Nestlé makes progress on empowering women in cocoa supply chain

In recent months, for example, we’ve helped train four cocoa cooperatives on gender issues in order to open more roles, such as lead farmers and nursery managers, to women. The cooperatives have also now produced their own action plans for improving the positions of women in the cocoa supply chain.

 

The new measures are reflected in a new progress report Nestlé has published on its Action Plan (pdf, 500Kb) to help improve the lives of women in its cocoa supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire. The Action Plan is part of the Nestlé Cocoa Plan programme launched in 2013 in Côte d’Ivoire to improve the lives of cocoa farmers and the quality of their crops, and to tackle low productivity and child labour. As part of the other steps taken recently, the number of women who lead and oversee Nestlé cocoa plantlet nurseries has increased from 3 percent to 23 percent. There are a total of 32 Nestlé-run plantlet nurseries.

 

 

Nestlé’s progress report reflects actions it has taken between August 2014 and January 2015. The report discusses Nestlé’s plans for 2015 under three main action pillars: promoting equal opportunities, giving women a voice and helping to increase women’s income.