Cocoa Life - In Dominican Republic

Cocoa Life in the Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is the world’s tenth-largest producer of cocoa and is a leading producer and exporter of organic cocoa. Cocoa Life has been active in the Dominican Republic since 2016, and has been building on established partnerships since 2011. Here there are 281 farmers from 3 communities participating in Cocoa Life.

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Dominican Republic

281

Farmers currently participating in Cocoa Life

Cocoa Life active in country since

2016

Cocoa Life communities

A Story On Livelihoods In The Dominican Republic

"We're Working Toward A Sustainable Legacy For Future Cocoa-Growing Communities."

By Pilar Ramirez, executive director of Fundación REDDOM.

A story on women’s empowerment in the Dominican Republic

"Now we manage our money better and have more to invest in our community"

By Estervina Rosario, Community Leader, El Aguacate, Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

"I have seen a great improvement in the livelihoods of our Cocoa Life communities thanks to their teamwork and innovation. A great example is the foundation of Self Savings and Loans Groups where women make up 86% of membership. Thanks to our new partner, Fuparoca, our work now encompasses most of the cocoa-growing area of Dominican Republic. This is fantastic, and we hope to continue expanding our footprint and positive impact in the future."

David Preece, Cocoa Life’s Country lead for Dominican Republic

2017 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC PROGRESS DASHBOARD

This dashboard demonstrates the scale achieved by the end of 2017 and how Cocoa Life is making progress in the Dominican Republic. Cocoa Life monitors the below output indicators under five focus areas. These are interventions we put in place with our partners.

Farming

Farmers trained on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs)¹

281

Cocoa seedlings distributed (through Cocoa Life)

9,204

Cocoa-farming demonstration plots operational²

175

Nurseries created³

Hectares of cocoa farms mapped⁴

324

Farmers trained are farmers enrolled in the program. Once they follow the attendance criteria, they are selected as Cocoa Life farmers. GAPs are recommendations made to the farmers so they can increase the yield on their farms. ↩
Demonstration plots show what “good” looks like so farmers know what to expect when adopting the GAP. ↩
This includes both professional and community nurseries. ↩
One hectare is 10,000 square meters. To compare, a football field is about 7,500 square meters. ↩

Community

Community Development Committees (CODECs) operational in communities¹

Community Action Plans (CAPs) activated²

Communities with CAP projects completed³

Community members trained on gender awareness

CODEC members are elected by their communities to represent them in defining the CAP priorities. CODECs may cover several communities. ↩
Cocoa Life facilitates the development of the CAP through the CODEC. The CAP defines the 10 priorities the community agrees to work on and is owned by the community. Communities may have several CAPs. ↩
These communities have successfully raised resources and advocated to start implementing any of the 10 priorities listed in the CAP. ↩

Livelihoods

Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) operational¹

Community members who participate in VSLAs

239

VSLAs linked to finance institutions

Community members trained on financial literacy

Community members trained on business management

Community members involved in additional Income Generating Activities (IGA)

124

A VSLA (or a similar model) is a group of people who save together and take small loans from those savings. ↩

Youth

Community members and farmers educated on issues of child labor and forced child labor

Communities with Child Protection Committees (CPCs)¹

Communities with a Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS)²

Youth trained on cocoa-related enterprises³

The primary purpose of the CPC is to promote and protect the total well-being of all children in the community. Its responsibilities include liaising with the School Management Committee and the Parents-Teachers Associations to ensure all school-going children are enrolled and retained in schools. ↩
Cocoa Life's CLMRS is community-based and child-centric. Its scope goes beyond the cocoa supply chain to include the community as a whole, and addresses the issue from prevention to remediation. ↩
Youth is the age range from 15-24 in Indonesia. ↩

Environment

Community members trained on Good Environmental Practices (GEPs)¹

Economic shade trees distributed (through Cocoa Life)

GEPs are recommended practices which will include, for instance, how to conserve the soil or practices for reasonable and safe use of agrochemicals. ↩

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.