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Living Income

Articles overview

  • 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 […]

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  • 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 […]

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  • 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 […]

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  • Understanding the Income-Child Labour Nexus in Agricultural Commodity Sectors

    • Institute
    • Project

    Child labour remains widespread in agricultural commodities. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where much of the world’s cocoa, coffee and cashew is produced, the number of children in child labour rose from 70 million in 2016 to 87 million in 2024. At the same time, cocoa, coffee and cashew farming families from West and East Africa earn […]

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  • 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 […]

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  • 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 […]

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  • Understanding Smallholder Inclusion Efforts of the Private Sector

    • Institute
    • Publication

    Large (buying) companies in global value chains are increasingly seeking to integrate smallholder farmers into their supply chains. Accordingly, they have developed programs to promote smallholder inclusion through productivity growth, market access, quality improvement, and other initiatives. The complexity of these initiatives highlights the need for a deeper understanding of smallholder inclusion models, applying both […]

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  • How to accelerate South Sudan’s transition from seed aid to seed market?

    • Institute
    • Publication

    This policy brief outlines practical recommendations aimed at accelerating the transition of South Sudan’s seed sector from reliance on seed aid, or free seeds distributed by humanitarian agencies, towards the development of a viable, inclusive and sustainable seed market.

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  • KIT Cocoa Living Income Questionnaire

    • Institute
    • Project

    KIT Institute has for long been at the forefront of living income research in the cocoa sector. Our experts have actively contributed to the Living Income Community of Practice (LICOP) and the Alliance on Living Income in Cocoa (ALICO), developing several tools and guidance documents for measuring the incomes of smallholder cocoa producers and evaluating […]

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  • Nestlé Income Accelerator Program: Progress Report of the Test-at-Scale Phase

    • Institute
    • Publication

    In 2022, Nestlé launched the Income Accelerator Program in Côte d’Ivoire as part of their ambition to help close the Living Income (LI) gap in their cocoa supply chain and combat the root causes of child labour risks. The current test-at-scale phase involves 10,000 farming households in Côte d’Ivoire, following a previous one-year piloting period among 1,000 farming households. These […]

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  • Cocoa Household Income Study (CHIS) Methodology

    • Institute
    • Publication

    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 […]

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  • Towards more effective ways to address child labour in the cocoa sector

    • Institute
    • Project

    Child labour remains a persistent human rights violation in the cocoa sector, impacting children’s physical and mental health while depriving them of educational opportunities. The cocoa sector is increasingly responding to this issue by implementing innovative programmes, targeting the root causes of child labour, such as poverty and a lack of access to quality education. […]

    Read more : Towards more effective ways to address child labour in the cocoa sector