Yaa Peprah Amekudzi
Mondelez Ghana, a subsidiary of Mondelez International, which is one of the world’s largest chocolate and snack company, celebrated the 10th anniversary of Cocoa Life in Ghana recently.
The women’s summit themed, “Women Empowerment 2.0, Growing Opportunities Together” and held in Accra, was attended by Cathy Pieters, the global Director of Cocoa Life, Dorcas Coker-Appiah, Executive Director for Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre and Yaa Peprah Amekudzi, Country Director and Lead of Cocoa Life Ghana.
With its operations in Ghana, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Cote d’voire, Cocoa Life aims at creating and empowering cocoa farmers in thriving communities across the supply chain.
Launched in 2012, Cocoa Life would invest $400 million by 2022 to empower 200,000 cocoa farmers and reach one million community members in six key cocoa growing origins.
“Our entire programme is built on partnerships with governments, non-government organizations, supply chain partners, cocoa farmer organizations and their communities. To best understand farmers’ needs and put our scale to work on the ground, Cocoa Life works with a group of external advisers and strategic partners,” Mrs. Amekudzi stated.
She added that Mondelez was adopting and supporting various means of moving cocoa beans from the farms to the homesteads for efficient sale of the cocoa beans and improvement in the incomes of farmers.
The summit was geared towards bringing the various stories and experiences of the women involved in cocoa farming, creating and building available opportunities in empowering them beyond cocoa farming and supporting farming communities through education.