WOMEN’S RIGHTS Tony’s Open Chain has set a roadmap for achieving gender equity, with a clear emphasis on achieving gender balance within partner cooperative teams and ensuring strong female representation at all levels. Core to the gender strategy is promoting the meaningful participation of women at 3 levels: 1) partner cooperatives, 2) communities and 3) households, as this remains crucial for driving systemic change. At the partner cooperative level, 28% of community facilitators in 2024/25 (62 out of 221) were women. This marks a 2% increase from the previous year. To further strengthen gender inclusion, we will develop an updated gender strategy in 2025/26. At the community and household level, our efforts to increase women’s participation have focused on laying the groundwork for a series of initiatives launching from 2025/26 onwards. These include: • Household Financial and Digital Literacy Training with 100WEEKS 100WEEKS will deliver financial management and digital literacy training to 3,000 participants across six cooperatives. The program targets both men and women, encouraging joint decision-making and shared financial planning within households. • Positive Parenting Pilot with ICS SP This initiative will strengthen parenting skills through guided group sessions covering topics such as gender equity, relationship dynamics, family wellbeing, mental health, positive communication, child development and early stimulation, male engagement, and family health and nutrition. The pilot will be implemented at one cooperative in 2025/26, with plans to scale up in 2026/27. • Awareness Video Screenings with DMI To reinforce key parenting themes, our partner Development Media International (DMI) – alongside local production companies – has developed 5 awareness videos in local languages. These screenings will promote positive parenting, non-violent discipline and children’s rights, aiming to shift perceptions around child labour. The initiative will be evaluated by ICI.
DUE DILIGENCE ACROSS THE VALUE CHAIN As confirmed through the Double Materiality Assessment, working conditions across the cocoa value chain present a range of risks, from potentially inadequate health and safety standards to informal labour arrangements that leave workers without protections or fair compensation, across cooperative warehouses, transport companies and processing factories. 91 In logistics and service-providing companies, long hours, insufficient training and precarious employment are common concerns, while shipping companies face risks related to crew exploitation and poor onboard conditions. 92 These challenges are further complicated by fragmented accountability and limited traceability, underscoring the need for coordinated action to improve labour standards throughout the cocoa supply chain. The focus of Tony’s Open Chain thus far has been on implementing a robust due diligence system for the sourcing of cocoa, with an emphasis on farmers who constitute one of the most vulnerable groups. But we are now beginning to expand our due diligence across the wider cocoa value chain, including transport, warehousing, trading, and shipping. This year, we mapped our value chain and started gathering information on working conditions and environmental concerns from our supply chain partners. Next year, we will expand our work on value chain due diligence, together with our partner cooperatives and other business partners. Cooperatives will be supported to map their own supply chains to identify the most salient human rights and environmental risks and create an action plan to address them. Together with partners Agriterra and 100WEEKS, and funded by RVO, six cooperatives and their members will also participate in a project on the transition towards digital premium payments, which enables greater due diligence and financial transparency. This collaborative approach reflects Tony’s Open Chain’s commitment to responsible sourcing and transparency throughout the cocoa supply chain. 91. Verité. Findings from the Field: New Research in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire Focused on Migrant Workers in the Cocoa Sector, 2023. 92. Journal of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development. Transportation inefficiencies in the cocoa value chains in Ivory Coast: Is sustainability possible? Academic Journals, 2025.
Together, these efforts aim to promote gender equity and model inclusive practices across our supply chain.
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Ending exploitation in cocoa together
Living income
Climate, environment & productivity
Human rights
Governance & finances
Interesting appendices
Scaling for change
Introduction
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