Smallholder cocoa farmers in Ghana are poised to achieve a stronger voice in decision-making processes throughout the cocoa sector, with the institution of the Ghana Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and Advertising Affiliation.
By way of this affiliation, cocoa producers are consolidating their efforts and creating an efficient advocacy group for a stronger voice on the neighborhood, nationwide, and worldwide degree.
The Ghana Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and Advertising Affiliation, which is the primary of its type in Ghana, is an umbrella physique comprising 75 cooperative unions from 9 cocoa-growing areas within the nation. Its objective is to extend the illustration of cocoa farmers in any respect ranges of decision-making within the cocoa sector.
Solidaridad facilitated the institution of the affiliation as a part of its effort to amplify the voices of cocoa farmers. The affiliation was created by means of the RECLAIM Sustainability! programme, in collaboration with the Division of Cooperatives and companion organizations, together with the World Cocoa Farmers Organisation (WCFO) and Agriterra.
“The formation of this apex physique marks the start of a brand new period for cooperatives within the cocoa sector. It’s a important step in direction of constructing an inclusive and sustainable cocoa worth chain the place farmers’ pursuits, voices, and rights are represented and heard in decision-making in any respect ranges,” stated Seth Kankam Nuamah, Programme Supervisor for the RECLAIM Sustainability programme! in West Africa.
A Unified Response to a Fragmented Previous
Previous to the institution of the Ghana Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and Advertising Affiliation, cocoa farmers’ cooperative unions operated independently and in isolation.
The unions have been composed of cooperatives inside a area, and as a result of their fragmented and uncoordinated nature, they have been unable to successfully interact at totally different decision-making ranges throughout the cocoa worth chain.
Consequently, particular person unions typically obtained consideration relatively than the collective pursuits of the cocoa farming neighborhood. The newly shaped umbrella group goals to advocate for the broader cocoa-producing neighborhood, with a deal with secure costs, authorities interventions and companies, land rights and dwelling incomes for cocoa producers.
Over time, a number of organizations acknowledged the necessity for unified illustration and partnered with cooperatives to provoke the institution of a nationwide cocoa affiliation—efforts which are lastly bearing fruit with the creation of the Ghana Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and Advertising Affiliation.
Lively Engagement and Exhausting Work Result in Nationwide Affiliation
The institution of the affiliation comes after a sequence of in depth coaching workshops on management and governance and stakeholder engagements at totally different ranges.
Since 2022, Solidaridad, in partnership with the WCFO and Agriterra, has labored to equip smallholder cocoa farmers and farmer teams in Ghana with data, assets, and the abilities wanted to advocate for his or her rights and guarantee their energetic participation in decision-making processes throughout the cocoa worth chain.
Then in 2023, Solidaridad partnered with the Division of Cooperatives to additional strengthen cocoa farmers’ organisations and assist the institution of a nationwide affiliation to signify cocoa farmers’ pursuits. In January 2024, this partnership was formalized by means of the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Following the MOU, a sequence of nationwide coaching workshops have been organized for cooperative leaders that targeted on governance and management. The coaching modules coated important areas resembling cooperative governance, strategic planning, management abilities, organizational battle administration, enterprise communications, and financial savings mobilization and credit score administration.
At these coaching classes, leaders acquired the instruments to raised handle their cooperatives and prepare their members. A major end result of those engagements was the event of a Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) coverage, written in collaboration with the cooperatives, to advertise the mixing of gender-affirmative motion into cocoa cooperatives’ bylaws.
The formalisation of the nationwide affiliation was preceded by a nationwide stakeholders’ assembly that introduced collectively key gamers throughout the cocoa sector.
This occasion was collectively organised by Solidaridad, the World Cocoa Farmers Group, Agriterra Ghana, and the Division of Co-operatives, with members from cocoa cooperative unions, the Ghana Co-operative Council, Ghana Cocoa Board, educational establishments, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Fairtrade Africa, Rainforest Alliance, Rikolto, SOCODEVI, and the Africa Ambassador for Credit score Union Affiliation.
The stakeholders’ assembly set the stage for the profitable institution of the apex physique and offered a platform to change concepts, discover collective bargaining alternatives for cocoa cooperatives, and acquire various and useful insights from collaborating stakeholders.
Executives Elected to Lead Affiliation
The journey to establishing the apex physique culminated on 1 November 2024, with the election of executives within the Ashanti area of Ghana.
13 executives, together with six girls, have been elected from a physique of 210 candidates. The truthful illustration of ladies throughout the govt physique aligns with the Gender and Social Inclusion Coverage developed with the cooperatives.
Consolation Kwaasibea, the newly elected second vp, pledged her dedication to girls’s illustration and promised continued advocacy for ladies to take energetic roles in management.
“For too lengthy, girls have been deprived in our cooperatives, however the coaching from Solidaridad and the gender-affirmative motion they championed has given girls like me the braveness and alternative to step ahead. I’ll use my place to encourage extra girls to take part actively for our voices to be heard in any respect ranges,” she stated.
Issifu Issaka, the affiliation’s president, emphasised its position as a voice for cocoa farmers to advocate for their very own welfare, tackle challenges, and enhance livelihoods by means of collaboration with stakeholders. He pledged his dedication to make sure the success of the affiliation.
The Ghana Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and Advertising Affiliation has accomplished its registration and formalized its operations in full compliance with Ghanaian legal guidelines. This marks an important step in direction of a extra equitable and sustainable cocoa worth chain that advantages all stakeholders.
Constructing Strategic Partnerships by means of Stakeholder Engagements
Following their assumption of workplace, the newly elected executives initiated a sequence of stakeholder engagements as a part of their efforts to foster strategic partnerships inside Ghana’s cocoa trade. The initiative started with a go to to Solidaridad West Africa, the place the staff mentioned challenges throughout the cocoa sector, potential strategic options, and aligning the affiliation’s long-term imaginative and prescient.
The staff additionally engaged the World Cocoa Basis, the Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana Cocoa Initiative and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Ghana, their funding companion, to specific their gratitude for the assist obtained thus far and talk about future collaborations.
All stakeholders expressed optimism concerning the affiliation’s potential to drive transformative change within the cocoa sector and pledged their dedication to supporting its targets.
RECLAIM Sustainability! Programme
The RECLAIM Sustainability! programme is a five-year programme that seeks to advertise an inclusive, sustainable commerce and worth chain through which the pursuits, voices and rights of farmers, staff and residents are represented and heard in decision-making. The programme is applied by Solidaridad West Africa and Belief Africa in Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone with funding from the Dutch Ministry of International Affairs.
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