Gates Foundation promises $48 million for African farmers
Feb 19, 2009 Philanthropy and Corporate Initiatives, Social Initiatives, Stars, Policy and Finance
Bill and Melinda Gates
The World Cocoa Foundation has announced a new, $40 million program funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other companies to significantly improve the livelihoods of approximately 200,000 cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Liberia.
A further grant of $25 million to the German development organization Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will support another project, which aims to help 150,000 small-scale cashew farmers in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Mozambique increase their incomes by 50 percent by 2012 by providing them with processing facilities for their crops locally.
The planned 5 year West Africa Cocoa Livelihoods Program will train farmers in better production techniques, quality improvement and business skills and improve farmer access to agricultural inputs and improved-quality seedlings. The project will also improve farmers’ access to market information and opportunities for diversification into alternative food and cash crops to maximize farmer income and security.
While the Gates Foundation is contributing $23 million, others like Hersheys, Archer Midland Daniels, Starbucks, et al are chipping in with another $17 million. The goal is to lift more than 1 million in Africa, who depend on cocoa farming for livelihood out of poverty.
Source: Forbes.
1:17 am on February 21st, 2009 Reply to this comment!
Unfortunately, the World Cocoa Foundation’s approach to address the poverty of cocoa farmers in West Africa is highly controversial. For more analysis of this recent Gates Foundation grant, please visit: http://laborrightsblog.typepad.com/international_labor_right/2009/02/will-gates-foundation-funding-help-cocoa-farmers.html