Exploring the cocoa value chain in Cameroon
with Wageningen Univesity & Research and CIFOR-ICRAF
In June 2025, we brought together more than 40 cocoa sector stakeholders in Cameroon. With our partners at Wageningen University & Research, we organised a facilitation training and a series of workshops using the CamPod Cocoa Game, a strategy game we created to help stakeholders explore the challenges and possibilities within the cocoa value chain and the stakeholder dynamics under different policy scenarios.
Building Local Facilitation Capacity
During a three-day facilitation training in Yaoundé, we trained 15 participants with the skills to guide game sessions in their own organisations and communities. Trainees immersed themselves first as players, then as facilitators. On the third day the participants were taking the lead themselves through scenarios, experimenting with storytelling, and practising how to include reflections. By the third day the participants, and all of us, noticed the potential of listening and learning from one another.
Taking the Game to the local level
After the training, we hosted a game session in Yaoundé and then travelled the forest landscapes around Lomié to co-host workshops with more than 30 people: Farmers, cooperative leaders, indigenous community members, intermediaries, NGOs, and public authorities. The workshops aimed to immerse participants in the trade-offs faced by different actors in the cocoa value chain, balancing economic pressure, social inequalities, and ecological concerns, while deepening their understanding of how policies and market forces shape livelihoods and landscapes.
“There’s a close link between the game and reality. It helped me understand my position in the value chain.”
“We must help each other so that no one is left behind. It’s important to sell as a group, because selling alone means losing.”
Across all three workshops, similar themes emerged. People spoke about the need for:
- more collective sales and stronger cooperatives
- agroforestry and reduced pesticide use
- better financial planning and harvest record keeping
- diversification and improved market opportunities beyond cocoa
- collaboration between producers, traders, governments, private sector, and NGOs
A Growing Community of Practice
The workshops demonstrated the unique ability of game-based dialogue to break down barriers, foster empathy, and generate collective visions for a more sustainable cocoa sector. New facilitators have already begun independently running sessions, and feedback shows strong interest in expanding the approach across institutions, cooperatives, and research projects.
Story written by: Miriam Hausl, edited by LEAF; Photo credits: LEAF
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