Flera olika inkomstkällor på inkomstacceleratorprogrammet

Stärkande av kvinnors ställning

As an innovative family-centred approach, the Income Growth Programme aims to close the gap to a living income and reduce the risk of child labour by encouraging behavioural change and rewarding positive ways of working – both at home and on the farm.  

The income increase program aims to improve the living conditions of families who grow cocoa. The program rewards cocoa growing families not only for the quantity and quality of their cocoa beans, but also for practices that benefit the environment and the local community. The programme incentivises and enables cocoa farmers to take part in activities in four areas: schooling, good farming practices, agroforestry activities and diversification of income. For example, by enrolling your child in school, you will receive a cash payment. 

During the first two years, families in the program can receive up to SEK 5600,1100 each year (SEK 1100,<> per area with an additional SEK <>,<> if the families meet the requirements and measures for all four areas) with incentives distributed equally between the man and woman in the household to encourage gender equality, shared financial responsibility, and to create more resilient households. 

The program values equal distribution of incentives because when women are actively engaged, it can lead to more inclusive and informed decisions about farm and family finances. That's because women tend to look after the needs of the entire household and prioritize investments that benefit the overall well-being of all family members, such as improving food security, improving access to education and healthcare, and diversifying sources of income. 

Diversification of income in the program is achieved by encouraging women to join the Villages Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA), which helps women obtain funding and loans to start new businesses, especially those living in remote areas where there are usually no banks; attend the Gender Action Learning at Scale (GALS)training, which allows women and men to actively participate in changing perceptions of gender equality, helps to strengthen relationships at all levels, and Income-Generating Activities (IGA) trainings, which support women in researching, planning and starting a successful new business. 

What impact has the income growth program had on diversified incomes? 

In the summer of 2023, the KIT Royal Tropical Institute published the Pilot Phase Midline Report which surveyed 1000 families growing cocoa in the Income Growth Program pilot and showed the following impact on diversified incomes: 

·         86% of families in the program have at least one member enrolled in the VSLA with 24 new VSLAs established – with women making up the majority of VSLA members, which has helped to increase women's involvement in household decision-making regarding spending and promote gender equality  

·         174 households received a loan from the VSLA to finance the expansion or creation of the new IGA 

·         36 IGA training sessions 

·         47% of the families in the program participated in a GALS training  

Overall, the availability of financial resources via the Income Growth Program's income diversification incentive has served as a catalyst for households in the pilot to explore new income-generating opportunities in addition to traditional agricultural activities.  

As the programme expands its scope further in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, the pilot has helped identify ways to improve and amplify its impact in the future. One area of income diversification, which we are already dealing with, is the problem that women often have limited access to mobile phones and ID cards to verify their accounts with 'mobile money'.  

Following the launch of the pilot in 2020, we went ahead and tested a scale-ready phase in Côte d'Ivoire that reached 10,000 families growing cocoa, with the goal of reaching an estimated 160,000 families growing cocoa in our supply chain by 2030.  

We continue to commit to empowering women and households together, to diversify their incomes, and to build sustainable incomes beyond cocoa as we work towards our 2030 goal. 

For more information about the Income Growth Program and its impact on cocoa farming families, read and discover How the Program Works; Progress report of the increase programme (July 2023); and the reports of the KIT Royal Tropical Institute Scale Adaptive Test Baseline and the Pilot Phase Midline Report. 

Have a Beak for Good

To make your favourite KitKat® even better, we've set ourselves the mission to go even further with our support for cocoa farmers and their families. That's what the Income Accelerator program is all about. This program has a family-focused approach that strives to improve disparities and living conditions for cocoa farmers and their families.

Our journey started back in 2009 when the Nestlé Cocoa Plan was launched, and we've learned a lot along the way (you can find more information about the Nestlé®® Cocoa Plan here!). The Income Accelerator program builds on these experiences and focuses on initiatives that have already been proven to make a difference to the lives of cocoa farmers. The program is designed to reward positive practices – both at home and on the cocoa farm. It gives a push in the right direction and encourages families to take measures to improve their cocoa production, plant forest and fruit trees, reduce income inequality and support their children's schooling and education. Our program has a unique approach where families are at the center, instead of just the individual farmers. By focusing on family, we place more emphasis on women as a source of positive change.

Just like the four fingers of a KitKat®, we have four parameters that make this program come alive. These parameters are based on four positive actions that we reward cocoa farmers for implementing. If all are achieved, cocoa farmers can earn up to $3700,<> extra per year for the first two years:

• Helping their children aged 6-16 with schooling.
• Improve agricultural practices, for example through efficient pruning of trees to increase crop productivity.
• Plant forest and fruit trees on the cacao farms. This provides necessary shade for the cocoa beans, helps resist climate change, supports biodiversity, and potentially increases farmers' incomes.
• Empowering women to start businesses and reducing income disparities between men and women in the household.

These parameters of our Indkomst accelerator program aim to ensure the well-being of cocoa farmers and are paid out equally between both parents, directly through payment transfer. These parameters apply regardless of the size of the farm, so even those with the smallest farms can earn. That way, no farmer is left behind. This support is in addition to the Nestlé® Cocoa Plan and the price paid for certified Rainforest Alliance cocoa.

So far, the program has helped 10,000 families of cocoa farmers (and counting) in Côte d'Ivoire. But it doesn't stop there! This is a step in the right direction with the ambition to extend the scope of the programme even further. First by expanding our coverage in Côte d'Ivoire and then entering Ghana. We aim to reach 160,000 cocoa farmer families in our Indkomst accelerator program by 2030.

Scroll down to learn more about how we support farming families through the different pillars of the program (links to each page).

FLER PLANTERADE TRÄD

Vi levererar och planterar skuggträd på kakaofarmer

As an innovative family-centred approach, the Income Growth Programme aims to close the gap to a living income and reduce the risk of child labour by encouraging behavioural changes and rewarding positive ways of working – both at home and on the farm.  

The income increase program aims to improve the living conditions of families who grow cocoa. The program rewards cocoa growing families not only for the quantity and quality of their cocoa beans, but also for practices that benefit the environment and the local community. The programme incentivises and enables cocoa-producing families to take part in activities in four areas: schooling, good agricultural practices, agroforestry activities and diversification of income.

Families in the program can receive up to $5600,2800 per year for the first two years and thereafter $<>,<> per year, with the incentives equally distributed through mobile money between the man and woman in the household to encourage gender equality, shared financial responsibilities and to create more resilient households. 

Cocoa growing families can receive up to $1100,<> from incentives by participating in agroforestry activities – one of the four cornerstones of the income growth program. We provide families in the program with native forest and fruit trees (such as fraké, irvingia, akpi, framiré, bété, pepper...) to help improve the sustainability of their cocoa farm and promote biodiversity and provide opportunities for income diversification. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) refers to agroforestry as essential for small farms, "vital for small farms" for its many potential economic and environmental benefits.

What impact has the income increase program had on agroforestry activities? 

In the summer of 2023, the KIT Royal Tropical Institute published the Pilot Phase Midline Report, which surveyed 1000 families growing cocoa in the Income Growth Program pilot and showed the following impact on agroforestry activities: 

·         On average, 20 shade and fruit trees were delivered to each family growing cocoa, ready for planting 

·         A total of 20,000 tree seeds were distributed 

·         92% of cocoa growers declared that they had planted the trees 

We had initially created the program with the goal of planting 10 trees per year per hectare and based on supplier data, we have reached 20 trees per hectare. It's great to see that we're planting more trees than we anticipated. These shade trees are in addition to the 1M trees distributed through the Nestlé Cocoa Programme (see latest Nestlé Cocoa Programme, Development Report). 

As we expand the scope of the Income Growth Programme further in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, the pilot has helped identify ways to enhance and amplify its impact in the future. Our goal is to maximize the potential of the income growth program by building on our learnings, such as highlighting why it is important that families who grow cocoa today adopt the practices we advocate (i.e. agroforestry) because that is how they build long-term sustainability. 

Following the launch of the pilot in 2020, we went ahead and tested a scale-ready phase in Côte d'Ivoire that reached 10,000 families growing cocoa, with an ambition to reach an estimated 160,000 families growing cocoa in our supply chain by 2030.  

We will continue to plant more trees by advocating for the adoption of agroforestry activities and providing seedlings from forest and fruit trees, as well as encouraging their planting and maintenance by families who grow cocoa as we work towards our 2030 goal. 

For more information about the Income Growth Program and its impact on cocoa farming families, read and discover How the Program Works; Progress report of the increase programme (July 2023); and the reports of the KIT Royal Tropical Institute Scale Adaptive Test Baseline and the Pilot Phase Midline Report. 

VI HJÄLPER BARN IN I SKOLGÅNG

Skolinskrivning i inkomstökningsprogrammet

As an innovative family-centred approach, the Income Growth Programme aims to close the gap to a living income and reduce the risk of child labour by encouraging behavioural changes and rewarding positive ways of working – both at home and on the farm.  

The income increase program aims to improve the living conditions of families who grow cocoa. The program rewards cocoa growing families not only for the quantity and quality of their cocoa beans, but also for practices that benefit the environment and the local community. The programme incentivises and enables cocoa-producing families to take part in activities in four areas: schooling, good agricultural practices, agroforestry activities and diversification of income.

Families in the program can receive up to $5600,2800 per year for the first two years and thereafter $<>,<> per year, with the incentives equally distributed through mobile money between the man and woman in the household to encourage gender equality, shared financial responsibilities and to create more resilient households. 

Enrolling children from the age of 6-16 in school is one of the four cornerstones of the program and allows families to earn up to 1100 SEK, paid out in two instalments: 1) 50% on promise of enrollment and 2) 50% on confirmation of enrolment. The school enrollment incentive helps cover the costs of schooling – such as uniforms, bags, stationery, and pens. By ensuring that women receive the incentive for school enrolment, we empower them to take an active role in family finances and invest the funds where they matter most. 

The incentives from all four areas are already having a positive impact on the programme's local communities and cocoa-producing families, with families prioritising healthcare and their children's schooling as the main use of the funds they receive. We are convinced that school enrollment will play an important role in helping to reduce the risks of child labor – a key goal of the income growth program. 

How has the income increase program affected school enrollment? 

In the summer of 2023, the KIT Royal Tropical Institute published the Pilot Phase Midline Report, which surveyed 1000 families growing cocoa in the Income Growth Program pilot and showed the following impact on school enrollment: 

·         School enrollment levels improved by 8 percent among households in the program 

·         2782 children attended school, which corresponds to 98% of the registered children 

·         94% of households received the first payment of 50% for the "enrolment promise" 

As we continue with the roll-out of the Income Growth Programme further in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, our goal is to streamline the identification and verification of school attendance – an issue raised in the pilot report as the reason for the delay in the second 50% incentive payout, which is dependent on school enrolment verification. 

Following the launch of the pilot in 2020, we went ahead and tested a scale-ready phase in Côte d'Ivoire that reached 10,000 families growing cocoa, with the goal of reaching an estimated 160,000 families growing cocoa in our supply chain by 2030.  

The benefits of schooling and the positive impact it will have on the risks of child labour remain a key priority as we work towards our 2030 target. 

. 

For more information about the Income Growth Program and its impact on cocoa farming families, read and discover How the Program Works; Progress report of the increase programme (July 2023); and the reports of the KIT Royal Tropical Institute Scale Adapted Test Baseline and Pilot Phase Midline Report

Goda Jordbruksmetoder

En viktig drivkraft för hållbar kakaoproduktion

As an innovative family-centred approach, the Income Growth Programme aims to close the gap to a living income and reduce the risk of child labour by encouraging behavioural change and rewarding positive ways of working – both at home and on the farm.  

The income increase program aims to improve the living conditions of families who grow cocoa. The program rewards cocoa growing families not only for the quantity and quality of their cocoa beans, but also for practices that benefit the environment and the local community. The programme incentivises and enables cocoa-producing families to take part in activities in four areas: schooling, good agricultural practices, agroforestry activities and diversification of income.

During the first two years, families in the program can receive up to SEK 5600,1100 each year (SEK 1100,<> per area with an additional SEK <>,<> if the families meet the requirements and measures for all four areas) with incentives distributed equally between the man and woman in the household to encourage gender equality, shared financial responsibility, and to create more resilient households. 

Families who grow cocoa can receive up to $1100,50 from incentives by participating in quality pruning or architectural pruning – one of the four cornerstones of the income growth program. The first <>% of the incentive is delivered when families "pledge to engage in pruning." This is done so that the families have sufficient funds and cash flow to be able to prune their crops. 

To help all families access quality pruning, we are educating and equipping community members on how to perform a new structured and graded method called architectural pruning, based on a defined grading to perform the removal of diseased, dead or non-productive branches, leading to increased allocation of resources to the remaining branches and fruits. 

They are marketed as "pruning groups" and these teams are encouraged to offer their services to families who grow cocoa so that all farms can benefit from architectural pruning. It benefits the local community by raising the overall level of pruning and providing members of the pruning team with a way to diversify their income and also limit disease and crop loss, facilitate farm maintenance and increase the size of cocoa farms. 

What has been the effect of pruning on the families in the income increase program? 

In the summer of 2023, the KIT Royal Tropical Institute published the Pilot Phase Midline Report, which surveyed 1000 families growing cocoa in the Income Growth Program pilot and showed the following impact: 

·         Increase of almost 20% compared to average cocoa yields from uncropped cocoa fields with 22% of households reaching one tonne per per hectare of land  

·         43% of households exceeded the programme target of pruning one hectare each year – 50% of households pruned up to two hectares  

·         Pruning services were provided to all households in the program and 55 pruning groups were created  

As we further expand the Income Growth Program to Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, the pilot has helped to identify several areas for improvement. With good agricultural practices, a future measure is to highlight why the activities benefit farmers and their farms in the medium to long term. This is needed because some farmers were sceptical about architectural pruning (mainly due to the invasive nature of pruning and the large number of branches that were pruned and removed from the cacao trees) which meant that teams on the ground needed to closely monitor activity to ensure implementation of the method.  

Following the launch of the pilot in 2020, we went ahead and tested a scale-ready phase in Côte d'Ivoire that reached 10,000 families growing cocoa, with the goal of reaching an estimated 160,000 families growing cocoa in our supply chain by 2030.  

Good agricultural practices will continue to play a key role in the programme as we work towards our 2030 target. 

For more information about the Income Growth Program and its impact on cocoa farming families, read and discover How the Program Works; Progress report of the increase programme (July 2023); and the reports of the KIT Royal Tropical Institute Scale Adaptive Test Baseline and the Pilot Phase Midline Report. 

HÖGRE INKOMST FÖR KAKAOPRODUCENTER

Vi hjälper till att minska klyftan till inkomst det går att leva på för familjer som producerar kakao

As an innovative family-centred approach, the Income Growth Programme aims to close the gap to a living income and reduce the risk of child labour by encouraging behavioural change and rewarding positive ways of working – both at home and on the farm.  

The income increase program aims to improve the living conditions of families who grow cocoa. The program rewards cocoa growing families not only for the quantity and quality of their cocoa beans, but also for practices that benefit the environment and the local community. The programme incentivises and enables cocoa-producing families to take part in activities in four areas: schooling, good agricultural practices, agroforestry activities and diversification of income.

During the first two years, families in the program can receive up to SEK 5600,1100 each year (SEK 1100,<> per area with an additional SEK <>,<> if the families meet the requirements and measures for all four areas) with incentives distributed equally between the man and woman in the household to encourage gender equality, shared financial responsibility, and to create more resilient households. 

As income increases from additional sources and better harvests, the cash incentive is reduced to SEK 2800 per year thereafter.  

The incentives for good farming practices and schooling are paid in part on a promise that guarantees that families who grow cocoa will earn more by participating in the program. For the schooling part, the program gives families the opportunity to earn up to SEK 1100, which is paid out in two instalments: 1) 50% when promised enrollment and 2) 50% when confirming enrollment.  

In addition, the incentives are delivered directly into the hands of the man and woman in the household via registered "mobile money" accounts that ensure security and traceability. 

To put the amounts into perspective, when the program was launched in January 2022, we estimated that the threshold for a living income was around €6650.69, which is equivalent to SEK 75,078.18 per year^{1, 2, 3} 

See the "How it works" document for further information 

What are the results of the incentives so far? 

In the summer of 2023, the KIT Royal Tropical Institute published the Pilot Phase Midline Report, which surveyed 1000 families growing cocoa in the Income Growth Program pilot and showed the following impact on the incentives: 

·         93% of households indicated that they had received at least one cash transfer 

·         The incentives have primarily stimulated income diversification activities and were used to cover health care and schooling  

As we look at expanding the program further in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, the pilot has helped identify the need to improve communication regarding the incentives (what is required and why it matters), to ensure that there are no delays in disbursement (as it weakens behavioural change), and to help families get involved in all four incentive areas. All of these improvements are aimed at increasing the overall incentive that families receive and amplifying the impact of the program. 

From our supplier reports of activities in the scaled-up testing phase, we know that since January 2022, families have already received an estimated SEK 22,578,000 million in incentives – a positive step for families who grow cocoa to have more money in hand. 

We are confident that the incentives of the programmes will be instrumental in accelerating practices that will help close the gap to a living income for families growing cocoa in Côte d'Ivoire and beyond.

Following the launch of the pilot in 2020, we went ahead and tested a scale-ready phase in Côte d'Ivoire that reached 10,000 families growing cocoa, with the goal of reaching an estimated 160,000 families growing cocoa in our supply chain by 2030.  

For more information about the Income Growth Program and its impact on cocoa farming families, read and discover How the Program Works; Progress report of the increase programme (July 2023); and the reports of the KIT Royal Tropical Institute Scale Adaptive Test Baseline and the Pilot Phase Midline Report. 

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¹Cost of Living and Living Income Threshold: Ivorian Center for Socio Economic Research (CIRES) (2018). The Living Income Report, Côte d'Ivoire Rural Areas, Cocoa-Growing Areas, Adjusted by Household Size based on Bymolt, R., Laven, A., & Tyszler, M. (2018). Demystification of the cocoa sector in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) updated for August 2020 inflation and exchange rate on January 13, 2022.  

² Average family size: 3.82 adults and 2.96 children, Average farm size: 3.5 hectares, source Bymolt, R., Laven, A., & Tyszler, M. (2018). Demystification of the cocoa sector in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Royal Tropical Institute (KIT). Available in: https://www.kit.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Demystifying-complete-file.pdf  

³ Equivalent of CHF 6365 based on the exchange rate on 9 October 2023