The African Centre for Development Research was invited to a round-table discussion on cocoa production and opportunities for circular economy at a stakeholder consultative meeting held in June, 2023 at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - Food Research Institute, Accra. The event which was organised by the University of Exeter Business School and in collaboration with CSIR - Food Research Institute, presented a platform for exploring innovative approaches aimed at reducing waste and optimizing resource efficiency within the cocoa sector.
The discussion brought to light how waste valorisation in the cocoa industry presents enormous potential opportunities to farmers, value-chain actors, and the government. However, for Ghana to benefit from these opportunities, the following actions need to be taken by the government:
- Develop a holistic policy and regulatory framework that would incorporate other sectors such as agriculture and food. Current policies are more geared towards plastics, solid waste and electronics, probably, because of the negative environmental impact that Ghana is grappling with. This may affect resource allocation to other equally important sectors within the circular economy.
- Strengthen institutional coordination mechanism by developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) on multi-sectoral coordination to help facilitate the implementation of the comprehensive policy on circular economy.
- Create the awareness of the principles and practices of circularity within various value chains.
- Create an avenue to help young entrepreneurs have access to resources and technologies that would enable them to identify, design, develop and scale up circular economy business models.
The African Centre for Development Research is happy to be part of this discussion and looking forward for future research collaborations with the University of Exeter, United Kingdom and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research of Ghana.