Register for Thematic Session 1 —May 13 @ 10 AM Eastern / 4 PM CEDT
Gender gaps in cocoa supply chains are well-documented and increasingly costly to ignore. Yet the tools, frameworks, and peer connections that practitioners need to close those gaps have remained scattered, siloed, and hard to access.
GENLIN was created to change that. Built as a structured learning network — not a conference, not a consultancy — GENLIN brings together the people doing the work across 18 months of webinars, shared resources, and community exchange.
The result: a sector-wide shift from isolated effort to shared practice, and from shared practice to lasting change.
STRUCTURED
Not a one-time event. GENLIN unfolds across a defined arc that builds knowledge, relationships, and momentum over time.
PRACTITIONER-LED
Content, formats, and conversations shaped by what practitioners actually need — not what looks good in a report.
SECTOR-WIDE
GENLIN creates space for candid exchange across organizational boundaries and the conversations that usually don't happen.
The SWISSCO Gender Equity Community of Practice (CoP) is a global, neutral platform dedicated to accelerating gender-transformative change across the coffee and cocoa value chains. We believe that achieving true sustainability requires addressing the root causes of gender inequality—including land rights, financial inclusion, and intra-household power dynamics.
Knowledge in the development sector is often siloed within individual organizations. Our CoP breaks down these barriers by providing a neutral, cross-organizational space where practitioners from NGOs, the private sector, government, and academia can exchange "lessons from the field" and solve challenges together.
We are committed to radical inclusivity. To ensure that practitioners in rural or low-bandwidth environments can participate as fully as those in global offices, we utilize a low-friction technology stack based on familiar Google tools:
Asynchronous Learning: We prioritize email-based and threaded discussions so members can engage at their own pace.
Accessible Resources: Our library is hosted on an open-access Google Drive, designed for easy downloading in intermittent connectivity zones.
Zero Barrier to Entry: Joining requires nothing more than an email address, ensuring no one is excluded due to platform costs or complex software requirements.
To maximize our global impact, we operate as a “Knowledge Commons”. All original content generated by this community—including discussion summaries, toolkits, and webinar recordings—is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) license. We encourage you to share, adapt, and build upon our work.
The CoP is jointly facilitated by Equal Origins and the SWISSCO Secretariat. Our facilitators provide “light-touch” support, focusing on community onboarding, resource curation, and organizing our quarterly deep-dive webinars.
About Equal Origins
Equal Origins is a global nonprofit advancing gender equity in agriculture. Through diagnostics, capacity-building, and collaborative learning, Equal Origins equips producer organizations, companies, and service providers with practical, field-tested tools to strengthen gender-responsive systems and expand opportunities for women farmers. In 2024, Equal Origins marked its Decade of Progress with a comprehensive impact report documenting ten years of research, partnerships, and on-the-ground results across 40+ countries and more than 500,000 farming families.
About ECOM
ECOM Agroindustrial Corp. is a world-leading soft commodity services group specialising in coffee, cocoa, and cotton. Through its origin networks and sustainability programs, ECOM partners directly with farming communities to promote responsible sourcing, climate-smart agriculture, improved livelihoods, and resilient supply chains. Its Smarter Cocoa initiative guides the company’s approach to sustainability by integrating stronger due diligence, gender equity, and measurable improvement across origin teams.
About SWISSCO
The Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa (SWISSCO) is a multi-stakeholder initiative that brings together organisations based in Switzerland relevant to the cocoa value chain — including chocolate manufacturers, cocoa traders and importers, food retailers, public authorities, non-governmental organisations, and research institutions. Together, SWISSCO members aim to improve the living conditions of cocoa farmers and their families, protect natural resources, and build a viable and resilient cocoa value chain for present and future generations.
Media Contacts
Equal Origins — program@equalorigins.org
SWISSCO — info@kakaoplattform.ch
ECOM — sustainability@ecomtrading.com