FERRERO AND SAVE THE CHILDREN PARTNERSHIP DELIVERS PROGRESS FOR CHILDREN IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE’S COCOA COMMUNITIES
The project will also be one of the topics addressed today at "Cacao Connect – The Italian pathway to cocoa in Africa", promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, together with the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Ferrero, Save the Children and ICAM.
Thanks to the long-term strategic partnership between Save the Children and Ferrero, results achieved between 2020 and 2025 in cocoa-growing communities in Côte d'Ivoire demonstrate significant progress in the fight against child labour and community strengthening driven by a holistic approach and close collaboration with and through government systems.
The incidence of child labour in cocoa supply chain represents a systemic challenge. In rural areas, child labour is linked to a range of interconnected factors, including poverty, economic vulnerability, limited access to education and essential services, low awareness of children’s rights and limited development opportunities. Addressing child labour therefore requires not only identifying and preventing individual cases but also tackling its underlying causes so that children can grow up protected, stay in school and have better opportunities for the future.
The programme uses an integrated approach combining child protection, education and community economic development, while engaging families, schools, institutions, civil society organisations and actors across the cocoa supply chain. Strengthening families’ economic resilience is a central part of this model and an important factor in addressing the conditions that can contribute to child labour.
Between 2020 and 2025, the proportion of households with diversified sources of income rose from 24% to 65%, while the proportion of families living below the poverty line fell from 60% to 43%.
Education is another fundamental pillar of the programme. During the same period, primary school enrolment increased from 78% to 84%, while regular school attendance rose from 75% to 97%. In addition, 89% of children who attended bridging classes, designed to recover missed years of schooling, were subsequently enrolled in the formal education system to complete primary school.
More than half of the children involved in the programme (53%) improved their reading, writing and numeracy skills, while the proportion of children aged 0 to 5 showing regular body growth increased from 54% to 79%. At the same time, 88% of families reported increased awareness of children’s rights and 94% reported being better able to recognise, prevent and tackle child labour within their communities.
Particular attention was also given to adolescents and young people, who were supported through vo cational training and pathways into employment. By the end of the programme, 64% of the young participants were in paid employment, helping to create tangible opportunities for economic independence and development.
These results highlight the value of a model based on collaboration among all those involved, from local communities to institutions. It brings together expertise, resources and shared responsibilities, encourages knowledge-sharing across the public, private and social sectors, increases the impact of investment and helps turn good practice into sustainable, replicable solutions. The model’s effectiveness has been measured from the outset through an impact monitoring and evaluation system.
Building on the results achieved over the 2020–2025 period, the partnership is now entering a new phase that will continue until 2030 and has been further strengthened through the support of Italian Development Cooperation.
“The results achieved confirm that concrete, lasting change in the lives of children, adolescents and their families is possible when the root causes of child labour are addressed through an integrated, system-wide approach. Strengthening child protection, expanding access to education and investing in community development means creating the conditions for children’s rights to be fully upheld and for communities to become more resilient and prosperous over time. This is the value of long-term investment, made possible by our partnership with Ferrero and further strengthened by the support of Italian Development Cooperation. Collaboration between public institutions, the private sector and civil society can create models that deliver measurable, sustainable and replicable impact, while also contributing to an increasingly responsible cocoa supply chain that respects children’s rights,” said Daniela Fatarella, Director General of Save the Children Italy.
Francesco Tramontin, Vice President Global Public Affairs at Ferrero, highlighted: “These strong results demonstrate the value of long-term investment in cocoa-growing communities and are an important part of Ferrero’s responsible sourcing approach, combining carefully managed sourcing models with interventions that strengthen children, families and communities.
But structural challenges such as child labor cannot be addressed by any single actor. We need to build on what works and bring it to scale by combining expertise and resources and, critically, by working not only with governments but through governments, strengthening local systems and capacities.
This is the ambition of Cacao Connect: an open model bringing together public institutions, the private sector, civil society and research to drive broader, lasting change in cocoa-growing communities.”
About Cacao Connect – The Italian pathway to cocoa in Africa
The results of the project in Côte d’Ivoire will be discussed today at 14:30 at the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples in Rimini, during the institutional panel "Cacao Connect – The Italian pathway to cocoa in Africa", promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, together with the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Ferrero, Save the Children and ICAM.
The event will bring together representatives of Italian and African institutions, international organisations, the private sector, civil society, financial institutions, research bodies and development cooperation partners to discuss prospects for strengthening international collaboration in support of the sustainable transformation of the cocoa supply chain.
The discussion will be moderated by Angelo Riccaboni, economist and former Rector of the University of Siena, and will feature Edmondo Cirielli, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mona Helen Kabuki Quartey, Ambassador of Ghana to Italy, Koffi Rodrigue N'GUESSAN, General Director of Rural Development at the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Food Crops of Côte d’Ivoire, Kiba Odogu A'Ngatsesse, Advisor for Agriculture, Agribusiness, and Rural Development to the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Republic of the Congo, Alex Assanvo, Executive Secretary of the Côte d’Ivoire–Ghana Cocoa Initiative (CIGCI), Francesco Tramontin, Vice President, Global Public Affairs, Ferrero Group, Adelio Crippa, Chief Executive Officer of ICAM, Carlo Rossotto, Director of International Development Cooperation at Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Juan Lucas Restrepo, Director General of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and Daniela Fatarella, Director General of Save the Children Italy.
