Cocoa Life - In Ghana

Cocoa Life In Ghana

Ghana is the world's second-largest cocoa-producing country (Côte d'Ivoire is the largest). Cocoa Life has been active in Ghana since 2008, when it began as the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership. Here there are 37,062 farmers participating in Cocoa Life, across 447 communities.

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Ghana

37,062

Farmers currently participating in Cocoa Life

Cocoa Life active in country since

2012

447

Cocoa Life communities

Cocoa Life origin team members

GHANA COCOA BOARD (COCOBOD)

Cocoa Life’s government partner

A story on community in Ghana

"WITH COMMUNITY ACTION PLANS, WE HAVE THE POWER TO SPEAK UP AND ADVOCATE FOR OURSELVES."

By Jacob Akpalu, Cocoa Life community leader, Okotokrom, West Akim District, Ghana

A story on farming in Ghana

"My decision to rehabilitate my farms through Cocoa Life has transformed my life for the better."

By Ohene Boafo, cocoa farmer and president of the Atta-Ne-Atta Cooperative Society and West Akyem Cooperative Union

Ghana

"Cocoa Life is a vibrant intervention which is also organic, responding to actual needs of community partners as well as the interests of government and our business. Our commitment to ensuring that communities thrive and community members have voices that are listened to is very real as it enables the cocoa farmers drive the change. Cocoa is the backbone of the economy of Ghana; and cocoa farmers should be proud that they are driving the economy of Ghana. We are already seeing indications of change, which is fantastic."

Yaa Peprah Amekudzi, Cocoa Life’s Country Lead for Ghana

2017 GHANA PROGRESS DASHBOARD

This dashboard demonstrates the scale achieved by the end of 2017 and how Cocoa Life is making progress in Ghana. 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

37,062

Cocoa seedlings distributed (through Cocoa Life)

2,881,865

Cocoa-farming demonstration plots operational²

447

Nurseries created³

333

Hectares of cocoa farms mapped⁴

45,950

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 the communities¹

447

Community Action Plans (CAPs) activated²

447

Communities with CAP projects completed³

372

Community members trained on gender awareness

52,354

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

594

Community members who participate in VSLAs

7,241

VSLAs linked to finance institutions²

Community members trained on financial literacy

9,167

Community members trained on business management

6,955

Community members involved in additional Income Generating Activities (IGA)

7,408

A VSLA (or a similar model) is a group of people who save together and take small loans from those savings. ↩
Once a VSLA is strong enough, we link them with financial institutions so they can access professional banking services. ↩

Youth

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

44,700

Communities with Child Protection Committees (CPCs)¹

447

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

116

Youth trained on cocoa-related enterprises³

5,936

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 18-35 in Ghana. ↩

Environment

Community members trained on Good Environmental Practices (GEPs)¹

60,100

Economic shade trees distributed (through Cocoa Life)

1,123,335

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.