The release of its annual Human Rights Due Diligence and Modern Slavery report for 2021 demonstrates the results of Cocoa Life, its 10-year-old signature cocoa sourcing programme.
Mondelēz International said it partners with almost 210,000 farmers in over 2,500 communities and has invested over $400 million to support farmers’ livelihoods.
In 2021, the company claimed to have doubled its progress towards its goal to establish Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS) in all its Cocoa Life communities in West Africa by 2025. The programme expanded coverage to 1,548 communities, reaching 61% coverage in West Africa.
Preventing and addressing child labour across the West African cocoa sector requires cross-sector collaboration. In 2021, the umbrella International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) – composed of Mondelēz International and peer companies, suppliers and NGOs – reached 590,000 households across Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana with systems that help prevent and address child labour, the report highlighted.
Mondelēz International is also investing CHF3 million ($3 million) towards improving children’s access to quality education in cocoa-growing regions. Lack of access to schooling is a key root cause of child labour, which can only be addressed systemically, it stated.
Human rights
Along with its progress in supporting human rights across the cocoa supply chain, the 2021 report demonstrates Mondelēz International’s progress in promoting human rights due diligence practices in the sourcing of additional commodities, such as palm oil and hazelnuts.
“Through our flagship ingredient sourcing program Cocoa Life, we are learning from our decade of experience on the ground in cocoa communities about the importance of living income,” said Laura Stein, Executive Vice President for Corporate & Legal Affairs and General Counsel, Mondelēz International. “Building on our ongoing focus on promoting human rights, we joined the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) Living Wage roadmap to help advance living wage and income in global supply chains. We will also work with our suppliers with the goal of having all our strategic suppliers engaged on a living wage roadmap by 2030.”