TONY’S CHOCOLONELY is the main partner of K’ORIGINS in Ivory Coast. Since 2013, a partnership has linked the two companies for the purpose of implementing the Dutch Chocolatier’s projects. The mission of TONY’S CHOCOLONELY is to fight against child labor in cocoa farming and to make the sector much fairer between the different actors in the chain. He works in the cocoa sector and transforms raw cocoa beans into chocolate bars, sold throughout the world.
The main activities on which K’ORIGINS supports TONY’S CHOCOLONELY are:
The implementation of the SSRTE (Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System) in cooperatives with the help of the partner ICI.
Tony’s representation to state authorities and other partners in the cocoa sector in Ivory Coast
Strategic support for the implementation of Tony’s vision
Organization of various events on behalf of Tony’s in Ivory Coast.
During 2019, several meetings with the Dutch chocolatier, K’ORIGINS carried out the following activities on behalf of its partner:
TONY’S CHOCOLONELY WORKSHOP IN MAY 2019 IN YAMOUSSOUKRO
The objective of the workshop was to work and discuss with cooperatives to find solutions in order to:
- To improve the impact of TONY’S actions with cooperatives and producers
- To find synergies between the different programs in order to make the SSRTE implemented by ICI more effective.
- To address these questions, working groups were organized to collect the various proposals from participants, notably
The invited partners were ECAM, SOCOOPACDI, ECOJAD, KAPATCHIVA, Fairtrade International and ICI.
Recommendations were made to all partners and the implementation of these recommendations should be implemented during the year 2020.
ADDITIONAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE PROGRAM
To date, TONY’S CHOCOLONELY plans to establish supplementary judgments for so-called “ghost” children, that is to say who were born without a valid birth certificate because they were not declared at birth. In fact, 3,440 children were identified without a birth certificate within the 4 partner cooperatives. As part of the Remediation activities for the fight against child labor, it is a question of establishing supplementary judgments for these children. This project is led by K’ORIGINS with financial support from TONY’S CHOCOLONELY and ICI, as well as local players from Bonon, Daloa, Méagui and Divo. Meetings were held with the various local stakeholders (representatives of the Ministry of Women and Children, Sub-prefects, etc.) in order to facilitate the process which began in December 2019 and which should end in June 2020.
TONY’S FAIR
After the Yamoussoukro conference, it is the turn of TONY’S CHOCOLONELY to receive K’ORIGINS and the various partner cooperatives in Amsterdam, Holland from November 18 to 23, 2019. Other countries were present for the Tony’s fair, notably the partners came from Ghana.
TONY’S CHOCOLONELY organizes its annual fair every year in the heart of Amsterdam and takes the opportunity to receive its partners and work on the upcoming campaign. This year more than twenty participants from Ivory Coast made the trip. In addition to the festive aspect, work sessions are organized for cooperatives.
This year, technical meetings were organized on the question of decent income for producers, on the possibility of implementing projects linked to productivity, etc. Two major facts should be mentioned: The SOCOOPACDI cooperative signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Albert Heinj firm and the ECAM cooperative inaugurated a new Fairtrade product store in a train station in Amsterdam.
SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURES PROJECT
In the community development plan of the partner cooperatives at TONY’S, social infrastructure needs were identified, in particular the construction of schools. Since 2018, Tony’s, through the CHOCOLONELY Foundation, has financed school construction projects in cooperatives. After a first phase which ended at the end of 2019, Tony’s entrusted the contractor selection process to K’ORIGINS for the 2nd wave which began on June 15, 2020. Given the positive results obtained during the 1st phase , flexibility and technical skills of the company, the choice fell on HAIGIS for the conduct of the work which will be supervised by a building expert. An amount of nearly 300 million CFA francs will be allocated to the construction of these school infrastructures which will accommodate children for the 2020-2021 school year.
