Helping close the living income gap for cocoa-farming families
Incentives in the Income Accelerator Program
For the first two years, families in the program can receive up to €500 annually (€100 per areas with an additional €100 if families meet the required conditions and actions for all four areas) with the incentives distributed equally between the two household heads (i.e., man and woman) to encourage gender equality, share financial responsibilities, and build more resilient household.
As incomes increase from additional sources and better yields, the cash incentive is reduced to €250 per year thereafter , The incentives for good agricultural practices and schooling are partially paid upon promise guaranteeing that, by engaging in the program, the cocoa-farming families will earn additional income . For the “school enrollment” area, the program enables families to earn up to €100 incentive, paid in two installments: 1) 50% on ‘promise to enroll’; and 2) 50% on ‘confirmation of enrollment’. On top the incentives are delivered directly in the hands of the two heads of the household via registered ‘mobile money’ accounts that ensure security and traceability.
To put these amounts in perspective, we estimated, at the launch of the program in January 2022, that the living income benchmark was around €6 650.69 per year
See the “How it Works” document for more details
What has been the results of the incentives so far?
Published in summer 2023, the KIT Royal Tropical Institute Midline report of the pilot phase examined the 1000 cocoa-farming families of the income accelerator program pilot, revealing the following impacts of the incentives:
- 93% of households indicated that they had received at least one cash transfer
- Incentives have primarily stimulated income diversification activities and were used to cover healthcare and schooling
As we look to expand the program further into Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the pilot has helped to identify the need to improve communication of the incentives (what is needed and why it matters), make sure there are no delays in payments (as it weakens behavior change), and help families engage across all four incentive areas. These improvements all aim to increase the total incentives families receive and amplify the impact of the program.
From our supplier reports of activities in the test at scale phase, we know since January 2022 families have already received an estimated €2 million of incentives – a positive step in getting more money into the hands of cocoa-farming families.
We remain confident that the program’s incentives will be key to accelerate practices that will contribute to closing the gap to a living income for cocoa-farming families in Côte d’Ivoire and beyond.
Following the launch of the pilot in 2020, we moved to a test at scale phase in Côte d’Ivoire reaching 10 000 cocoa-farming families, with the aim to reach an estimated 160 000 cocoa-farming families in our supply chain by 2030.
For more information on the income accelerator program and its impact on cocoa-farming families, click to read and discover How the program works; the Income Accelerator Program Progress Report (July 2023); and the KIT Royal Tropical Institute reports Baseline on test at scale and Midline report of the pilot phase .