Our Giving Philosophy
The Global Cocoa Project (GCP) is a high-impact poverty alleviation project focused on significantly improving the lives of cocoa farmers worldwide through the supply of equipment and basic needs. Our proven success results from studying a very complex problem and within it, looking for and finding the simple solutions in partnership with the farmers we serve so that we can deliver high impact results. Often large scale projects which are initiated by governments and large NGOs don’t consider the bottom up approach as they look for ways to make broad sweeping, systematic change. We feel it’s essential and given this we’ve focused on beginning our work in conversation with those we aim to serve and come up with high impact solutions which tackle basic, but incredibly significant issues.
After an extensive needs assessment inquiry, we discovered that what the farmers needed most, that was overlooked by larger scale projects, were basic needs. In interviews over and over again, our on the ground partner told us that the farmers needed tools; scales so they wouldn’t be cheated by middlemen; bikes to transport goods to local markets; wells in the villages so that the women didn’t have to spend hours fetching potable water and finally solar-powered lights for community spaces and solar-powered lanterns with mobile phone recharging capabilities for home use.
Watch two videos which talk about the impact that the donation of scales and a well made in Ivorian cocoa villages.