A protective environment for children in Côte d'Ivoire cocoa-growing communities: Public-Private Partnership

Mars Inc. has teamed up with a range of partners in Côte d’Ivoire to help farmers produce better crops and increase their incomes; to help communities improve their living standards; and to fight child labour by making sure children go to school and are not trapped in child labour. Mars Inc.’s Vision for Change Programme (V4C) – an integral part of its Sustainable Cocoa Initiative (SCI) – can be seen as an innovative and holistic way to achieve and maintain sustainable cocoa production by addressing productivity and community issues together. V4C provides training, improved planting material and fertilizers to farmers. V4C also pursues community development work at the village level to ensure that farmers and their families address some of the social and economic challenges in their communities and directly benefit from the increased productivity that training and good agricultural material brings.