About
VOICE Network
The VOICE Network is a coalition of around 40 NGOs and trade unions from producing and consuming countries. We unite voices in a mission to achieve a sustainable cocoa sector. We have demonstrated a unique ability to combine evidence-based advocacy with practical action.
Mission and history
Our Mission is to be a watchdog and catalyst for a reformed cocoa sector, focusing on empowering farmers, advocating for sustainable practices, and pushing for industry fairness.
Our job is to address blind spots and underrepresented issues in cocoa. Discussions around living income, due diligence regulations, deforestation, value distribution, farm-gate prices, transparency, and many others were initially brought to the table by VOICE and its members. The VOICE secretariat and its members actively and continuously follow up on them.
Our Vision is a sustainable cocoa sector where all stakeholders can earn a living income under decent working conditions, where human rights –especially child rights– are respected, within a thriving and healthy environment. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for most cocoa farmers.
Our History started in 2010, when several European NGOs working on human rights issues in cocoa met to exchange ideas on how to fight child labour in the cocoa sector. Since our start as a network of 7 NGOs based in Europe, we have grown to include dozens of members from every continent (except for Antarctica), looking at all the interrelated challenges in the cocoa sector. Since 2024, we also host our sister network VOCAL, working on a sustainable coffee sector.
Meet the team
VOICE has a global team. Our main offices are in the Netherlands, but our operations are decentralised, and our staff works globally.
In addition to the VOICE secretariat, we also host two other platforms:
– Our sister network in coffee, VOCAL
– The CSOs in ISCO Platform, a loose collective of around fifty European CSOs that are involved in the national public private platforms (Initiative for Sustainable Cocoa, or ISCO) of Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and France
Meet the Board
Our Board is made up of representatives from core member organisations, with the exception of our treasurer. We strive for our Board to reflect the intersectional diversity of our network, ensuring geographic and thematic breadth.
Board Member, representing member organisation IDEF
Bakary Traore
Côte d’Ivoire
Our members
We have members in every inhabited continent on the planet. Our members are quite diverse across a wide spectrum, ranging from organisations that run programmes together with companies to activist campaigning NGOs, research institutes and unions. Almost half of our member organisations are from origin countries.
VOICE has a dual membership structure, with core members that are working together in decision making, and and associate members that have an advisory role. If you’re interested in joining as an associate member, read the information package here.
A full list of all our members can be found here.
Our donors
We ask the cocoa sector to be transparent about where its money goes. It’s only fair that we’re transparent about where ours comes from.
VOICE Network is funded through a mix of institutional grants and contributions from our own members. Every grant is agreed against a defined programme of work and reported on annually. No funder has any influence over our research findings, our positions, or who we choose to hold to account.
Belgian Development Cooperation (DGD)
Belgium’s Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid funds part of our staff time, research and advocacy. The funding reaches us through Belgian members who hold programme contracts with DGD — currently Oxfam Wereldwinkels and WWF Belgium — rather than directly.
Chocolonely Foundation
The Chocolonely Foundation funds a multi-year project supporting sector-wide advocacy and strengthening the voices of civil society in the Global South. The Foundation was founded by, and is substantially funded by, Tony’s Chocolonely, but its board operates independently of Tony’s and its commercial interests, and it has no influence over our research findings or our advocacy positions.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization contracts us to support coordinated civil society engagement in European and international cocoa policy, under its Sustainable Cocoa Initiative — including joint position papers, policy briefings, and work to strengthen collaboration between African and European civil society, with a particular focus on Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon. The initiative is funded by the European Union.
Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
The GIZ Sustainable Supply Chains Initiative funds much of our core running costs: staff, travel, convening, the Cocoa Barometer, and the civil society secretariat we host for the ISCO platform.
Our members
Our members fund the network directly through annual contributions, set on a sliding scale according to each organisation’s budget. Some member contributions are themselves funded by institutional donors, including Belgian Development Cooperation.
Interested in supporting our work?
We are always looking for institutional funders to make our work possible. Independent, well-resourced civil society is what keeps the cocoa sector honest — if that’s something you’d like to help sustain, we’d be glad to talk.Get in touch with Antonie Fountain via antonie@voicenetwork.cc.
How we work
We work through three complementary levers of action:
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An informed and coordinated civil society
We facilitate an informed and coordinated civil society working on sustainable cocoa in producing and consuming countries. We do this by creating spaces where global civil society can exchange information and stay up to date about current events in the cocoa sector and each other’s activities, and through this can increase their impact, synergies, and alignment.
Beyond our own membership, we regularly host workshops and meetings bringing farmer-based and civil society organisations from the Global North and South together. We also facilitate discussions on relevant topics when and where needed with all actors in the cocoa supply chain.
Building trust is a critical principle for us and strategic partnerships have been established with a variety of CSO coalitions throughout West Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the United States.
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Ground breaking research
We provide ground-breaking research on under-represented topics. Information is one of the most effective tools for improvement, and a public and informed debate on the most pressing issues is essential. Our Cocoa Barometer is the key reference point of sustainability for the cocoa sector and innovative thinking.
Our latest publications on living income and the role of purchasing practices have become agenda setting for the cocoa sector and beyond. Our bottom-up approach to our publications is a key tool for alignment of VOICE members on identifying joint priorities and recommendations.
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Joint effective advocacy
We engage in joint evidence-based advocacy and work to enhance capacity and amplify producer voices, ensuring that sustainability efforts are shaped by those most affected, while also addressing blind spots and underrepresented issues in the value chain.
Appreciated for our constructive criticism and open dialogue, we are the go-to civil society platform for all major global conversations on sustainability in the cocoa sector, providing key input and pressure to governments in both producing and consuming nations, international and multistakeholder organisations, and all the major cocoa and chocolate multinationals.
Legal
Voice is an association (vereniging) under Dutch law.
Vereniging VOICE Network is a registered ANBI tax exempt not-for-profit association within Dutch law.
Dutch Chamber of Commerce registration number: 64003833.
Bank: NL16TRIO0391059033
You can find our statutes here.
Annual Reports
- 2025 Annual Report
- 2024 Annual Report
- 2023 Annual Report (French)
- 2022 Annual Report
- 2021 Annual Report
- 2020 Annual Report
- 2019 Annual Report
- 2018 Annual Report
- 2016/2017 Combined Annual Report
- 2015 Annual Report
Contact us
Postal Address
Hoofdkwartier 86
6711 WW Ede
The Netherlands
Visiting Address
We are housed in the Roots Innovation Hub on the World Food Centre, right next to the Ede-Wageningen intercity train station:
Hoofdkwartier 86
6711 WW Ede
Or contact
Antonie Fountain
Managing Director
Tel: +316 817 404 01
Mail: antonie@voicenetwork.cc