Mondelez International believes in equality and diversity, so their care deeply about ensuring fairness and justice throughout their supply chain.
 
The company, home to many of the world's iconic snacking superbrands, has announced it will conduct and publish impact assessments by third party organisations on women in their cocoa supply chains in order to understand and show how women are faring.
 
They are also proposing to put in place a specific action plan to address issues raised by the assessments and lead to the improvement of poor conditions in Ghana and Cot D’Ivoire.
 
Gender equality benefits everyone and is essential if cocoa communities are to thrive," said Christine McGrath, Vice President of External Affairs and Cocoa Life at Mondelez. "Our experience shows an increased involvement of women in the supply base leads to improved financial management by farmers, better education for youth, more sustainable, thriving communities and, over time, reduced child labour. Promoting women's empowerment has been a cross-cutting theme in Cocoa Life since 2008. Today, we commit to share our experience and to advocate for collaborative action on women's rights in cocoa."  
 
Pleased with the action, Oxfam expects that these action plans will deliver better capacity towards a sustainable livelihood to women farmers and workers.
 
"Oxfam welcomes Mondelez's leadership in making clear commitments to advance women's rights," said Judy Beals, Campaign Manager for Oxfam's Behind the Brands Campaign.

Mondelez has also signed on to the UN Women's Empowerment Principles. This demonstrates the company’s commitment at the CEO level to the empowerment of women across their entire operations by among other things being willing to measure and publicly report on gender equity. Mondelez International is the first of the three major chocolate companies to sign onto the principles.

Mondelez  will be working with industry sector organisations like the World Cocoa Foundation and certification schemes like Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade to advocate for greater focus on women’s equality.