Mama Cacao: How investing in women at origin is building stronger cocoa value chains

Smallholder women farmers are becoming business owners, not just producers

Imagine a cocoa sector where women at origin are not only producing raw beans, but also are owning businesses, leading cooperatives and shaping premium supply chains that reach regional and global markets. This International Women’s Day, under the theme “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls,” we celebrate women who are transforming economies - not only from boardrooms, but from farms, factories and frontier markets.

This year, we shine a spotlight on Adele Gwet, Director of Impact Ventures at Chambers Federation and Founder of Project Origins. Through her work, in collaboration with GIZ’s Agri-Business Facility for Africa (ABF), smallholder women farmers are no longer positioned solely as producers. They are emerging as leaders, innovators and business owners, building sustainable, women-led value chains in cocoa and specialty markets that deliver both commercial success and measurable social impact.

Closing the value gap in cocoa
When Adele first visited cocoa-growing communities in Central and East Africa, she observed a persistent pattern: valuable raw materials were produced locally, yet most of the economic value left the region. Meanwhile, women who carried out much of the labour, remained largely excluded from income growth, asset ownership, and decision-making.

Yet women already play a central role in the global cocoa market, not only as producers but also as consumers. They influence most household purchasing decisions and represent a significant share of global chocolate demand. To build resilient and competitive supply chains, women must be fully included across the value chain, from production to processing to business leadership.

“Women drive most household purchasing decisions globally,” Adele explains. “By building women-led supply chains at origin, we align production with demand, improve quality, strengthen reliability, and create stronger market positioning.”

Building value where it starts
Raised in Cameroon, where cocoa butter is produced and used locally, Adele understood early that value creation could and should remain at source. Her career with the United Nations and the African Union reinforced a defining insight: sustainable impact comes from building strong businesses, not only implementing programmes.

Project Origins was created to put that strategy into practice. Operating in Kenya and the DR Congo, the venture focuses on building women-led, vertically integrated cocoa and specialty product value chains by moving processing and value addition closer to origin. The model goes beyond sourcing. It invests in infrastructure, equipment, operational systems, and market access, enabling women producers and cooperatives to participate in higher-value segments of the market. Today, more than 3,000 women producers and cooperative members are part of this growing supply base, designed for scale and commercial viability.

However, transforming a traditional commodity system into a quality-driven, value-added supply chain demands capital, technical capacity and disciplined operations.

Partnerships that de-risk change
A critical enabler of this success has been the ABF-Matching Grant Facility (MGF), which functions as co-investment alongside Chambers Federation’s capital. By reducing early-stage risk, the MGF accelerates women’s transition from raw commodity production to high-value, quality-driven supply chains. Through this partnership, women producers improve post-harvest handling, meet premium market standards and strengthen financial management – ensuring that quality improvements translate into sustainable business growth.

The results are tangible. More than 30% of participating women’s production now flows into structured supply agreements and local processing instead of informal markets, with a target of 75%. Women are gaining not just income, but ownership, skills and leadership, transforming their communities and industries.

Empowering women and communities
What began as a small MSME initiative, including being among the first local chocolate production in Eastern Congo, has since contributed to the emergence of more than 26 local micro-processors and women-led businesses. As women continue to self-organize, form savings groups, and launch small processing ventures, Adele has earned the affectionate title “Mama Cacao.”

For Adele, this reflects the real impact of the work: women gaining skills, confidence, and ownership, becoming not just producers, but leaders shaping their own economic futures.

“Someone had to take the first step, to show that chocolate making at origin was possible in the Congo. That’s what makes me most proud, being the trendsetter, the road builder and the first to open that door.”

This International Women’s Day, we celebrate not just the women at origin, but the impact, innovation and success that happens when women lead in agribusiness.

This initiative is supported within the framework of the Matching Grant Fund (MGF), as part of the Joint Action “Business Support Facility for Resilient Agricultural Value Chains”, co-funded by the European Union under the Samoa Agreement with the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ.

Photo credit: Chambers Federation & Project Origins