Through our cocoa programmes and initiatives, we bring together all sector stakeholders to find solutions that can transform the sector. We partner with civil society, donors and technical partners to deliver effective solutions at scale.
WCF Collaborative Programmes are characterised by the powerful combination of public-private engagement and investment, sector-wide systemic intervention and active involvement from the governments of cocoa producing countries.
Funding helps us and our members to expand existing programmes, start new ones, and increase impact in terms of size, scope, and geographic coverage. Through bilateral, multilateral and private funding, including previous support from donors like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Agency for International Development and Proforest, we can help achieve the necessary scale for visible and tangible change.
Launched in 2017, the CFI is a unique public-private partnership dedicated to combating cocoa-related deforestation and degradation. Initiated by the governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, along with WCF and IDH, as well as leading cocoa and chocolate companies, the CFI has achieved significant milestones.
Moving forward, landscape approaches will be central to CFI’s interventions, aligning with the ambition to foster collective action.
“We commit to a development path that preserves forests and enhances producers' living conditions. In Ivory Coast, we strive for sustainable cocoa farming by decoupling agriculture from deforestation.”
Laurent Tchagba, Minister of Water and Forests, Côte d’Ivoire
In October 2018, key players in Brazil's chocolate and cocoa industry initiated "CocoaAction Brasil" to tackle sustainability challenges. The initiative focuses on enhancing productivity, quality, pest and disease control, improving living conditions for farmers, strengthening farmers' organisations and promoting sustainable, forest-positive cocoa production systems.
We actively seek solutions to support our members and benefit the sector through critical impact initiatives. We do this in partnership with governments to seek alignment and ensure effectiveness and efficiency.
Collecting data is critical to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of our work. We have been collecting industry data and reporting on our collaborative programmes, but it has not always resulted in the comprehensive measurement of impact it intended. We aim to become the industry's trusted source for impact measurement, delivering standard measurement tools, and using a strong evidence-based Theory of Change. We therefore adapt our M&E system continuously, incorporating industry-wide standards, best practices, and consistent methodologies. For example, for the Cocoa & Forests Initiative, we have redefined our data collection and reporting approach which will also impact the annual country reporting.
To address persistent sustainability challenges, it is critical to better trace the source of cocoa. This also enables compliance with new regulations such as the European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Together with our partners, we are developing a three-phase programme.
The first phase involves working with the European Cocoa Association (ECA) and governments to assist companies in complying with the EUDR by the beginning of 2025. The components, as part of this phase, include developing standardised deforestation-free assessments, an industry-wide risk assessment and mitigation protocol, and a template for due diligence documentation and information that satisfies regulators.
The second phase will support the national traceability systems currently being developed by Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, to be compliant with EU regulations and that member companies can integrate into them. The third phase will seek to develop a global model for a traceability system that supports compliance with all regulations on a range of cocoa-sector issues, promoting efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
The WCF has set up an initiative to develop a standard methodology for GHG accounting and enable member companies to report voluntarily following the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP) and the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). The Science Based Targets initiative was established in 2015 to help companies set emission reduction targets in line with climate science and Paris Agreement goals.
New methodology for measuring cocoa farmer household income promises to serve as a strong standard for the sector.
