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8. Decent work and economic growth

Articles overview

  • From Projects to Businesses: Why Entrepreneurial Leadership Matters

    • Institute
    • Publication

    This learning brief explores how farmer organizations introduce the service innovations supported by the BFC program: It identifies necessary conditions for these service innovations to become commercially viable while achieving impact at scale and reaching large numbers of farmers. The analysis of a series of BFC investment cases provides the following key insights: In addition […]

  • Sustained impact and the road ahead

    • Institute
    • Publication

    This report evaluates the impact of the Accelerator after 3.5 years of implementation among test-at-scale households in Côte d’Ivoire. To robustly estimate the Accelerator’s progress from 2022 to 2025, four waves of survey data from 1,970 households across 28 cooperatives (all Nestlé Cocoa Plan (NCP) and Rainforest Alliance (RA) certified) were used. To estimate the […]

  • Entrepreneurial Leadership: A Key Factor in the Economic Viability of Farmer Organisations (Fr/En)

    • Institute
    • Publication

    Farmer organisations (FOs) in Africa play a dual role: as platforms for collective action and advocacy, and as commercial actors generating revenues through input supply, storage, and marketing. Yet many struggle to achieve economic viability, hampered by governance weaknesses, volatile markets, and dependence on donor support. This learning brief, written by Jaap Voeten, Fresnelle Houéfa […]

  • Learning Brief: Lessons from implementing the Cocoa Household Income Study (CHIS) for living income measurement

    • Institute
    • Publication

    The Cocoa Household Income Study (CHIS) is a sector-wide initiative providing a harmonised methodology for monitoring and assessing living income in the cocoa sector. Published in 2024, the CHIS Methodology offers guidance for collecting representative and comparable household income data across all cocoa-producing households. Since its publication, the CHIS approach has been adopted across the […]

  • Endline Evaluation

    • Institute
    • Publication

    This endline evaluation assesses the two-year impact of the EnRoute programme, a partnership between ETG–Beyond Beans Foundation, Oxfam Novib, and KIT Institute. The programme set out to test practical, scalable approaches to closing the living income (LI) gap and reducing child labour (CL) among 599 farming households.  The programme tested three intervention models among cocoa-farming […]

  • Alternative Income Generation

    • Institute
    • Publication

    As the majority of cocoa producers in West Africa continue to earn far below a living income, the concept of living income has become central to discussions on sustainable cocoa. While efforts have traditionally focused on increasing cocoa productivity, there is growing recognition that income diversification is essential to reduce vulnerability to price volatility and […]

  • A3-SEED South Sudan: Internal Project Evaluation

    • Institute
    • Publication

    This final report presents a comprehensive evaluation of the A3SEED project (2021–2025), a €10 million initiative funded by the Embassy of the Netherlands in South Sudan and implemented by IFDC in partnership with KIT Institute. The project aimed to transform the seed sector in South Sudan by strengthening domestic seed production through a private sector–led […]

  • What is the development impact of vertical coordination in agricultural value chains in LMICs?

    • Institute
    • Publication

    This literature review examines how vertical coordination—tighter corporate control across agricultural value chains—affects development outcomes in low- and middle-income countries.  Having reviewed 19 academic studies on evidence-based outcomes of vertical coordination, the focus of the analysis is on three main impact areas: (1) local economic development, (2) local job creation, and (3) the inclusion of […]

  • Business-to-Business (B2B) Organisational and Marketing Innovations in Nigerian Horticulture

    • Institute
    • Publication

    The HortiNigeria programme, implemented by IFDC in partnership with Wageningen Research, East-West Seed International and KIT Institute, is strengthening Nigeria’s horticulture sector across the entire value chain—from production to marketing. This new learning brief explores how local actors drive innovation within Business-to-Business (B2B) linkages in Kano, Kaduna, Ogun, and Oyo states. Using Actor-Network Theory, it […]

  • A Comparative Review of Living Wage and Living Income Benchmarking Approaches

    • Institute
    • Publication

    This paper offers a systematic review of leading living wage (LW) and living income (LI) benchmarking methodologies to help users select the most appropriate approach for their specific context and purpose. Drawing on criteria developed by the Living Income Community of Practice—such as data quality, local adaptability, and stakeholder ownership—the review highlights the strengths and […]

  • Resilience during Cocoa Sector Turbulence

    • Institute
    • Publication

    Launched in 2022, Nestlé’s Income Accelerator Program aims to reduce the Living Income (LI) gap for cocoa farming households while addressing child labor risks. Centered around four key areas – school enrollment, good agricultural practices (GAPs), agroforestry, and income diversification – the program provides conditional cash transfers and resources to encourage farming practices that benefit […]

  • Living Income Benchmark for the Eastern Province and Living Income Reference Price for the cocoa sector in Sierra Leone (2024)

    • Institute
    • Publication

    This study, commissioned by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as part of its effort to support the cocoa sector in Sierra Leone, compute two important  indicators: the Living Income Benchmark (LIB) for the cocoa-growing areas located in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone and the Living Income Reference Price (LIRP) for the cocoa sector.  To bridge […]