By Maile Matsimela
Better Cotton, the world’s largest cotton sustainability initiative, has launched a two-year pilot project in Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) to boost cotton farming communities’ access to essential, quality healthcare services and create a replicable model for marginalised groups around the world.
Better Cotton said the pilot project will build an accessible, community-tailored health programme for an initial 8 000 people.
In Côte d’Ivoire, 46% of the population lives below the poverty line and the country has some of the lowest health metrics in West Africa.
Maria Kjaer, Smallholder Livelihoods Manager at Better Cotton, said farmers’ health and well-being are essential to supporting sustainable agriculture.
“We have an opportunity to remove healthcare barriers for farming communities to create a real, positive impact. I’m confident that with the support of a very committed network of partners, we can drive change in Côte d’Ivoire and beyond,” Kjaer said.
Better Cotton has teamed up with its Programme Partner in Côte d’Ivoire, SECO – a subsidiary of Olam Agri – and Elucid, a social enterprise, to create a unique ecosystem that fosters both health outcomes and cost savings.
The two-year project will introduce Elucid’s digital healthcare platform to some of the country’s farming regions to enrol cotton farmers and connect them with local accredited healthcare providers. Elucid’s platform will ensure secure payments and enable user feedback, providing local healthcare services with a tool that can help them improve their plans.
Samuel Knauss, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Elucid, said with this project they are bringing their healthcare model to cotton farmers by strengthening the capacity of agricultural producer organisations.
“This will ensure that farmers can access essential and emergency care without financial hardship. Building on our success in the cocoa and coffee sectors, we aim to show that investing in healthcare not only improves farmer well-being but also strengthens cotton supply chains and creates lasting impact for communities,” said Knauss.
Jean-François Touré, Vice-President and Managing Director of SECO, added SECO is committed to improving the well-being of cotton farmers by pioneering a tailored health insurance model for the sector.
“This initiative is a crucial step in ensuring they have access to essential healthcare. This project shall serve as a reference for the industry, particularly as Côte d’Ivoire advances the implementation of its Universal Health Coverage programme. Through this partnership with Better Cotton and Elucid, we aim to create a lasting, scalable impact for farming communities,” remarked Touré.
Better Cotton and its project partners will engage agricultural producer organisations (APOs) to promote local ownership of the platform, streamline uptake among communities, track its use and ensure it addresses relevant challenges.
Better Cotton hopes the successful implementation will increase the number of farmer households under social protection, remove barriers to healthcare and unlock opportunities for sustained investment in the service beyond the project’s end date.
It also said that by creating a working model for health programmes in the cotton sector, Better Cotton can not only contribute valuable learnings to other commodities and regions by promoting more sustainable agricultural practices across sectors, but also present valuable data on the correlation between health outcomes and farmer incomes.
