S10 - Session O2 - Governance of quality-driven organizational innovations in the cocoa value chain in Ghana

Authors: Francis Nana Yaw Codjoe, Felix Ankomah Asante, Guillaume Soullier, Simon Bawakyillenuo, Syndhia Mathé *

Since the mid-2000s, the cocoa sector has accounted for the growth of various sustainability initiatives by connecting millions of smallholder farmers with worldwide markets. However, the governance within the sustainable standards value chain, as well as its long-term sustainability is contingent on the allocation of power among market actors. The concern is whether governance mechanism, as well as how market forces shape and are changed by them, can shift the value chain's value division in favor of the most essential value chain actors, smallholder cocoa producers. As a result, in Ghana's cocoa value chain, sustainable standards: new forms of coordination (vertical or horizontal) or ways of organizing transactions (organizational innovations) that valorize cocoa quality, as well as drivers of small-scale cocoa producer participation in this quality-driven organizational innovations, have yet to be explored. This article will use the Global Value Chain concept (Gereffi, 1999) to examine the governance and power dynamics among the key players in Ghana's cocoa value chain. A mixed technique approach will be used to analyze VC governance and power dynamics that valorize cocoa quality in Ghana's cocoa value chain using semi-directed interviews and quantitative Social Network Analysis (SNA). Furthermore this research will explore the power dynamics between the main actors within the cocoa value in order to provide insights into the essential components of quality management and power relations within the sector, which will help to improve the industry's sustainability and farmer livelihoods. This study hypothesizes that quality-driven organizational innovation steers governance towards vertical integration and direct connectivity of farmers to buyers modifies power relationships.