLOCERT—keep us on track.

  • Impact Evaluation

    Ipsos measures our progress on the ground by conducting farmer, farmer household and community studies comparing baseline conditions to developments over at least three years. The studies are designed to evaluate Cocoa Life’s global KPIs across all Cocoa Life origins. Updates about Cocoa Life’s journey and impact will be published annually. For more information on IPSOS’ impact evaluation click here.


    Ipsos is a global non-partisan, objective research practice.

    Ipsos

  • Supply Chain Verification

    FLOCERT verifies the flow of cocoa from Cocoa Life communities into our supply chain. It also verifies the benefits cocoa farmers receive, such as premium payments and clear trade terms. Verification drives learning and transparency, and ensures we are sourcing from the farming communities we invest in.



    FLOCERT is a socially-focused and leading global certification body.

    Flocert
Impact Evaluations

Cocoa Life is dedicated to making an impact across the entire cocoa sector, and we continuously measure whether we’re creating real change in cocoa-growing communities. This is at the heart of Cocoa Life because only by evaluating our impact can we understand the benefits our program creates, continually assess our work and course-correct where needed.

Cocoa Life’s in-depth measurement and evaluation work enables us to share our impact data, and continues to demonstrate how our holistic approaches drive positive impact.

Our data shows us that:

progress report
Cocoa Life farming families’ income is higher than those outside the program
  • Cocoa Life registered farmers in Ghana increased their income by +22% vs. non-Cocoa Life farmers
  • Cocoa Life registered farmers in Côte d’Ivoire increased their income by +8% vs. non-Cocoa Life farmers
progress report
Cocoa farming communities are steering their own development and improving local infrastructure
  • 1,959 communities have Community Action Plans (CAP) in place and 65% of CAPs in West Africa are backed by local government
  • CAPs in Cocoa Life registered communities identify education infrastructure as the number one priority, helping improve access to quality education
  • Women-led households are strong advocates for education; in Ghana 65% of women leading their households decide on education investments, and 61% do in Côte d’Ivoire.
  • Cocoa Life ensures that women’s voices are heard in communities; in Ghana 91% of women in cocoa households agree that their community development plans represent their interests, and 73% agree in Côte d’Ivoire
progress report
Cocoa Life helps to protect forests and tackle the negative climate impact associated with farming
  • 71% of Cocoa Life farms are now mapped to monitor deforestation, which is a total of 167,795 farms; a +12% increase from 2019
  • Cocoa Life trained 246,262 people on Good Environmental Practices (GEP), and 82% of West African farmers involved in this training subsequently changed their practices to reduce climate impact
  • We have partnered with South Pole to develop a tool to estimate the possible carbon impact of Cocoa Life’s forest interventions. We’re still in the initial stages, but are encouraged by its detailed analysis of specific Cocoa Life interventions and their carbon impact. We’re currently validating these findings and welcome input from across the sector throughout this process.
progress report

05/13/2021
2020 Snacking Made Right Report

Mondelēz International’s 2020 Snacking Made Right Report highlights the company’s ESG approach and progress, including how we continue to drive positive change across the cocoa industry. The report shares Cocoa Life’s 2020 progress data and impact learnings across key areas of intervention.




progress report

11/17/2020
No Silver Bullets: Closing the $10 billion income gap in cocoa calls for cross-sector action

This executive summary paper presents key insights on the topic of living income based on research and data gathered by Cocoa Life and Wageningen University & Research. To lift all cocoa farmers towards a Living Income, it is necessary to consider and address the drivers of farmer income holistically, through sector wide collaboration, coordinated by government leadership.




Related documents - 2020 Snacking Made Right Report

Related documents - No Silver Bullets executive summary paper

Related documents - Cocoa Life 2018 Annual Report

Related documents - Cocoa Life Indonesia Outcome Assessment Report

Related documents - Lessons on impact: measurement and evaluation in cocoa sustainability programs

Follow our progress