How can companies ensure that smallholders working in their supply chains earn enough to live in dignity? A new publication by GIZ and the Sustainable Food provides companies with the proper tools. 

Coffee, chocolate, vanilla – smallholder farmers are at the base of many global supply chains. They operate four out of five farms worldwide. Without t...

The Living Income Community of Practice recently published guidance on the use of the Household Economy Approach (HEA) to support understanding around farmer circumstances and income improvement. One of the priorities for the Living Income Community of Practice in 2020 is to bring more clarity around approaches to measuring actual farm incomes so that th...

As we approach the end of 2019, we wanted to take a step back and reflect on our efforts throughout the year. The goal of attaining a living income has become a central piece of conversation and we have made some great strides on the topic of measurement and closing the income gap. 

The community navigates around three key objectives, rounding...

On the 5th of December 2019, members of the Beyond Chocolate partnership came together for the 1st year anniversary meeting to reflect on progress made and discuss next phase of project advancement.  With Beyond Chocolate, all signatories commit themselves to working together on a whole range of challenges in the field of sustainable chocolate, such as t...

Declining agricultural commodity prices are running havoc on farmers’ ability to earn a living in countries around the world. Within liberalized commodity sectors, prices are to a large degree out of farmers’ control since they are the result of global market dynamics of supply and demand. The most prominent answer to date has been market-based mechanism...

The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) held its flagship Partnership Meeting October 23-24 in Berlin, Germany. WCF President Richard Scobey launched the meeting with the industry’s new vision which rests on the three pillars of:

(1) Prosperous farmers and supporting profitable farming businesses

(2) Empowered communities able to lead their own development, inclu...

In 2018, the Living Income Community of Practice (LI CoP) embarked on a new adventure – applying the Anker Living Wage Methodology to estimate living income for cocoa farmers in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.  This blog is part of a series reflecting on this experience and what we as a community have learned both about the methodology and about the value of li...

In 2018, the Living Income Community of Practice (LI CoP) embarked on a new adventure – applying the Anker Living Wage Methodology to estimate living income for cocoa farmers in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.  This blog is part of a series reflecting on this experience and what we as a community have learned both about the methodology and about the value of li...

The global coffee crisis is causing immense hardship to farmers as they struggle to put measures in place to deal with market volatility. The Global Coffee Platform recently called for urgent global collective action to overcome this crisis, which is threatening the lives of millions of smallholder coffee farmers, the environment and the coffee industry...

A lot of discussion on increasing cocoa farmer income focuses on higher yield and higher prices and/or premiums. It could be argued however that these discussions and solutions are too limited, and some shifts in thinking are needed to achieve long-lasting change. The blog below, written on behalf of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), explores a more holi...