On April 5, SWISSCO invited members and partners to two different but equally important meetings at the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Wädenswil. Between 30-40 members convened in a hybrid format to join the discussions.
In the morning, we revived the monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) community of practice and discussed undertakings to measure progress toward greater sustainability in the cocoa sector. After a brief overview of SWISSCO's monitoring tools, we received valuable insights from our members CABOZ AG and Swisscontact with reflections on what a successful monitoring strategy should look like and what shortcomings and challenges exist, and we got an insight into the LandScale approach. Afterwards, the ZHAW presented an innovative database, Cocoa in numbers, which offers an interesting possibility to store and analyze data following a collaborative, non-competitive approach.
SWISSCO members can access the presentation of the meeting on the SWISSCO MEL here.
In the afternoon, the focus shifted to gender and women's empowerment in cocoa-producing communities. We heard several excellent presentations, amongst others by Berner Fachhochschule BFH and Doreen Asumang-Yeboah on possible actions to make the cocoa sector more gender-sensitive. Mars presented their resilience journey, setting an inspiring example for designing and implementing a gender equality strategy. Furthermore, an input by Koltiva set the basis for a discussion on how data collection can shed light on gender gaps and inform on areas for action. We will now incorporate the new insights into the development of the SWISSCO gender strategy.
SWISSCO members can access the presentation of the meeting on gender and women's empowerment in cocoa-producing communities here.
We would like to thank our speakers and the ZHAW, especially Irene Chetschik and Amandine André, Ph.D., for the great organization and technical support.