The Cocoa Household Income Study (CHIS) Programme is a sector-wide effort to create a harmonised methodology for measuring living income in the cocoa sector. The initiative is led and funded by World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) and Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa.

In the first phase of the CHIS programme (2023-2024), the CHIS Methodology was developed by KIT Institute in collaboration with Wageningen University & Research, CIRES and EMC from Côte d’Ivoire. The methodology was completed with inputs from numerous stakeholders across the cocoa sector, including the Alliance on Living Income in Cocoa (ALICO), Living Income Community of Practice (LICOP), representatives from producing country governments, NGOs and civil society organisations, and various WCF member companies.

In the second phase (2024-2025), KIT Institute and Wageningen University & Research are partnering again with the World Cocoa Foundation to assess the incomes and living income gaps of cocoa-producing households in Côte d’Ivoire’s Yapo Abbé Landscape using the CHIS Methodology. The study focuses on income differences between households in the direct and indirect supply chains and underlying income drivers such as access to land, productivity, and tenure. Indirect supply chain households don’t directly sell to cooperatives or cocoa buyers and are not registered by them. Their cocoa enters the formal supply chain via intermediaries, and they are often excluded from living income studies. This research will evaluate how their incomes differ from those in the direct supply chain and whether they benefit from sustainability programmes.

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