Webinar VSLAs and Household Approaches as Drivers for Change

Dutch companies which are sourcing cocoa, coffee or cashew from producing countries often invest in Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) or other local approaches to raise the income of farmers through income diversification. But investing in VSLAs alone – without addressing the social dynamics on household-level – may not lead to the desired outcome.

Capacity development and changes in social norms – whether it relates to increased knowledge in business skills or to the social and economic position of women in households or communities – can act as true drivers for change. But how does that work in practice? And which combination of VSLAs and household approaches are the most effective?

In this webinar we highlight some (evidence-based) measures which have been implemented in two RVO-projects on cocoa in Ivory Coast. Els Lindeboom from ETG | Beyond Beans will highlight the company’s perspective and showcase how ETG has impacted the income of farmers, based on the insights from testing three different household-approaches in the EnRoute project of ETG/Oxfam Novib/Ferrero/KIT Institute.

Angelika Kessler from CARE Netherlands will then take us on a deep-dive into some of the key-elements of household-approaches which are fundamental to create a necessary enabling environment for changing social dynamics, based on the positive results from the Increasing Resilience & Gender Empowerment in Cocoa Community project of CARE Netherlands/Barry Callebaut/Unilever.

Program

Looking forward to welcome you in our webinar! Register here