It was a pleasure seeing many engaged SWISSCO members at the virtual Living Income Member Event on December 14, 2021. Our Roadmap 2030 defines “Living Income for Cocoa Farmers and their families” as a common challenge we seek to tackle together. The afternoon workshop on Living Income offered an opportunity for all members to learn more about approaches and concrete tools and, thus underpinning our common journey to reach a living income for cocoa farmers and their families.
The Living Income Member Event was split into three parts:
Part I
During the first part, Friederike Martin from GIZ gave a presentation on guiding steps towards living income in the cocoa supply chain, thus offering interested SWISSCO members an insight into how to mainstream living income in their company’s/organization’s activities.
Part II
The second part encompassed three short presentations from Fairtrade International, Rainforest Alliance and Schöki.
- In their presentation on “Fairtrade’s Offer to Business for Living Income”, Fairtrade International presented their Living Income project framework and their Cocoa & Living Income Programme.
- Rainforest Alliance introduced the Sustainability Differential (SD) and Sustainability Investments (SI) and provided an overview into the different phases of introducing SD & SI. A minimum SD of 70 USD will be introduced for any RA/UTZ certified cocoa sold from the 2022/23 harvest onward starting in October 2022 (African countries) and in the rest of the world already from July 2022 onwards.
- Schöki then presented the SusChain initiative and called for anyone interested in getting more information or joining the initiative to get in touch with them. The SusChain initiative aims to make cocoa fully traceable from the bean to the bar, by using QR codes along the cocoa supply chain and thus contributing to a living income for producers of all involved raw materials.
Part III
During the third part, Max Havelaar, Fairtrade International and Oxfam shared information about current living income studies with the participants of the event.
- Max Havelaar gave an insight into their current Living Income Benchmark Study in Peru and announced to get in touch with SWISSCO members in the first quarter of 2022.
- Fairtrade International presented the results of their second Ivorian household income study (first study in 2016/17, second study in 2020/21). A key finding was that 85% of cocoa farmers earn below the living income, thus pointing to the urgent need for action to enable a living income for cocoa farmers and their families.
- Lastly, Oxfam gave an insight into their recent study on living income, in the context of a briefings for business series. Eight core critical areas for companies with regards to living income were highlighted, encompassing amongst others the adoption of HRDD approaches, elevating pricing and a call for stronger government and sector level action.
The presentation encompassing all contributions to the event as well as the studies that were presented during this event can be found here:
Presentation Living Income Member Event SWISSCO
Picture: Fairtrade International