February 19, 2009

New Project Won—West Africa: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded West Africa Cocoa Livelihoods Program

ACDI/VOCA will take part in a new $40 million program funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and chocolate industry companies to significantly improve the livelihoods of approximately 200,000 cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Liberia. The program will be managed by the World Cocoa Foundation and be implemented through a consortium of five organizations including ACDI/VOCA, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)/Sustainable Tree Crops Program, SOCODEVI and TechnoServe.

To read the official press release on the World Cocoa Foundation's website, click here.