In many ways, the past year has forced reflection across the sector. Towards the end of 2023, cocoa prices were already rising linked to supply shortages – a trend that has intensified significantly in the first part of 2024. While increased prices are a good thing for cocoa farmers, the bad harvests in West Africa coupled with higher costs of living and of production actually exacerbate farmer vulnerabilities in the short term, highlighting the need to redouble efforts to support cocoa farming families. At the same time, discussions around mandatory human rights due diligence have evolved
Reflecting back on 2022, we are proud of our actions to prevent and address child labour and forced labour in West Africa. While much remains to be done, we have continued to learn, to innovate and test new approaches, to build capacity and to advocate for increased implementation, which will allow us to take our work even further in cocoa-growing communities. ICI's Annual Report 2022 is presents a compilation of the work we've done, scaling up action in cocoa-growing communities in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana for impact and lasting change.
2021 was the first year of the organisation's new five-year strategy, the overarching aim of which is to cover 100% of the cocoa supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana with systems that prevent and address child labour by 2025. With a continued focus on innovation and learning, technical advocacy, and capacity strengthening, the work in 2021 to improve tools, develop new approaches, strengthen systems and promote the uptake of effective practices, in addition to new members and newly introduced member reporting obligations, helped to strengthen the organisation and its ability to achieve
