PROGRESS BLOG
INDONESIA OUTCOME ASSESSMENT:
A FIRST LOOK AT OUR IMPACT
By Andi Sitti Asmayanti, Director of Cocoa Life for Southeast Asia, Mondelēz International - 10/02/17
Thriving cocoa communities are essential for sustainable cocoa. That’s why our Cocoa Life team works directly on the ground to empower cocoa farmers and their communities in Indonesia. Over the years, I’ve seen Cocoa Life take root and grow, truly shaping the future of cocoa for generations to come. And with the publication of our first-ever outcome assessment today, I couldn’t be prouder. This assessment demonstrates how Cocoa Life is creating impact at scale in Indonesia, which is a groundbreaking milestone for us. It’ll also guide how we capture results in our other cocoa origin countries going forward.
Indonesia is the third largest cocoa-producing country in the world. But our cocoa communities are faced with many challenges. Farmers have limited technological knowledge and capital. And farms are affected by climate change, pests and disease, which reduce cocoa productivity and incomes. As a result, cocoa is no longer seen as a sustainable business, so these farmers are leaving to pursue other careers.
Since launching Cocoa Life here in 2013, we’ve helped these farmers improve their farming practices, so they can boost their cocoa yields and incomes. Ultimately, we want to help them build more sustainable livelihoods and develop their communities. Our day-to-day work in Indonesia has taken various forms—including training farmers on Good Agricultural Practices, climate smart agriculture and business management; improving access to planting materials, seedlings and financial resources; creating opportunities to empower women and youth; and so much more.
I’m grateful for our partners and all that we have accomplished together. The suppliers (Olam, Cargill, Barry Callebaut), non-governmental organizations (Swisscontact, Wahana Visi Indonesia, Save the Children), government and others have been instrumental. First, we engage community members in mapping out their own action plans to improve their communities. This can be for things like livelihoods trainings or community health centers. Then, they can secure resources from the government to bring those plans to life. Every step of the way, we focus on the needs of each community. I’ve found that’s the best way to find solutions that make sense and create real change.
"When we set out to bring Cocoa Life to these communities, we knew our work would need to be independently verified to ensure we were being held accountable and that we were on the right track with quantifiable results. This outcome assessment is the first of many reports to come that will demonstrate how we’re making a difference. It’s also an opportunity for us to learn and be transparent with ourselves, our partners and you about the impact we’re having. With the learnings from this outcome assessment, we’ll continue to adapt our interventions to achieve better outcomes for our farmers and communities."
Cathy Pieters
Program Director, Cocoa Life
Together with our partners, we’ve made great progress, reaching 16,100 farmers across 132 communities in Indonesia by the end of 2016. In this report, research agency, Ipsos, highlights the outcomes among the first group of farmers touched by Cocoa Life in Indonesia. They evaluated the program against our 10 global key performance indicators, which correspond to our five focus areas: Farming, Community, Livelihoods, Youth and Environment. The report shows how our holistic approach is working. We can actually see the transformation taking place in the lives of these cocoa farmers and their communities. It is exciting to experience firsthand.
OUR KEY FINDINGS (2016 VS 2015):
- Significant growth in cocoa productivity and incomes: More farmers adopted Good Agricultural Practices and reported increases in average cocoa yields (+10%) and annual cocoa incomes (+37%).
- Strengthened entrepreneurship and economic resilience: Farmers diversified their income sources and received triple the amount of income from non-cocoa sources. There was also an increased focus on financial management through more farmers having bank accounts (38% vs. 23%), improved access to loans (+3%) and fewer families reporting food hardship (2% vs. 6%).
- Greater community advocacy and development: More community projects were reported (+26%) from action plans created via Cocoa Life.
"I am very encouraged by this first outcome assessment from Cocoa Life and the results of this report for Indonesia. It shows the innovative approach that Mondelēz International is taking for its impact framework. The statistical methodology used has great potential to best understand the impact of Cocoa Life’s approach to build a more sustainable cocoa supply chain."
David W. Mclaughlin
Vice President, Markets and Food, World Wildlife Fund
Overall, we find these results to be promising. I hope the assessment can help us better understand and strengthen our impact. We’re continuing to scale up our efforts in Indonesia and across our other cocoa origin countries. This involves engaging new farmers and communities, adding new interventions and evolving Cocoa Life’s approach. I’m pleased with how far we’ve all come and look forward to the path ahead.
