Community development | ICI Cocoa Initiative

Growing rice, growing prosperity - Empowering the women of Yawboadi

In 2015, ICI entered Yawboadi, a cocoa-growing community located in the Ahafo Ano South East District in Ghana with the purpose to work with the community towards eliminating child labour. The community has a population of 577 inhabitants with the majority of the women assisting their husbands on the cocoa farm. Some of them cultivate a little rice to support the family income.

"My children can focus on their education thanks to my second source of income," says Yaw

Yaw Amoah is a cocoa farmer in Ayokoa, a cocoa-growing community in Ghana. He lives with his wife and four children who are aged from four to sixteen years. They all make their livelihood from a two

ICI holds ceremony to mark the end of the Community Development projects

13 December 2018

The International Cocoa Initiative, a leading independent technical authority in the field of child protection and child-centred community development in cocoa-growing communities, has held a ceremony

"We must work together to protect our children"

9 November 2018

The U.S. Department of Labor (USDoL) supports the International Cocoa Initiative through the "Eliminating Child Labour In Cocoa" (ECLIC) project so that it can assist children in its areas of intervention in Côte d'Ivoire. In this video, M. Paul Yeskoo, First Secretary of the United States Embassy in Côte d'Ivoire and Acting Head of Mission, talks about the project and the collaboration with ICI.

Empowering girls with skills for a brighter future

11 October 2018

We have facilitated community development actions such as the construction of schools and the setting up of income generating activities for parents to ensure that they can provide for the needs of their children. We also provide direct support to children – for instance, educational support for those in school and the opportunity to enrol in apprenticeship programmes for those between 15 to 17 years.

A brighter future for Augustina

11 October 2018

Diana Mawusi is a mother of seven children living in Mehame, a cocoa-growing community in the Asanti Region. Her eldest child, Augustina Brago is a beneficiary of the ICI supported apprenticeship

How rice cultivation helps reduce child labour in Ghana

5 September 2018

ICI, through our work in the communities have come to see the impossibility of eliminating child labour without elevating poverty because it is one of the major causes of child labour.

IGA: ECLIC project provides equipment to women and youth group

"It wasn’t easy for me because there were a lot of obstacles... We, the women, received a tricycle this morning and the youth received a freezer with a generator to start selling frozen fish. I'm so

Lack of education is at the root of youth issues in cocoa-growing communities

In many places around the world, youth are presented with an array of exciting and valuable opportunities as they transition from childhood to adulthood. They might begin post-secondary education

Launch of phase two of the National Plan of Action on the Worst Forms of Child Labour

The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) unites the forces of the cocoa and chocolate industry, civil society, farming communities and national governments in cocoa-producing countries to ensure a

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