TRECC strengthens the International Cocoa Initiative’s capacity to promote quality of education

Under a new partnership arrangement, TRECC will build the International Cocoa Initiative’s (ICI) internal capabilities to innovate, test, define and evolve good practices in tackling child labor through improving quality of education and promoting children’s rights in cocoa communities. It will reinforce a comprehensive Monitoring and Evaluation function and will help train ICI’s staff and partners across various disciplines.

The objective of the partnership is to promote innovation and knowledge in education and child protection, and to increase ICI’s institutional capacity to drive collective learning processes that improve the lives of children and youth in cocoa-growing areas of Ivory Coast.

ICI and TRECC have been working together since 2014, collaborating on child labor research and the roll-out of good practices in quality formal and non-formal education. With co-funding from TRECC, Nestlé and Cargill, ICI is participating in our industry partnership project by establishing bridging classes and vocational training for youth, as well as income-generating activities for women.

“Social transformation is only sustainable if organizations have the capacity, resources, and knowledge to drive them at all levels,” says Fabio Segura, Head of International Programs at the Jacobs Foundation, TRECC’s managing partner. “Improving quality of education is essential to prevent child labor. ICI is a key partner in the goal to transforming rural livelihoods and we are committed to supporting them with the resources to design and pursue their own educational agenda.”

“TRECC and its funding partners have extensive first-hand knowledge and experience in promoting child and youth development, and we are extremely honored to welcome them to our collaborative platform,” says Nick Weatherill, ICI’s Executive Director. “With this strategically focused support, we’ll be able to drive the innovation, collective learning and scale-up of good practices that’s needed to address some of the cocoa-sector’s most pressing sustainability challenges.”

ICI is a leading organization promoting child protection in cocoa-growing communities. They work with the cocoa industry, civil society, farmers’ organizations, communities and national governments in cocoa-producing countries to ensure a better future for children and contribute to the elimination of child labor.