Cameroon and three other African countries receive $13.5 million

Yaounde, January 25, 2012

The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) launch a new African Cocoa Initiative (ACI), a Global Development Alliance partnership to invest in sustainable cocoa programs in the region.  The official event will be held in March at Accra, Ghana.  The five-year $13.5 million cooperative agreement aims at strengthening the cocoa sector in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria.  WCF/ACI was announced in October at the World Cocoa Foundation’s Partnership Meetings in Accra.

Aron Gunkelman, a Peace Corps Volunteer serving in the South West region of Cameroon as an agricultural business volunteer says “The African cocoa initiative is aimed at harmonizing private and public alliances in order to provide support in terms of sustainable cocoa farming and food security.”  Gunkelman also said, “through …these linkages we were able to find a relation for a buyer, locally, a Cameroonian buyer to purchase the federations cocoa from the farmers group at an improved price.”

WCF/ACI will have four key aspects:  fostering public-private cooperative investments in cocoa and agriculture, improving the genetic quality and productivity of the cocoa varieties under cultivation, expanding farmer education and training programs, and improving the agriculture input supply chains that serve the farmers.  Through the program, USAID, WCF and IDH are contributing significant funding and expertise to improve farmer incomes, alleviate poverty, strengthen government and regional institutions, and help advance food security throughout the region.  This advances the goals of the U.S. government’s Feed the Future Initiative to increase agricultural productivity and the economic well-being of smallholder farmers.

For more information, please contact the United States Embassy in Yaounde, Press section Tel 22 20 15 00, ext 4162 or 4273.