Paper short abstract:

NGOs such as Fairtrade seek to trigger sustainable development through the complinace of standards to address social, environmental and economic precarities. This research uses an extensive database collected using a mixed-methods approach to analyze the effects this has on Ghanaian cocoa farmers.

Paper long abstract:

The fact that cocoa products and chocolate are accessible to a large part of humanity has been achieved not only through colonialism and globalization, but also through the acceptance of inequalities within the respective global production network (GPN). Decades of imbalances in the spatial distribution of labor steps and associated value capture evoke social, environmental, and economic precarities that are exacerbated by the perpetuation of postcolonial systems and structures. Sustainability labels and programs, international projects and initiatives, NGO and GO actors attempt to mitigate these effects. NGOs such as Fairtrade, the oldest voluntary certification system, attempt to initiate sustainable development through the modeling, evaluation, and compliance of standards. Based on empirical data collected in 2021/22 - including a quantitative survey of 210 Ghanaian cocoa smallholder farmers in different cocoa growing regions, 52 qualitative interviews with various GPN actors in Ghana and Europe, and a 150-page field diary with information from 37 informal conversations - the study explores the aforementioned linkages by analyzing what impact these standards actually have on smallholders' life realities and environments. The results are very heterogeneous: We were able to show that there are benefits of the Fairtrade standard, such as smallholders self-organizing into cooperatives to send representatives to relevant government and standard meetings. Simultaneously, only a quarter of the respondents who are Fairtrade certified knew that they are part of the Fairtrade system, which is numerically problematic, because in the course of this, three quarters of them are i.a. not aware of what rights they have.