Entry: Dag Kjetil Øyna
Norwegian Association of Chocolate Manufacturers

My name is Dag Kjetil Øyna , and I head the Norwegian Association of Chocolate Manufacturers, based in Oslo. This month I have just returned from a trip to Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire to visit programs that my organization and member companies co-fund with the World Cocoa Foundation and their partners.

Overall, I can say that the ECHOES program is making a difference! And it is sustainable. The villages take over and continue the work and pursue the goals after we have left. I could see that when I visited program sites in Cöte d’Ivoire this March. I was impressed by the commitment of the people involved – on all sides – including the young people benefiting from the program, the leaders and teachers in the villages, as well as the dedicated trainers and staff from Winrock, IFESH and ICI.

In the villages of Daguikoi and Bieby, we met proud people who told us how important the program was to them. I was very impressed when I heard some of the village elders tell me that they needed to learn from the young!

In Adzopé, I had the opportunity to meet with young people in an ECHOES Agriculture Club. They were learning about how to market. They were meeting on a Saturday to get a better appreciation of how to grow and market crops. There was also a skit demonstrating health issues important to the community, including HIV/AIDS prevention. They were good actors and delivered some important messages. I also saw some youth garden plots, with lettuce, eggplants and other vegetables. Cocoa was produced in bags to be planted later on.

ECHOES is a very holistic and inclusive program, with NGO, government and community partners in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. I see the advantage of the various parts of the program coordinating together, so there is not fragmentation and incompatibility of differeent smaller projects. That was not the case with ECHOES. I saw a substantial good will to cooperate and a good coordination.

In the WCF/ECHOES stakeholders meeting in Accra 9 March, I really experienced a good will from all partners to team up towards common goals – and a hope and pray to all donors to continue the project for two more years.... it takes some years to grow trees...

Thanks to those making all meetings we had in Accra and Abidjan and field visits possible, and a very special thank to Vicki Walker of Winrock, who made this possible.