Cadbury Schweppes is the world's largest confectionery company and has a strong regional presence in beverages in North America and Australia.  The Group employs around 50,000 people.  In Africa we employ around 6,000 people in countries including Morocco, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa and have millions of consumers across 20 countries within the continent.

governance and transparency

Cadbury has a long tradition of business in Africa, beginning with the establishment of Ghana’s cocoa industry in 1908, which set an early model for a sustainable and ethical supply chain.  We are committed to achieving high standards of business integrity, ethics and professionalism across all our activities. Read more.

We have a long tradition of working with cocoa producers in West Africa, and as a leading member of the International Cocoa Initiative, a global coalition comprised of industry, governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), we continue to work to develop long-term solutions to improving working practices and enhancing socio-economic conditions in cocoa growing communities in West Africa.  Read more.

enterprise and employment

On 28 January, Cadbury announced the establishment of the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership to secure the economic, social and environmental sustainability of around a million cocoa farmers and their communities in Ghana, India, Indonesia and the Caribbean, through:

• Long-term commitment to improving farmer livelihoods and farming communities

• Direct farmer involvement alongside NGO partners and governments

• Ghanaian President and United Nations pledge their support

This ground-breaking initiative, which will be carried out in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other partners, marks 100 years since the Cadbury brothers first began trading in Ghana and aims to holistically support the development of sustainable cocoa growing communities.

Research by the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, and the University of Ghana, Legon, into "Sustainable Cocoa Production in Ghana," funded by Cadbury, showed that the average production for a cocoa farmer has dropped to only 40% of potential yield and that cocoa farming has become less attractive to the next potential generation of farmers. The Cadbury Cocoa Partnership programme aims to address some of the root causes of these issues - improving farmer productivity and helping to attract the next generation into cocoa farming.

The Partnership will therefore focus on:

• Improving cocoa farmer incomes: by helping farmers increase their yields and produce top quality beans

• Introducing new sources of rural income: through microfinance and business support to kick start new rural businesses and introduce additional income streams such as growing other crops

• Investing in community led development: to improve life in cocoa communities e.g. supporting education through schools and libraries, supporting the environment through biodiversity projects, and building wells for clean, safe water

• Working in partnership: developing a pioneering model which will be led from the grass roots.  Farmers, governments, NGOs and international agencies will work together to decide how the funding is spent and work with local organisations to turn plans into action

For more information, click here.

In Ghana, we have funded education programmes, including the deployment of field schools, built and maintained over 350 wells to ensure clean drinking water to thousands of Ghanaians and are currently working with the Earthwatch Institute to improve biodiversity levels and encourage more sustainable farming methods.  Read more.

Our well building programme helps to stem the increase in migration of young people to urban centres by creating vibrant rural communities where cocoa farming thrives.  Less time collecting water from distant sources means more time is available for farming and education, which leads to an all-round improvement in a community’s prosperity.  Read more.

human development

This picture of our commitment to the communities is mirrored in many other countries of Africa, in our work with young, disadvantaged people in Egypt and Nigeria, to our far-reaching policies on HIV/AIDs in Southern Africa and Kenya. 

We support education organisations working to generate employment and opportunities for young people, from the Learning Disability Association in Egypt, to the Cadbury Schools Development Initiative in South Africa, Action Aid’s education programme in Ghana and the Junior Achievement programme in Kenya. 

We have developed HIV/AIDS guidelines to help local businesses combat and alleviate the impact of HIV/AIDS in the workplace, and most of our businesses in Africa have a trained employee HIV/AIDS co-ordinator, as well as workplace peer education programmes. We also provide workplace screening and healthcare support for employees and their families.