Akwaba to Ghana !

Below is essentially the collection of pictures and video which I shared via my daily blogging on Nestlé intranet, Linkedin and Facebook.

In the very last section, I am risking myself with a few recommendations and revelations.

The Red Cross - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReE835-d8vk

Nestlé - http.//www.nestlecocoaplan.com

Akwaba (welcome) to Ghana (431 Ko)

Red Cross safety and security brief (206 Ko)

Warming up (234 Ko)

Getting started (283 Ko)

First cocoa farm visit (421 Ko)

Cocoa farming everywhere (794 Ko)

Issues in Nestlé cocoa supply chain (339 Ko)

Initiating potential new collaborative partnerships (1 250 Ko)

Past and on going projects of the Swiss Red Cross in Ghana (251 Ko)

Zoom on the issue of open defecation (139 Ko)

Zoom on access to clean water (252 Ko)

Zoom on the issue of cholera (407 Ko)

Awareness raising event about the issue of cholera (877 Ko) Video (90 seconds) (8 002 Ko)

Training the surveyors (443 Ko)

Mapping a community (448 Ko)

Welcoming by the king of the community (446 Ko)

Conducting a household survey (568 Ko)

Team in action on the field (1 570 Ko)

Summary of the last week of my mission (1 550 Ko) 

The Ghana international Red Cross team (345 Ko)

Mapping of key Nestlé cocoa stakeholders (with links to video) (1 540 Ko)

Final meeting and discussion about the way forward (642 Ko)

1 - Overall, the great amount of feedback received from all sides during my mission reinforced my opinion that this type of volunteering (usually called "skilled volunteering") provides obvious benefits for the Company (ie Nestlé), for the ONG (ie Red Cross) and for the oversea volunteer. In 2013, when I was entrusted with the design of the Nestlé Corporate Employee Volunteering Framework, with my HR colleagues, we were already foreseeing this evolved form of volunteering as a next logical step and, at that time, we did include it into Nestlé Leadership Framework. Without any hesitation, my recommendation is to evaluate if we can make this type of volunteering a part of Nestlé training curriculum for high potentials.

2 - Not a surprise ! Any one who follows the world news and is interested in these matters would already know the issues without having to travel to the communities. Yes, we have observed these issues during our visits in the fields: Difficult access to safe water, pollution of rivers by (illegal?) mining, land grabbing (again mining?), child labor, poor sanitation, health and nutrition issues, poor infrastructures (roads), poor public services, deforestation (due to agricultural practices, initially cocoa and now palm oil and urban expansion), access to education, etc.

3 - We have also observed many positive situations: recent projects providing safe water to the communities, excellent training programs led by our suppliers helping cocoa farmers develop sustainable cocoa production, increase revenues and fight child labor. Interesting developments in term of collaborative cross-industry pre-competitive partnership, ie World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) and International Cocoa Initiative (ICI). I felt good about this situation and could connect easily to their work as I was recalling the time - from 2006 to 2009 - when I was representing Nestlé  on the Board of a similar initiative called SEDEX, a London based NGO, empowering responsible food supply chains. Clear examples for the way forward on how to scale-up impact accross all types of industries (F&B, ICT, Pharma, Extractive, Automotive, HORECA, etc). In my opinion, very much what should happen very soon in the focused area of waterstewardship (i.e. CEO Water Mandate, 2030 Water Resources Group and alike).

4 - Unexpected for me ! A few of the volunteers (a majority of them having university degrees and coming from urban areas of Ghana) shared with me their surprise about the very poor sanitation conditions we were observing in the communities we were visiting and interviewing. I grew up in the south of France in the 60's and I clearly recall similar poor sanitation situations in some of the farms around ours and also I clearly remember the disconnect from my friends who were living in the cities. Now, I must admit that I was not prepared to face a similar disconnect in Ghana in 2015 as everybody is 24/24 hours, 7/7 days on the internet. What was very enjoyable for me was the level of engagement from all the volunteers and how much they were touched by the situations we were observing.

5 - As a way forward, from a more personal perspective, this mission has simply strenghtened my recent decision to dedicate myself to promoting global sustainable water stewardship solutions based on systemic empowerment of grassroots entrepreneurs. My understanding, with the recent approval of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by the United Nations in New York in September, is that SDG N°6 (focused on Water and Sanitation) is at the nexus of the other 16 SDG and relates to all issues above mentioned. Pre-competitive and collaborative scaling-up of our efforts are urgently needed and all stakeholders are required to work together to resolve the following multidimensional aspects of waterstewardship: A/ Local, Regional, National, Global B/ Technical, Economic, Political, Cultural and Spiritual C/ Conceptual and Practical. My interactions since a few years with numerous stakeholders (UN, Civil society, NGO's, Banks, Insurances, Pension Funds, Entrepreneurs, Impact Investors, Impact Hubs, Universities, Digital and Big Data players, Industries Platforms, Rating Agencies, Water Experts, Water Operators, etc) tells me it is the right time to make bolder steps. The conversations I was able to have and the observations I was able to make in Ghana during the last 4 weeks just reinforced my decision to contribute and try make a difference on water related issues.