RESEARCH NEEDS FOR SUSTAINABLE COCOA PRODUCTION IN GHANA

In any project, it is important to make sure all the relevant stakeholders are involved, preferably already in the initial project design phase. It is critical to link the project to the perceived priorities of the stakeholders so it does not become additional to their priorities (Anon., personal communication). Especially at the landscape level, it might prove difficult to identify who the stakeholders are and what their interrelationships are. Moreover, there is a lot of uncertainty about who will be the cocoa farmers of the future and therefore the stakeholder composition might change over time (Anon., personal communication).

When the stakeholders have been identified, it is important to develop communication strategies on the project aims and interventions for the different groups, all of which have their own interests, motivations and information needs (Anon., personal communication). For example, COCOBOD currently provides incentives that are aimed at the mass of cocoa farmers, but this unspecified approach could lead to specific groups such as women having limited access to these opportunities (Anon., personal communication).

Effective stakeholder involvement is particularly difficult because the project area is not a closed system and people will continue to move into the area throughout the process. Moreover, not everyone in the area will want to be involved in the project. Therefore, there will always be people in the landscape that do not participate in the project implementation. These people might therefore show behaviour that is discouraged in the project but provides clear short term benefits (e.g. continued encroachment, hunting). This can be very bad for the motivation of participants and makes them less inclined to stay involved (Anon., personal communication).

Moreover, it should be determined who might be negatively affected by the project interventions and how this can be limited. When groups perceive themselves as “losers” of the project this could also be because they do not understand the benefits that the project claims to offer (Anon., personal communication).