Eight offers unconditional cash to cocoa farmers in Côte d'Ivoire, with support of Colruyt Group Foundation

Thursday, March 27, 2025

On March 15, NGO Eight launched its unconditional cash transfer project for the first time in Côte d'Ivoire. The aim of the project is to enable 371 people from 55 Ivorian cocoa-growing families to create their own future. For a limited period of two years, each adult will receive €16 per month plus a cell phone, and each child €8 per month. The initiative is based on the conviction that by giving young people in precarious situations financial resources and the autonomy to choose how to use them for a limited period, they will be able to take autonomous control of their own lives. This is the third country where Eight is running such a project, and this time Colruyt Group Foundation is playing an important role. This innovative project complements the Boni Living Income initiatives that Colruyt Group has set up in Côte d'Ivoire, in collaboration with (among others) Rikolto, Fairtrade and Puratos. The project trains farmers in the post-harvest handling of cocoa beans and sets up fermentation and drying centers. As a result, the project has improved cocoa quality so that farmers can receive the Cacao Trace contribution.

A new unconditional money transfer project

On October 21, Colruyt Group announced that all Boni house-brand chocolate tablets will take part in the Living Income principle, the main aim of which is to guarantee a living income for cocoa farmers in Côte d'Ivoire. However, this remains a challenge, as farmers have too little land at their disposal. To reinforce the project, intervention around the living wage reference price is complemented by a direct money transfer from Eight, financed by the Colruyt Group Foundation.

Eight is committed to transforming the lives of young cocoa farmers through direct financial support to rural communities, over a two-year period. This is now also the case in Côte d'Ivoire. Each adult receives a simple cell phone, on which he or she receives 16 per month. The children, for their part, will receive €8 per month via their mothers. This money can then be collected in cash from a mobile money agent. Families can also choose to save this money or pay for a purchase via mobile payment. Cash transfers are based on the principles of autonomy and mental space. This enables people to decide for themselves what to do with the money they receive. A total of 371 people will benefit from this support.

At the launch of the new project, the sub-prefect of Grand Bereby (a town in Côte d'Ivoire), the representative of the Belgian embassy and all the stakeholders in the “Boni Living Income” group (including Fairtrade, Rikolto and Puratos) were present to celebrate this wonderful moment together.

Long term visible effects

Young cocoa farmers in Côte d'Ivoire face many obstacles every day. Whether it's a question of low land yields, child labor affecting 41% of households, lack of resources or too little decision-making power for young people, ... The positive effects of Eight money transfers can be seen on three levels:

• Basic needs: better nutrition, health, education and housing.
• Economic development: investment in existing activities (cocoa: e.g., better tree care, remuneration of additional labour, ...) or to create new activities (diversification of entrepreneurship).
• Community development: creation of savings and credit groups, investment in the community as a whole (e.g. tree planting, lobbying local government, etc.).

Certain effects are also visible in the long term: people are responsible for their own “exit strategy”. In the second year of the intervention, people often start saving more. They prepare for the future (post-project). Even years after the project, the long-term effects have been proven by the University of Antwerp. For example, many people are building permanent homes, earning higher incomes, continuing to invest in better education, and so on.

Thanks to these two past experiences in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, since 2017, it is now possible to know the expected effects of a money transfer project. After just one year in Uganda, entrepreneurship doubled, and the school enrolment rate rose from 65% to 80%. “We've been able to prove that giving people money helps them to build a sustainable future. For each intervention, we carry out a baseline evaluation before the project begins, an intermediate evaluation (to measure results after one year) and a final evaluation (to measure long-term impact and effects). To do this, we collaborate with independent research institutions such as IOB (Uganda) and IPIS (DRC). For the Côte d'Ivoire project, we are working with KIT (Institut Royal des Tropiques). Our results are therefore measurable and justified”, explains Steven Janssens, Eight's Managing Director.

An innovative and significant collaboration

At Colruyt Group Foundation, helping young people by creating a stimulating environment in which everyone can unleash their potential is a point of honor. For over 20 years, the Colruyt Group Foundation has been helping people around the world in collaboration with various partners.

Working with Eight makes perfect sense in today's context of Living Income. This project takes it even further, offering help from a different angle. “We support the Eight project for its innovative approach and its complementarity with the initiatives that Colruyt Group and Rikolto have set up in Côte d'Ivoire to improve the social and economic situation of cocoa producers. Through unconditional cash transfers, Eight frees young people from some of their mental burdens, increasing their chances of successfully diversifying their income by joining Rikolto's agri-preneurship program, while benefiting from a reference price guaranteed by Colruyt Group for the portion of their income derived from cocoa. This approach enables farmers to support themselves, diversify their income and invest in their future, while offering young people the opportunity to develop their skills. It's very innovative for the sector, and we're already looking forward to the results,” explains Adeline Michaux, project coordinator with the Colruyt Group Foundation.