A new collaboration between The Hershey Company, ECOM Agro industrial Corp. and Elucid aims to reach up to 6,000 cocoa-farming household members by 2028 by improving access to Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme and complementary local health services.
Strengthening healthcare access in cocoa communities
Ghana's cocoa-farming households are set to benefit from a new collaborative programme launched by The Hershey Company, ECOM Agro industrial Corp. Ltd., and social enterprise Elucid to improve access to healthcare in cocoa-growing communities.
The programme, launched in October 2025 in the Assin Andoe community of Ghana’s Central Region, brings together cocoa-sector partners, farmer cooperative representatives, local health facilities and government health actors, including the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and Ghana Health Service (GHS), to make existing healthcare systems easier for rural communities to access and use. It is designed to support Ghana’s broader universal health coverage agenda by strengthening links between cocoa-farming households and available health services, rather than creating a parallel system.
Supporting families through NHIS and additional services
At its core, the initiative will support cocoa farming household access to Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The program will support up to 1,500 cocoa-farming households, helping families enroll in and make better use of the national scheme.
The programme also provides supplementary support for selected essential and emergency health services such as maternal and child health. In addition, the initiative includes health literacy sessions, healthcare provider training, and targeted support to local facilities to improve both access to care and the quality of services available to participating communities.
By working through existing national and local health structures, the program aims to reduce infrastructural and financial barriers that often prevent families from seeking
timely care.
"The health and wellbeing of cocoa families is essential to the resilience of our value chain and to improving livelihoods across cocoa growing communities." Timothy S. McCoy, Director, Cocoa Partnerships, The Hershey Company.
Why healthcare matters for cocoa families
For cocoa farming families in Ghana, illness often means more than lost days of work. Research from the KIT Royal Tropical Institute has highlighted the link between farmer health, household resilience and cocoa supply chains. This initiative forms part of Hershey’s wider commitment to children and family wellbeing in cocoa-growing communities under its Cocoa For Good program. For ECOM, one of the world's largest commodity merchants with deep farmer cooperative networks in Ghana, the program reflects a direct response to what General Manager Emmanuel Baffoe Bonnie describes as one of farmers' most pressing daily concerns.
"Our farmers face daily challenges that affect both their productivity and their well-being. Together with Hershey and Elucid, we are helping address one of their most
important needs: access to healthcare." Emmanuel Baffoe Bonnie, General Manager, ECOM.
Aligning with Ghana's health priorities
Reaching rural and agricultural communities is central to Ghana's universal health coverage agenda, and this program is designed with that goal in mind. The involvement
of national and local health actors helps connect the program to facility networks, community health structures and the institutional trust needed for families to use
available services.
The National Health Insurance Authority’s participation in the launch reflected the program’s alignment with Ghana’s existing health system and its focus on improving
access through national structures.
Making existing systems easier to reach
Elucid Social Ghana, the local entity of Elucid, is implementing and monitoring the program in collaboration with national and local health actors, healthcare facilities, farmer cooperatives and cocoa-sector partners. Its model combines support for national insurance enrollment, supplementary coverage for selected essential and emergency care, quality-of-care improvements and community health activities. Elucid’s digital platform supports program monitoring, payments and anonymized data collection, helping partners track progress and understand where barriers to care remain.
Richard Osei Kuffour, Country Director at Elucid Social Ghana, said the program shows how supply chain partnerships can contribute to national health priorities when they
work through existing systems.
"By combining Hershey's commitment, ECOM's farmer relationships, and our technology, this program sets a new model for long-term resilience and sustainable impact." Richard Osei Kuffour, Country Director, Elucid Social Ghana
communities in Ghana.
A model worth watching and scaling
Ghana produces 25% of the world’s cocoa, and cocoa-farming communities play a central role in the country’s economy. This initiative offers a practical example for providing these communities with reliable access to healthcare.
It shows how sourcing companies, national health authorities, farmer cooperatives, and local health system partners can align around existing systems, strengthening what is already there rather than building in parallel.
With outcomes tracked and infrastructure built for scale from day one, this is not just a win for the communities in Assin Andoe. It is a reference point for what responsible investment in cocoa-growing communities can look like.
Contacts
Richard Osei Kuffour
Elucid LinkedIn account: https://de.linkedin.com/company/elucid-social
Elucid website: https://www.elucid.social/
