Retail News|April 2021|www.retailnews.ie|17
Retail News Interview
The well-being of women in cocoa communities is a critical link to family food security and nutrition, education and health, and drives the longterm prospects for a future of educated cocoa farmers.
Structural inequalities, poverty and human rights risks exist in cocoa farming communities around the world, particularly in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, where more than 60% of the world’s cocoa is grown. Insufficient law enforcement and limited access to basic infrastructure such as roads, clean water, healthcare, mobile connectivity, banking and education, limit people’s ability to thrive. Mars is a principle-based private company; creating mutual benefits for all our stakeholders is at the heart of our purpose. Our goals are to ensure that within our extended supply chains, everyone has the opportunity to thrive, human rights are respected, and the environment is protected. The cocoa supply chain of today does not deliver on these ambitions – it is broken, and current interventions are not enough to fix it. In 2018, we launched our Cocoa for Generations Strategy (C4G) backed by a plan to invest $1 billion over 10 years (2018–2028), with the ambition of contributing to transforming the cocoa supply chain so that global sustainable development goals are met, human rights are respected, the environment is protected, and cocoa farmers, their families and their communities have the opportunity to thrive.
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Our goals are to ensure that within our extended supply chains, everyone has the opportunity to thrive, human rights are respected, and the environment is protected. The cocoa supply chain of today does not deliver on these ambitions – it is broken, and current interventions are not enough to fix it.
There has been some criticism of chocolate companies over the perceived failure to eradicate child labour from the chocolate supply chain, where it is estimated that over 1.5m children still work on cocoa plantations (NORC Report, October 2020). What has been done and what more can companies like Mars Wrigley do to fight the problem of child labour? In February 2020, we launched our Protecting Children Action Plan (PCAP), our approach to identifying, preventing and mitigating human rights issues in our cocoa supply chain. The PCAP sets out how we seek to work with suppliers, governments, experts and others to identify, prevent and mitigate human rights issues. It prioritises child and forced labour risks in our extended cocoa supply chain by establishing robust data collection and management systems, implementing effective human rights due diligence
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processes in collabouration with partners, and supporting communitybased investments and development programmes designed to address the root-causes of human rights issues in the areas of women’s empowerment, education and income. We have committed to report on our progress and in early February, we released our cocoa human rights report, Respecting Human Rights in the Cocoa Supply Chain, sharing advances, learnings and insights against the PCAP’s four-lever approach. While we are making strides in our approach, more must be done to reach our ambitions. To achieve meaningful impact that enables cocoa farmers to thrive, public-private partnerships, coupled with appropriate due diligence legislation, where needed, will be essential. Together, these enablers can help improve farmer income and advance respect for human rights
