The Sustainable Cocoa Platform (SCP) in Cameroon which was launched on the 9th of February 2023 is a national body created in November 2022 through a joint MINADER-MINCOMMERCE Decision No 0390 of November 2022, as the governing body to coordinate the implementation of the commitments towards a sustainable cocoa sector. It developed and validated its 2023-2025 National Action Plan (Annex 2) on the 12th of April, 2024 with its major component being the monitoring and communication of the progress of the implementation of its National Action Plan to key stakeholders and the public at large.
The mission of the Platform is to carryout consultations with public and private sector within the cocoa subsector, with the view of implementing commitments taken by Cameroon with regards to the production and marketing of sustainable cocoa. These commitments include primarily the engagements taken by signatories of the [Joint Framework for Action for Roadmap to Deforestation-Free Cocoa], the commitments of the [European Union Sustainable Cocoa Initiative (SCI)] in implementing the 12 Cocoa Actions, [Green Commodity Landscape Program (GCLP)] national commitments on climate change among others all aimed at achieving a sustainable cocoa sector.
The Roadmap to Deforestation-free Cocoa is a public, private, civil society partnership that aims to end cocoa-related deforestation in Cameroon. It builds on the Cocoa & Forests Initiative’s Statement of Intent signed by the industry in 2017, through which companies committed to working together, pre competitively, to end deforestation and forest degradation in the cocoa supply chain. The Roadmap will help create a competitive advantage for Cameroonian cocoa in the global market, help coordinate public-private-civil society efforts to achieve higher and more stable cocoa quality and promote greater cocoa sustainability by promoting cocoa agroforestry.
In Cameroon, [IDH] supports The NCCB in the coordination of the Sustainable Cocoa Platform. IDH Sustainable Trade Initiative (“IDH”) accelerates and up-scales sustainable trade by building impact-oriented coalitions of front running companies, civil society, governments, knowledge institutions and other stakeholders in several commodity sectors.
As coordinators of the SCP, the NCCB bears the primary responsibility of putting in place a holistic communication strategy through which stakeholders will have access to valuable information on the progress on the Platform’s activities.
