Gender equality: For a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world

Globally, it is estimated that there are around six million cocoa farmers and between 40 and 50 million people who depend on cocoa for their livelihood. Seventy per cent of total cocoa production comes from Africa (predominantly Ghana and Ivory Coast in West Africa).

On the surface, the cocoa sector appears to be male dominated as the majority of farms are owned by men (the Fairtrade Foundation reported in 2020 that only 25% of women cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast own their land), and it is the landowners who bring the beans to the collection sites and receive the payment. However, according to a report by Fairtrade Foundation titled ‘The Invisible Women Behind our Chocolate’, women account for two thirds of the labour force.

Many co-operatives have now established women focused initiatives to improve access to training, inputs including seedlings and financial services in order to strengthen women’s involvement in the cocoa sector and reduce gender inequalities.

Ivorian cocoa co-operative, CAYAT is one example. The women-led association was established in 2010 with 283 members, and has grown to over 3,000 members across 38 villages in Ivory Coast, 400 of whom are women.

CAYAT’s aim was to unite cocoa farmers and tackle the deep socio-economic challenges in the region, whilst farming sustainably and boosting farmer incomes. Before the co-operative was founded, farmers sold their cocoa at low prices to middlemen and were often unable to meet their most basic needs. CAYAT created a Women’s Society in 2015 to support female farmers to play a greater role in business and community development.

Today, CAYAT refers to this as the Women’s Union and it has 500 participants, including wives of male farmers, carrying out various income-generating activities, such as growing cassava and maize. Their dream is to have a production unit to mechanise this process, which is currently carried out manually.

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Newcastle-based social lender, Shared Interest has supported CAYAT since 2016, providing fair finance to help increase production to meet growing cocoa demands.

Anita Akkafou is a cocoa farmer and the monitoring and evaluation officer at CAYAT. She told us: “The CAYAT co-operative has played a key role in my total empowerment as a woman (…) the training I followed made me realise that I had to take my destiny into my own hands.”

Shared Interest offers a unique solution to businesses like CAYAT who struggle to access the finance needed to create a sustainable enterprise. By uniting ethical investors committed to creating a fairer world, Shared Interest offer fair finance to farmers and craftspeople, funding essentials like seeds, equipment, and materials. Once their products are sold, Shared Interest are repaid with a fair interest rate, enabling them to recycle funds for continuous impact.

Awa Traoré, director general of CAYAT, said: “The support of Shared Interest allowed us to pay our producers because the financial facility came at a specifically difficult time when many people couldn’t buy cocoa from buyers. Thanks to the support of Shared Interest, we were able to pay our producers and exports.

“We created schools in far away areas where kids used to have to go to other villages to go to school. We also refurbished a college, so for secondary school students in which over 1,000 students study.

“We refurbished a hospital and a maternity ward in the community of Bécédi-Brignan. The hospital used to be in disrepair and women had to give birth in terrible conditions. And now we’re able to protect mothers and newborns.”

By opening a Share Account with £100 investors can become part of this global community, making it possible for Shared Interest to provide much needed finance to vulnerable communities across the globe. Last year, they provided finance to over 173 fair trade organisations, supporting 412,628 individuals in 45 countries.

Shared Interest forms the vital link between UK social investors and fair trade organisations in shaping a more equitable futurethrough responsible investing. The organisation works hand-in-hand with producers and their communities to strengthen enterprises, increase employment opportunities and champion equality and sustainability through fair trade.

You can open a Share Account with £100 and start investing in a fairer world.

Find out more here.