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The World Cocoa Foundation is an international membership organisation across six continents, representing the global cocoa and chocolate sector. The membership includes farmer cooperatives, cocoa processors, cocoa traders, chocolate manufacturers, supply chain companies and other companies worldwide.

Vision

Our vision is to be a catalyst for a thriving and equitable cocoa sector, playing a leading role throughout the cocoa sector in partnership with producing country governments, specifically in three impact areas:

  • improving farmer income
  • helping to end deforestation and promoting reforestation
  • combatting child labour

Mission

Our mission is to promote collaboration amongst our members and beyond to strengthen the sustainability of the cocoa sector and improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and cocoa farming communities.

Our strategic approach

We are pursuing three key strategies to deliver our vision and mission:

  • facilitating and convening stakeholders within the cocoa and chocolate sector
  • supporting members’ sustainability programmes  
  • co-creating and leading collaborative programmes to address systemic issues and enable our members to deliver more impact at scale

WCF’s unique position at the centre of the cocoa and chocolate sector enables us to create strategic relationships and collaborative programmes with cocoa farming communities, governments, and civil society, which deliver transformative impact and systemic reform.

Our global footprint

Our work focuses on key cocoa-growing countries such as Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, as well as in South- America due to specific initiatives in Brazil and Colombia. We are looking into expansion to Cameroon and Nigeria, and strengthening our footprint in other cocoa-producing regions such as Ecuador and Indonesia.

Our journey so far

The World Cocoa Foundation was founded. The organisation’s initial purpose was to support research and education programmes related to cocoa agronomy. The WCF spent the next decade building an independent organisation that played a prominent leadership role on behalf of the chocolate and cocoa industry on sustainability issues, especially the issue of child labour.

Implemented programmes through a public-private partnership model. Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development, activities aimed to boost cocoa productivity, raise farmer incomes, and address issues like child labour and deforestation. Focused on West Africa, the Americas, and Southeast Asia.

CocoaAction, launched in 2014 by nine leading chocolate and cocoa companies, was underpinned by a set of principles and actions designed to improve productivity and strengthen cocoa-growing communities in West Africa.

The Cocoa & Forests Initiative, launched in 2017 currently signed by 36 companies, is an ongoing ground-breaking partnership with the governments of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire to end and reverse deforestation in their cocoa sectors.

WCF launched a new strategy and transformation, focus on convening and collaborative programming. Launch of CFI Phase 2 with a landscape approach.

WCF is an industry organisation whose members represents more than 80% of the cocoa sector. WCF’s vision is to be a catalyst for a thriving and equitable cocoa sector that is collaborating to improve farmer income, reverse deforestation and combat child labour.

Governance

The World Cocoa Foundation is governed by our Board of Directors, representing our various member categories.

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Our members

The World Cocoa Foundation has members across six continents, representing the global cocoa and chocolate sector.

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Meet our team

We're a diverse and international team brought together by our ambition to make a difference in the cocoa sector.

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Join WCF

Become a member of the World Cocoa Foundation and join a global network of companies spanning all sectors of the cocoa value chain.

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