How Women in Cote d'Ivoire are doubling their representation

CARE, MARS, and the women of Cote d’Ivoire partnered to change that Women for Change ran in Cote d’Ivoire from 2015-2018 with the generous support of MARS chocolate. With $711,000 we reached 4,900 people directly and 24,500 people indirectly.

When was the last time you ate chocolate? Do you know where it came from? There’s a one in 3 chance that it came from Cote d’Ivoire—and that a woman farmer had some hand in growing it.

The problem with this is that companies that buy cocoa and the government agriculture trainers work mostly with men, and don’t offer training opportunities or support to women. They also usually pay men instead of women, even though women do a lot of the work. That means there’s less chocolate in the world, because women don’t have the skills or incentives they need to grow more cocoa.

CARE, MARS, and the women of Cote d’Ivoire partnered to change that.Women for Change ran in Cote d’Ivoire from 2015-2018 with the generous support of MARS chocolate. With $711,000 we reached 4,900 people directly and 24,500 people indirectly.

What did we accomplish?

  • Incomes went up: Families saw their incomes go up by 14%, up to $240 per year.
  • Women are more confident: Women’s self confidence went up 25 percentage points, up to 92%.
  • Women are more involved in decisions: Twice as many women were able to participate in household decisions (up to 34%).
  • Women don’t have to work for free: The number of hours women have to perform unpaid labor was cut in half.
  • Farmers grew more chocolate: Cocoa yields went up 5.3%.
  • Women can participate more in community decisions: The number of women who held community leadership positions more than doubled. Community leaders were more than twice as likely to listen to and account for women’s opinions.
  • Women have more access to finance: Now 41% of women have access to microfinance, compared to zero women before the project started.

How did we get there?

  • Focus on women’s leadership: The project supported women with leadership training, and deliberately encouraged community groups to take on women in leadership positions.
  • Savings, savings, savings: Like many CARE projects, this one had a VSLA component so women could save and take loans.
  • Help build businesses: 60% of women in the project have started small businesses and activities to earn an income after getting project training and support.
  • Work with the government: The project focused on government officials to convince them of the importance of women’s leadership and working with woman.

Want to learn more?

Check out the evaluation.