Project profile — Women and Cocoa Communities Initiative (WCCI)

• Côte d'Ivoire (100.00%)

• Population policy and administrative management:
Population policy and administrative management (13010) (2.50%)
Family planning (13030) (2.50%)
• Agricultural development:
Agricultural development (31120) (45.00%)
Agricultural financial services (31193) (15.00%)
Agricultural co-operatives (31194) (35.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (principal objective)
• Participatory development and good governance (significant objective)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (significant objective)
• Climate change mitigation (significant objective)
• Climate Change Adaptation (significant objective)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (significant objective)
• Nutrition (not targeted)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)

This project aims to improve living conditions in rural cocoa communities in Côte d’Ivoire, especially those of women and young girls. Project activities include the following: (1) raising awareness among, training and supporting women producers in terms of starting and strengthening small businesses and cooperatives; (2) making it easier for them to access credit and agricultural insurance; and (3) increasing climate change resilience through tree nurseries and sound agroforestry practices. The financing approach allows for a large amount of responsible private investments to be mobilized from cocoa companies, complementing Canadian development assistance. It is innovative and part of a fair-trade approach in the cocoa industry.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased socio-economic empowerment of women and young girls in the targeted rural cocoa communities; (2) improved performance of the Fédération nationale des femmes productrices de café et de cacao, cocoa cooperatives and women’s associations in delivering products and services that meet their members’ needs in terms of adapting to climate change, especially women and young girls; and (3) increased resilience of the targeted rural cocoa communities and their food systems, especially women, to climate change and socio-economic shocks.

Results achieved as of March 2024 include: (1) opened 64 literacy centers in the 62 project communities and recruited 67 teachers to offer a 10-month literacy program to the first cohorts of 1,591 young women, women, and men recruited; (2) created and equipped 68 safe spaces in these same communities and recruited and trained 68 female mentors. This helped them to each conduct 26 training and sharing sessions on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), life skills, and human rights, benefiting 935 people (41 women and 894 young girls); and (3) trained 240 people, including 68 elected members (62 men and 6 women), members and employees of 9 cooperatives on “cooperative principles and values” and on the equal and effective participation of women in decision-making bodies. This allowed to translate into greater openness to inclusive democratic governance and the effective participation of women in cooperative activities.

• Proactive disclosure