Supporting cocoa farming communities

Cargill has strengthened its programme with CARE in Côte d’Ivoire to launch a $2.4million partnership with the Conseil du Café-Cacao and 14 cocoa farmer co-operatives. The partnership aims to improve the availability of healthcare and increase the number of children with access to good quality educational facilities across 14 local communities.

This partnership in Côte d’Ivoire brings together investment from cooperatives and the private/public partners to enable cocoa farmer cooperatives to initiate larger scale projects that will benefit their local communities. Each cooperative will have access to funding in addition to its own investment, which cooperatives receive as a direct result of premium payments for certified cocoa achieved under the Cargill Cocoa Promise. This will mean more investment and better facilities that will benefit more farmers and more families in these communities

Speaking on behalf of Cargill, Lionel Soulard, managing director West Africa says,  “The role of cooperatives in this project is essential. Not only do they benefit from additional funding from Conseil du Café-Cacao and Cargill but with the expertise of CARE, they are able to take ownership of how their money is invested to improve the living standards of their communities. This programme will deliver a strong message to the communities of the role that cooperatives can play and incentivise other farmers to join their local cooperatives in order to contribute to the social wellbeing of their communities.”

Each cocoa cooperative has worked with CARE to assess the critical needs of its community. As a result, the programme will directly support the development of 11 schools for over 1,500 children and three dispensary clinics providing health care for 25,000 people. Each school project will include three classrooms, one house for the school director, two houses for school teachers, a canteen, latrines and access to water. The dispensary clinic projects will include the clinic, equipment and a house for the doctor.

Building work for the projects is expected to start in the coming weeks; each cooperative will manage the building process. By October 2014 all projects should be complete.