The Hershey Company, a Founding Member of ICI and one of the world’s biggest chocolate companies, won the P3 Impact Award for its “Cocoa Link” program which is impacting on the livelihoods of over 45,000 cocoa farmers in Ghana.
The P3 Impact Award is given by the US Department of State to public-private partnerships with great impact on the lives of communities. The other contestants this year were African Diaspora Marketplace, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, The Coca-Cola Company and the World Wildlife Fund : Partnering to Protect Freshwater Resources, and the Wireless Access for Health Initiative.
CocoaLink uses information shared on mobile phones to help farmers modernise their farming practices and increase productivity and income, while also learning more about farm safety, health and child labour. ICI contributed to the child labour messaging as a member of the editorial committee and helped register producers from communities where we operate. Launched by Hershey together with the World Cocoa Foundation in collaboration with the Ghanaian government in 2011, CocoaLink is now expanding into Cote d’Ivoire.
To watch Andy McCormick, Hershey’s Sustainability Director and ICI’s Board Member, talk about the award-winning program, click here.
To learn more about Cocoa Link, click here.