A sector-wide approach to assessing the living income status of households in the cocoa sector

The cocoa sector has been working to deliver living incomes for cocoa farming households since 2015, but learning at the sector level aimed at achieving living incomes has been hampered by challenges in data collection and sharing. To address these challenges and to inform policy and strategy design and delivery with a focus on impact at scale, a collaborative approach is required. With this goal in mind, and with the intention of harmonising and ensuring the availability of a comprehensive household income evaluation methodology across the cocoa sector, the Cocoa Household Income Study (CHIS) was developed. This document (in English and French) presents this methodological approach.

“Our methodology provides guidelines on how to reach farmers that have previously been invisible in living income estimates. These include women, youth and farmers who do not directly supply to companies, hence are part of the indirect supply chain. It would be valuable to further understand their families’ situations to be able to better serve them in the future,” explains Selma van der Haar.