Women Cocoa Farmers

   It may surprise you, that in Ghana female cocoa farmers earn about 75% of their male counterparts.  If we look at the nearby Cote D’Ivorie, female cocoa workers can earn even less – sometimes as little as 30% of the male workers.   For the self employed the women all struggle with lower farm productivity mainly due to the lack of access to finance and assistance with productivity.  It’s very much a long was from any sort of level playing field but  hopefully an issue that is about to be addressed.


Mondelez International have just released plans to help address this inequality and provide some assistance to the female workers in the two largest cocoa growing countries.  They seek to establish some sort of gender equality in these communities, something that outside experts feel is essential for the community to prosper.  This is the reality, gender inequality doesn’t create extra wealth for the beneficiaries i.e male cocoa workers.  It creates an unbalanced and inefficient economy, disparities like this often end up driving down prices for all men and women.
The plans include an extensive education program – specifically designed to empower women in the communities.  Improving their access to finance, improving business skills and encouraging literacy programs specifically targeted towards women.  Other areas that are being addresses are to encourage gender awareness in district and national institutions linked to the communities.

•  Integrate gender awareness among Cocoa Life program leaders at all levels; incorporate the perspective of female farmers in program design and implementation; and use local cocoa platforms to promote gender goals
•  Set clear gender-equity targets for Cocoa Life following baseline survey work in 2014
• Establish criteria to guarantee women’s involvement in training and access to finance to help ensure women are benefiting equally from Cocoa Life, even when the participating household farmer is male
• Tailor interventions to address gender gaps in areas such as training topics, materials and methods as well as in Cocoa Life’s Livelihoods and Community focus areas

These are some the specific targets for the cocoa industry in Cote d’Ivoire where arguably the worse inequality exists.   The outlook is certainly more positive and there is increasing commercial pressure to act on this situation.  Many organisations particularly in Europe and specifically from France and the UK (report here)