The 2024 World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) Partnership Meeting ended with President Chris Vincent striking an upbeat chord with the 500 partners and worldwide stakeholders gathered in Amsterdam, announcing that the passionate debates over the past two days had remotivated the organisation to deliver: "The result that really matters – a thriving and equitable cocoa sector.”
This annual event united cocoa farmers and experts from companies, governments, academia, civil society and media in a single forum for discussion on shared challenges, progress and learnings on sustainability in a conducive dialogue centred on alignment for global action... continue reading
“Combining our World Cocoa Foundation Partnership Meeting and CHOCOA will propel us into 2024 in exciting fashion. It will allow all of us globally across the sector to align and find new ways forward as we transition toward the shared objective of truly sustainable cocoa.”
Chris Vincent,
President of World Cocoa Foundation
Master of Ceremonies and Moderator: Joost Gorter
The cocoa sector is an important stakeholder in development towards sustainability in cocoa producing
countries. The issue is much broader than cocoa and if we want to have an impact towards our sustainability objectives, we must align. Aligning within the cocoa sector, with other sectors, and stakeholders, such as governments and civil society, will be the way forward.
This panel will set the stage for the rest of the Partnership Meeting by putting farmer voices and their perspectives at the forefront of the conference.
Agroforestry for who? Scaling Successful Farmer-Centric Models
This panel will delve into successful agroforestry initiatives to understand the key factors that determine farmer benefits and influence a farmer’ decision to adopt agroforestry and draw lessons for the design, implementation and scaling-up of farmers-centered agroforestry models.
Sustainability Ambitions in Cocoa Producing Countries
International standards, such as ISO 34101, for sustainable and traceable cocoa, and other voluntary standards such as Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance certification schemes, have triggered actions by producing countries to develop their own sustainability standards. Standards, such as the African Regional Standard, initiated by Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, promote sustainability of the sector and enhance the traceability of cocoa beans in West Africa. This session will explore the approach of producing countries beyond EU and WAF in developing their sustainability strategies.
Traceability: Stories from Other Commodities
In preparation for the EU deforestation regulation (EUDR), specifically the regulations’ requirement for cocoa traceability, this session will explore other commodities’ traceability models, privacy issue and lessons that might be applied to the cocoa sector.
Net Zero commitments need to be backed by serious and credible actions. Reaching Net Zero is difficult but companies are coming more and more under pressure to reach it. Here, Natural Climate Solutions (NCS), offsetting or removals are among the available tools. But which tools are credible, and which are the least controversial? What can be actually claimed by companies?
Measuring Deforestation, Carbon, and Program Impact
This session will provide an overview of the current state of deforestation, restoration, carbon, and impact measurement in the cocoa sector. The panel will look at where we have been – the challenges, successes, opportunities, and advancements, and where we should go now. Participants will gain insights into how data can support the delivery of deforestation-free cocoa and increased farmer income.
The Known Unknowns of the EUDR
The EUDR went into force at the end of June of 2023 and will go into application at the end of December of 2024. This is one of the shortest introduction of EU legislation ever. As the cocoa sector is venturing in unexplored territory, there are still many ‘unknowns’. This session will discuss some of them, like ‘what needs to be done to formally import cocoa that from older harvests that was stored in warehouses’ and ‘will certification by sustainability schemes such as the Rainforest Alliance, play a role in the due diligence process that is now mandatory.
How can Alternative Sources of Income contribute to a Better Standard of Living
Despite successful productivity improvement efforts and premiums paid for certified cocoa, other interventions are needed to achieve a resilient income for farmers. This session will explore additional innovative income streams to stabilize farmer revenues throughout the year.
This plenary session will have three C-suite level leaders from WCF Member companies to discuss how sustainability is discussed in the Boardroom and with Stakeholders. How has this evolved overtime and what needs to be addressed, especially with regard to new legislation and extra investments needed to meet customer and consumer expectations?
What are the strategies in producing countries for the development of their cocoa sector, what are the ambitions and which policy measures are being considered? What is the position of these countries to import policies in the EU, such as the EUDR, and the US and what is the impact on their strategy? This panel will allow producing countries to present their views.
How can policy making, actual programming, and advocacy, work together to achieve impact at scale? Although the fight against child labor in cocoa farming has been the focus of sustained attention and action by stakeholders for the past twenty years, it has not yet had the desired lasting impact. At this stage of the fight, we can see policies and regulations, the programs implemented, and communication on the subject have played a critical role in creating a conducive environment for more effective control. It is therefore legitimate to ask how these three levers can better combine their action for a greater and more lasting impact.
Global Strategies for Restoration & Conservation
While smaller initiatives within supply chains have been effective, there is a growing need for collaboration among governments, businesses, communities and philanthropies to work together in large-scale restoration and conservation initiatives, as seen with the Cocoa & Forests Initiative. In this session, we will consider the potential challenges and opportunities involved in pursuing these initiatives and determine the best pathways to get there.
The Benefits of Carbon Sequestration and off setting in Cocoa Supply Chain
Cocoa and cocoa products, such as chocolate, have impact on the volume of carbon in the atmosphere: in general carbon insetting takes place during cocoa production, carbon emissions are a result of downstream processes. How can net carbon emissions be measured and what must be done to have farmers benefit from the carbon sequestration of their trees and their land.
Just Transition Pathways for Cocoa Communities in the Race to Net-Zero
The EUDR marks a significant step towards addressing emissions by moving the world towards a deforestation-free market, but concerns for farmers’ well-being highlight the complexities of this transition. We must ensure the transition addresses the well-being of both people and the planet. This session will explore innovative tools and approaches to foster resilient farmer communities and go beyond global emission targets.
Along with the WCF PM, 2024 will bring two other major cocoa conferences, the Amsterdam Sustainable Cocoa Conference at Chocoa and the World Cocoa Conference by ICCO. These events are the perfect occasions to stage panel discussions that contribute to progress on one of the major topics in the cocoa sector, farmer income. This session will be the first of a three-part discussion series, spread across the three events, with the WCF PM focusing on the development and implementation of market-based policies to improve the income of farmers.
Along with the WCF PM, 2024 will bring two other major cocoa conferences, the Amsterdam Sustainable Cocoa Conference at Chocoa and the World Cocoa Conference by ICCO. These events are the perfect occasions to stage panel discussions that contribute to progress on one of the major topics in the cocoa sector, farmer income. This session will be the first of a three-part discussion series, spread across the three events, with the WCF PM focusing on the development and implementation of market-based policies to improve the income of farmers.
Sector transformation can only be accomplished together. To move forward and review what has been discussed over the course of the conference, the World Cocoa Foundation has invited the chairpersons of the regional cocoa and chocolate associations to discuss their impressions of the WCFPM and to elaborate on the impact of their associations policy moving forward.
The World Cocoa Foundation has blocked rooms in the following local hotels to ensure participants have rooms during the event. Rooms have been blocked for the nights of February 4-8.
The hotels and rates are:
All rates include breakfast but exclude City Tax, which is €3.00 per person per night.
Please use this link to reserve your hotel rooms.
10% Discount on the Air France or KLM airfare for Amsterdam Cocoa Week attendees!
For more information, please visit this KLM link.
The 2022 WCF Partnership Meeting explored the theme “Partnerships for Impact” in Brussels, Belgium.
The 2021 WCF Partnership Meeting explored the theme “Overcoming Challenges Together” in online.