Last week, the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) hosted an experience-sharing workshop, bringing together its partners and stakeholders to exchange insights and best practices on their cash transfer programmes. The workshop offered a platform for participants to engage in open discussions, share expertise and identify potential areas for development.
Representatives from organizations such as Nestlé, Beyond Beans Foundation, 100 Weeks, Care Ghana, and The Hershey Company shared insights on their cash transfer programs, highlighting successes, challenges, and key lessons learnt. Results and insights from the evaluation of an ICI pilot project on gender-transformative cash transfers in a cocoa supply chain in Ghana were also presented by the Bureau of Integrated Development (BIRD), providing valuable insights into the cash transfer programme.
Albert Martey, Sustainable Sourcing Representative for The Hershey Company in Ghana, emphasised the significance of sharing experiences and learning from others who have implemented similar initiatives. He appreciated the opportunity to learn about the findings from the evaluation of the ICI cash transfer pilot, which provided valuable insights into the impact of cash transfers and offered to inform future initiatives for stakeholders.
The workshop provided insights into a wide variety of programmes that combine conditional or unconditional cash transfers with other interventions. Abdul Rahaman Abdulai, Nestlé Cocoa Plan Manager for Ghana and Nigeria, noted: "The Nestle Income Accelerator Programme includes support and incentives to change behaviours, with the ultimate aim to close the gap to living income and improve school attendance amongst households in cocoa growing areas.”
Abdul also emphasised "To ensure the programme's success, partners prioritise both the process and outcomes and invest in monitoring, evaluation and learning, to inform and shape the programme, drive behavioural change and achieve impactful outcomes at scale."
"This workshop demonstrates ICI's commitment to fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing on child labour within the cocoa sector," said Candy Frimpong, Monitoring and Evaluation Manager for ICI Ghana. "By sharing experiences, we can effectively address the issues of child labour in cocoa-growing communities and drive meaningful change." She added that the workshop's outcomes will inform future initiatives and guide the development of more effective cash transfer programmes by partners.