Cocoa Life programme

Mondelēz International has shared plans to achieve third party verification for its US $400 million Cocoa Life programme. The approach will measure the impact of Cocoa Life on farmers and their communities and progress towards the programme’s objective – creating thriving cocoa communities.

Mondelēz International has partnered with Harvard University to set up an independent verification framework with three key elements:
• Each year a Harvard research team will conduct an evaluation with a team of local university post-graduate students collecting data in Cocoa Life communities to measure the programme’s impact.
• Every three years a Harvard research team will conduct a holistic study of the programme to ensure it is on track.
• On an ongoing basis, a third-party organisation will verify the flow of cocoa from Cocoa Life communities into Mondelēz International’s supply chain.

Later this year, Harvard University will release its first impact report on Cocoa Life communities in Ghana, where Cocoa Life’s legacy programmes began in 2008.

To understand farmers’ needs, Cocoa Life works with a group of external advisers and strategic partners, including: Andrew Bovarnick, lead natural resource economist and global head of the United Nations Development Programme’s Green Commodities Programme; Michael Mapstone, head of corporate partnerships at VSO; David McLaughlin, MD and VP, Agriculture, World Wildlife Fund; Aidan McQuade, director at Anti-Slavery International; Mil Niepold, senior mediator at the Consensus Building Institute; and Christine Svarer, head of private sector engagement, CARE International UK.