As Amsterdam Cocoa Week 2025 (ACW) approaches, KIT Institute is gearing up to share its work and tools to address living income gaps and child labour in the agricultural value chain. Partnering with Chocoa for the second edition of ACW, we look forward to bringing fresh insights and expertise to this year’s discussions.

For years, KIT Institute has been at the forefront of efforts addressing child labour, poverty and living income gaps in agricultural value chains, with a specific focus on the cocoa and coffee sector. This past year, we have made significant steps in the development and implementation of the Cocoa Household Income Study (CHIS) methodology in collaboration with Wageningen University (WUR) and the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF). The CHIS methodology is the result of a sector-wide collaboration to set standards that improve farmers’ livelihoods by ensuring a common research framework, better sampling and fair representation of invisible groups.

Questionnaire

In the run-up to the Amsterdam Cocoa Week, we are also making the KIT Cocoa Living Income Questionnaire publicly available to further promote alignment in living income assessments across the cocoa sector. This data collection instrument is specifically designed to help stakeholders—ranging from private companies to non-profit organisations—measure cocoa farm households’ incomes and assess the gap between actual income levels and living income standards. It results from almost a decade of experience and has been continually refined through multiple income studies. Needless to say, we are proud to be able to share this work and contribute to advancing the standards.

In the past year, our advisors have also been studying the relation between (living) income and child labour, testing programmes interventions to bring about systemic changes to protect children in vulnerable communities. We are looking forward to sharing our insights and bringing our expertise on these topics, along with our partners, at Amsterdam Cocoa Week.

Partner Event

At this year’s edition, we are organising a partner event titled “The Living Income – Child Labour Nexus” on Wednesday, 5 February 2025, from 11:00 to 12:30 at the Beurs van Berlage, Vervey Kamer.

On Friday, 7 February 2025, KIT Institute Advisor Selma van der Haar will be presenting at the Amsterdam Sustainable Cocoa Conference 2025 on a panel titled: “Why Should We Care More for Invisible Farmers and Workers in the Cocoa Supply Chain?” presenting the results of the implementation of the CHIS methodology in the Yapo Abbé landscape in Côte d’Ivoire together with WUR.

A Focus on Innovative Solutions

Building on the insights from last year’s session, this year’s event The Living Income–Child Labour Nexus takes a deeper look at the complex relation between poverty and child labour and gender dynamics. While poverty is a key root cause of child labour, efforts to raise farmer incomes can sometimes inadvertently increase child labour by adding to household labour demands. Gendered dynamics further complicate this issue, as women often bear the brunt of the added workload.

The session’s primary focus is on current innovative approaches to address poverty and child labour. The three experts on the panel will spotlight practical, real-world interventions making strides to tackle child labour and poverty holistically.

Joining us on the panel will be:

• Els Lindeboom, Senior Programme Manager, Community Development & Farmer Livelihoods, Beyond Beans Foundation
• Stephen Ashia, Manager, ABOCFA Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and Marketing Society Limited
• Melanie Landthaler, Independent Gender Transformative Change Consultant

Because of the limited room capacity, this event is invite only. If you would like to be invited, please reach out to c.steijn@kit.nl and we will let you know whether there any spots available.

Caring for the Invisible

Cocoa farmers remain at the heart of the global cocoa supply chain, yet many remain ‘invisible’: they are not included in official statistics and not reached by sustainability programmes. Cocoa producing households who are part of the indirect supply chain are an example of an invisible group. Because they are not registered at cooperative but sell to middlemen they are not on the radar of cocoa and chocolate companies and little is known about their living income gap.

At the Amsterdam Sustainable Cocoa Conference 2025, KIT Institute advisor Selma van der Haar and Valerie Janssen, researcher at Wageningen University & Research (WUR), will join a panel titled: “Why Should We Care More for Invisible Farmers and Workers in the Cocoa Supply Chain?”. They will present the living income outcomes of indirect supply chain households in the Yapo Abbé Landscape in CdI and discuss the implications for the inclusiveness of the cocoa sector.

• Time: 09:30, Friday, 7 February 2025
• Place: Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam

To register for ACW, visit: https://www.amsterdamcocoaweek.nl