Radix Consult Limited was contracted by IDH, in its role as the Farmfit Technical Assistance Facility (TAF), to Strengthen Adom Cocoa Buying Company’s (Adom CBC) governance systems. Adom CBC is a farmer owned Licenced Buying Company(LBC) with a mission is to become the leading farmer-centred cooperative LBC in the internal marketing of cocoa in Ghana, while enhancing members’ livelihood and incomes through gender equity and sustainable cocoa production.
This capacity support is critical in setting a farmer owned LBC on the right course for strategic investments and partnerships in the wake of changing dynamics within the cocoa sector- unprecedented high cocoa prices, rapidly declining cocoa production and continued farmer poverty, the renewed global call for new ways of doing business within the sector cannot be overemphasized. Central to this call is ensuring living income for farmers, paying fair cocoa prices that reflect the futures market, responsible procurement practices including supporting farmer capacity building to be a strategic business partner. These concrete steps are critical to take if we are to make the finish line for successful implementation of the EUDR and CS3D among many other legislations.
With support from @TheMigrationandRightsLab (MRL) and using a mix of tools including the Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool (OCAT) and Focused Group Discussions (FGD), the team engaged the Adom CBC Management, Board of Directors, Shareholder Unions and Non-shareholder Unions, we reviewed their governance charter and by laws, key policy documents guiding their operations and participated in the Annual General Meeting. These gave us first hand insight to be able to undertake a SWOT analysis to shape our capacity building support.
At the end of the assigned, the @Radix team developed robust Constitution which provides clear governance structures for ADOM CBC and transparent relations with cooperatives/unions and employees, Financial and Procurement manuals to strengthen their internal control systems, and reviewed other policies such as the Child Protection, Gender and Social Inclusion, Grievance Mechanism.
We are confident ADOM CBC is set on a course to attract investment to scale its operations and improve the livelihood of its core suppliers the Adom Association members.
We thank the IDH Farmfit TAF team for this opportunity to collaborate and your compliment for “Radix team’s hands-on approach, adaptability and rigour throughout this engagement.”