W o r k s h o p o f E s t a b l i s h i n g S t r a t e g i c P l a n o f

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C e r t i f i c a t i o n E x t e r n a l A u d i ti n K o l a k a3 0 M a r c h - 0 2 A p r i l 2 0 1 4

W o r k s h o p o f E s t a b l i s h i n g S t r a t e g i c P l a n o f

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Text & Graphic by Public Relations Team

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T a b l e o f c o n t e n t

P R ’ s N o t e sDear Valued Reader,

In the first quarter of 2014, the Sustainable Cocoa Production Program (SCPP) set significant agenda as part of its ongoing attempt to reach its ultimate goal of improving business linkages throughout the value chain in the cocoa sector in Indonesia. Therefore, Program includes successfully tested core “tools” integrating Indonesian cocoa actors, encouraging sector-wide involvement. On this occasion, PR team highlighted Program’s approaches of “Stakeholder Management and Networking Platforms” and “Farmer Organization, Market Access and Certification“.

To create maximum positive impacts of Stakeholder Management and Networking Platform, SCPP together with provincial/local government and private sectors initiated the establishment of cocoa forum to bridge communication wide-sector involvement. Thus far, there are four cocoa forums supported by the Program. In the central region of Indonesia: West Sulawesi Cocoa Forum, Kolaka Cocoa Forum, Luwu Raya Cocoa Forum, and in the western is Aceh Cocoa Forum. Situated in different regions, SCPP hosted workshops of establishing strategic plan of Cocoa Forums of West Sulawesi, Kolaka and Luwu Raya at Grand Clarion Hotel in Makassar from 27th – 29th March 2014. Meanwhile workshops for Aceh Cocoa Forum held at Grand Serela Hotel in Medan also for three days from 1st – 3rd April.

To capture the Program’s efforts of helping farmers with market access, on 28th March, PR team needed to do a-one-day trip to Bone. There, cooperation between SCPP beneficiaries, CARGILL and appointed local trader was legalized under a Memorandum of Understanding which regulates the cocoa beans sales system from farmers to CARGILL through the appointed local trader. Another significant event on the agenda to be covered was the certification audit process by external auditor IMO. It was from 30th March - 2nd Apr and located in Kolaka, South East of Sulawesi.

Hope everyone gets an update and enjoy the reading!

SCPP - PR and Communication Team AS/MG

Ayo rawat kebun!

Makassar P. 2

Opening of Workshop of Establishing Strategic Plan of Cocoa Forum West Sulawesi, Kolaka and Luwu Raya P. 3

Farmers’ Group Joint Marketing Meeting with Cargill in Bone P. 5

Closing of Workshop of Establishing Strategic Plan of Cocoa Forum West Sulawesi, Kolaka and Luwu Raya P. 7

Kolaka P. 9

External Audit for Certification in East Kolaka P. 10

Opening of Workshop of Establishing Strategic Plan of Aceh Cocoa Forum P. 14

Thank You Note P. 18

On Wednesday, 26 March 2014, PR flew from Jakarta to Makassar, the sixth largest city in Indonesia. This capital of South Sulawesi formerly known as Ujung Pandang and was a trading center for East Indonesia in the colonial era.

This visit, PR is on duty to cover the process of Workshops of Establishing Cocoa Forum Strategic Plan of Cocoa Forum West Sulawesi, Kolaka and Luwu Raya which will be held in Grand Clarion Hotel Makassar from 27 to 29 March 2014. Also to take a day excursion to Bone to attend Farmers' Group Joint Marketing Meeting, facilitated by Cargill. And to complete the journey, PR will travel to South East Sulawesi and visit Kolaka to witness the certification external audit pro-

Makassar

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cess by IMO ((Institute for Marketecology).

After arriving at Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport on that hot afternoon, PR went straight to SCPP Makassar office, located at one of Makassar’s skyscrapers, Graha Pena Building. After coordinating with some field officer for the activities in Makassar, PR went to the hotel.

But before resting and preparing for event on the next day, it was always a good idea to go culinary hunting in Makassar. The destination will be Konro Karebossi, a famous rib soup and bar-beque place in Jalan Gunung Lompobat-tang. And yes, a plate of mouth-watering barbeque konro surely makes a happy tummy.

Sunset time at Losari Beach, Makassar | insert: Konro Bakar Karebossi

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Workshops of Establishing Strate-gic Plan of Cocoa Forum West Sulawesi, Kolaka and Luwu Raya commenced at 9AM with opening by Suharman, SCPP Senior Program Manager.

As opening, Manfred Borer, SCPP Program Director, gave his foreword. Man-fred who also active in ICCO said the organization has expressed their interest to understand more of the problems that were faced by cocoa producing coun-tries, such as Indonesia and Africa. He hoped that the goal of the workshop which is to increase the capabilities of each cocoa forum management and create a strategic plan in order to imple-

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ment their future activities can be achieved. He also hoped that these cocoa forums will be a dependable organization. As an addition he hoped that more farm-ers or farmers’ group leader involve in the forum. While most of the cocoa forum vision and mission is the same, overall it is hoped to create an Indonesia cocoa pro-duction that meets with global standard, raising the economy and have a global competitiveness as well as to create a sustainable cocoa production environ-ment. Forums are also expected to facili-tate, communicate and mediate between farmers and government.

Manfred added that program such as SCPP is very happy to keep supporting and facilitating these forums.

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The opening of the workshop | left to right: registration desk for participant, Ir. Main Sese Inda Laila from Disbun South Sulawesi, A. M. Arifin from Bappeda South Sulawesi

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The workshop was officially opened by a representative from the Department of Estate Crops of South Sulawesi Province (DISBUN), Ir. Main Sese Inda Laila. Inda expressed her appreciation to Swiss-contact for facilitating this event and for its contribution to the devel-opment of cocoa in Sulawesi. She believes that in order to create a sustainable environment and to increase the farmers’ welfare, none can work alone. Everybody have to work together in order to achieve the same goal of meeting a global production standard as well as increasing farmers’ productivity and their economy. “Our department has already created their 5-year strategic plan and hope that it will be in tune with forums strategic plan. And also hoped that each one will help to increase economy and raising a global standard”, she added.

The last foreword was given by A. M. Arifin from, The Head of Agency for Local Development Planning (BAPPEDA) of South Sulawesi Province). He expressed his support to the workshop and look forward to see a good result from each forum.

The workshop was attended by approximately 40 persons. Ahmad Ma’Ruf as facilitator started the workshop with an introduc-tion session of each participant. Then continued with group discus-sion where each group determines the forums’ hopes and con-cerns. This group discussion continue until night time with activities such as defining strategic issues, doing SWOT analysis on current cocoa forum and drafting the forums’ vision and mission.

top: group discussion | top left: group discussion | bottom left: SWOT analysis

While the workshop was still ongoing at Grand Clarion Hotel with group discussion and strategic plan drafting, PR headed to Bone and attend the Farmers’ Group Joint Marketing Meeting facilitated by Cargill in Maminassae village, Lamuru District.

PR went to Bone with Ria Tantri Buna, our HR & Administration staff. Started about 8AM from Grand Clarion Hotel. It was a long and winding road to the location. Luckily the view is pretty nice on the eyes. It took us about 3 hours till we finally arrived at the community center building in Mami-nassae village.

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Since it was already 11AM on a Friday, the meeting was already taking a break for Friday praying and lunch time. The meeting was back in sessio about 1PM. About 42 farmers attended this meeting, representing about 25 farmers groups around Lamuru District, where some of them are female. Samsul Riadi, Rusdi and Nawir Senni from Cargill facili-tated this meeting by giving a presenta-tion on quality standard for cocoa beans. From testing the water content, separat-ing the good and the bad beans, to step by step process of fermentation.

Bone

Farmers were looking so interested. They even actively came to the front table and practice picking the good beans by themselves one by one.

The purpose of the event is origi-nally to create a profitable as well as a sustainable cocoa supply chain for the local farmers in Bone. In which, Cargill as one of SCPP private partners is committed to involve in the supply chain by appoint-ing a local trader, in this case Haji Bahrum, as an extension of Cargill in the area.

PR had the chance to talk to Andi Gusniati, a female cocoa farmer from Desa Seberang, Lamuru District. As a rep-resentative of Mula Menree Farmer Group, she found this event to be very useful. Farmers become more awere on how to sort the good quality of their cocoa beans as well as know how and where to sell their cocoa produce. Having a closer and easier market access is also

expected to help farmers in getting a better selling price, she added. She surely looking forward to start practicing the sort-ing and quality control on her 3 hectares farm in the coming harvest.

The event was closed with a ques-tion & answer session and a signing of memorandum of understanding between each representative of farmer group, Cargill facilitator and Haji Bahrum, as appointed local trader.

At about 6PM, PR and team Makassar travelled back to the city. Another long and winding journey and this time a bit scary cause it was pretty dark and scattered rain in some parts. How-ever, we arrived back in Makassar safe and sound at about 10PM.

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left page: community center in Maminassae Village, Lamuru District, Bone | right page clockwise: farmers’ group representa-tive listening to Cargill facilitator presentation, farmers’ group representative trying out sorting cocoa beans, farmers’ group representative are busy writing down notes

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Makassar

Finally, it was the last day of the workshop. Although some participants return home already, but the remaining participants seemed to stay motivated. The morning was continued with a group discussion to finalize the 5-year strategic plan of each cocoa forum.

Closing the workshop, Ir. H. Sam Sumastono, MM from Luwu Raya Cocoa Forum, shared his thoughts about this workshop with the rest of the participants. "I hope this forum has provided a clearer view of the problems faced in developing cocoa sector in Sulawesi and this forum can find solutions on how to overcome them", he said. According to him, each cocoa forum in Sulawesi facing a similar problems, which is funding for their field activities. Therefore, each cocoa forum are expected to work closer with local govern-ment and stakeholder such as CSP. “We must work together so that cocoa in Sulawesi will not just disappear in the future”, he added.

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top: all participants and SCPP team posing after the workshop | insert: Group final discussion

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Lastly, Suharman as Regional Program Manager and representing Swisscontact SCPP management and organizer, closed the event with a little message. “I hope there will be a follow up action meeting in the extent of what kind of results has been done. The implementation of the strategic plan that decided today is what is important. Forum should keep facilitate any field activities done for cocoa development such as activities done by other parties such as the government or an organization such as SCPP”, he added.

The workshop was closed with all the participants pose together and followed with a lunch together. Afterwards, some of the participants were straight to the airport and return to their home base. PR team decided to take the advantage of the rest of the afternoon to do sightseeing in Makassar. From visiting the Fort Rotterdam and La Galigo Museum, chilling out in Losari Beach and tasting Pisang Epe, enjoying a beautiful sunset at Losari and lastly have dinner in Jalan Serigala to taste the famous Pallubasa. PR teams then returned to the hotel and prepared to continue the field visit to see the external audit process in Kolaka, South East Sulawesi. The journey is far from over.

left: Ir. H. Sam Sumastono, MM from Luwu Raya Cocoa Forum, shared his thoughts to the forum | top right: Inside Fort Rotterdam, bottom: Pallubasa Serigala & Pisang Epe Losari Beach

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KOLAKA

Next destination will be Kendari, in South East Sulawesi. PR team will head to Kolaka District to witness the external audit process of certification. Right after enjoy-ing breakfast and a smooth check out, PR team went straight to Sultan Hasanuddin Internation Airport to catch a flight to Kend-ari. About one hour later, PR team arrived in Kendari Haluoleo Airport.

Straight from the airport, PR team continued the journey to Kolaka District. The road was pretty terrible. Many holes in the middle of the road which make the trip longer that it supposed to be because we have to be extra cautious. But at the same time, PR team got to see the preparation for Seclusion Day (Nyepi) done by Hindu-nese living around the area.

Took about 3 hours until PR team arrived in East Kolaka. Ahmad Maulana,

our Field Coordinator, was already at a farmer’s cocoa farm accompanying the external auditor from IMO, Indro Surono, inspecting the farm. It was their 6th farm already for the day. Each day, 7 farmers were visited for certification process. Each farmer is representing a farmers’ group which was selected randomly by the audi-tor. The audit process has been going on for 4 days and covering the audit for docu-mentation of farmers’ group, audit for buying station and also farmer’s audit.

Since it was already 4PM, the auditor only went to one more farmer. And then we all headed to the capital of Kolaka to rest. The long, winding ad slight damaged road makes the journey seems so long and tiring. We arrived about 6PM at Sutan Raja Hotel, a nice hotel near the beach. PR team will be more ready to cover the audit process tomorrow, after a good rest.

left: peeking at Indro Surono, auditor from IMO, inspecting a farmer’s farm | right: signage at a cocoa farm

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PRPR team started the day with a nice breakfast together with Kolaka field team and Indro Surono, External auditor. Muhammad Syahrir, SCPP Program Officer, said today the audit shall be made in 7 locations; one of them is a buying station. But PR team has planned to join the audit process for a half day only and spend the rest of the day to visit some successful cocoa farmers in the surrounding area in the effort of collecting more beneficiaries’ success stories.

Around 8AM we took off from the hotel and took a-1.5 hour ride thru moun-tainous roads back to East Kolaka district. The first stop was a cocoa farm belonged to Abdul Azis from Sumber Rejeki Farmer Group. His 1-ha cocoa farm filled in with about 900 cacao trees that are mostly side-grafted. The auditor did an inspection by walking around through his farm first. Then he continued with checking chemi-cal storage given in the farm. Auditor discovered that Abdul Azis has been stor-ing properly by putting his chemical supply in a securely locked cabinet. However, there were some supplies that haven’t yet used up and not disposed. This was not a critical issue. But the auditor advised him to immediately remove the content of the expired chemical supply, bury deep the container and make a documentation regarding this work as a reference for further audit process. Afterwards, the audi-tor checked on his farming business records, harvest and sales log books. It is advisable that each farmer keeps a record about their farms neatly to enable them measuring their productivity and as a reference in the future.

Still in Tinete Village, Aere, East Kolaka district, we stopped by at Nurtan's cocoa farm. She and her husband are taking care of their cocoa farm together. However at the visit time, the husband was out in Kendari doing some commission job. Nurtan was showing around her cocoa farm. The auditor was checking if there are any water source inside the farm and the chemical use to eliminate pests and disease. So far, nothing critical found on her field. Most important visit of the day was to the buying station, managed by Irwanto. Located in Pekorea Village, Aere, East Kolaka, this buying station has been started since 2005, consists of a ware-house and all the necessary buying equip-ment. Farmer Group members bring their cocoa beans to this buying station to sell by bringing their Gapoktan member card as a sign of identification. The buying station manager is the one who is doing the quality control by checking the mois-ture content, mycotoxin level, and waste level of the beans. Should the cocoa beans still have high moisture content, the station need to dry the beans to reduce the moisture content? Afterwards, the certi-fied cocoa beans will be separated from the ordinary ones and then shipped to ADM Cocoa warehouse in the city.

Auditor is checking the buying station knowledge for handling certified cocoa beans. He also inspected the paper work such as sales invoice, harvest log book and other documentation avail-able at the buying station. When we got at the warehouse, there were no beans as it is still not harvest season yet. Irwanto said that during the harvest season, the ware-house will be flooded with cocoa beans. He then needs to hire 3 occasional per-sonnel to help him with the selling process. However the cocoa beans usually only stay for 2-3 days in the warehouse until the shipment time to the city.

text & photographs by public relations & communication team11

1: Abdul Azis showing his farm to Indro Surono | 2: Auditor interviewing Abud Azis | 3: Auditor checking the chemical supply cabinet | 4: Nurtan explaining to Indro Surono about her cocoa farm | 5: Irwant showing buying station documents |6: Sacks of certified cocoa beans | 7: Sales documents at Buying Station | 8: East Kolaka Certified Cocoa Marketing Channel

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Split from the audit team, PR continued its agenda of collecting stories from Program’s beneficiaries. At first, PR visited Jupri and his wife who was SCPP Nutrition Program alumnus from Dangia Village, Dangia in East Kolaka. Jupri was one of cocoa farmers who got inspected by the external auditor. He went thru the audit certification process a few days ago and hopes his 1-ha cocoa farm will be certified soon. This father of 2 is very happy with SCPP program, both the cocoa program and the nutrition program. He shared of how he started his cocoa farm, his hope of better productivity after the certification and the progress in his nutrition garden. His wife, Suryati said that now they don’t have to buy vegetable anymore. And their children can easily choose what they want to eat daily straight from their nutrition garden. She planted kale, spinach, eggplant and many more. She testified that during the last harvest, she got 15 sacks of eggplant and sold them for about 3 million Rupiah. Despite of tending after her own nutrition garden in front of the house, she also takes turn attending the nutrition group garden just about 10 meters away from her domicile.

It was a rainy afternoon. But it didn’t stop us to continue to meet Haji Muhammad Sakur in Wande village, Dangia, East Kolaka. This 37 years old farmer is a successful cocoa farmer that started growing cocoa since 1993, taking care of his family farm. Having a 3-ha farm, he really looks forward to get certification soon and to enjoy a premium selling price for certified fermented cocoa beans. “This program is very beneficial for me and my cocoa farm. I’m very thankful”, he testified.

The field visit was actually finished around 5PM. But due to rain, the roads back to Kolaka capital became more challenging. PR team arrived just after dark at about 7PM. Though the day was pretty tiring, but PR team would still have to prepare for another half day in East Kolaka tomorrow and continue the trip to go back to Kendari in the afternoon.

left: Jupri & Suryati, key farmer from Dangia Village, Dangia, East Kolaka | right: Haji Muhammad Sakur of Wande Village, Dangia, East Kolaka

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1: Agustan listening Indro Surono advise on how important documentation for the certification | 2: Indro Surono inspecting Juslan’s cocoa farm | 3: Amiruddin Syah in front of his buying station | Haji Aman showing off his documentation

Last day in Kolaka was begun with another nice breakfast at the hotel with auditor and field team. Then PR team pre-pared for check out because this after-noon team will head to Kendari to catch a flight back to Jakarta in the next morning.

First visit after another 2 hours ride thru the mountains was to Wendubite Village in Poli Polia, East Kolaka. This time was to Agustan’s cocoa farm, located just behind his home. The audit inspection went well. However, the auditor advised Agustan to be neater in doing documen-tation as he has very limited farm records when being inspected. Filing out the log book is one task that farmers have to fulfill in order to get certified.

Next stop was Haji Aman, member of Bukit Harapan Farmer Group in Puun-dokuolo Village, Poli Polia in East Kolaka. The auditor discovered a similar problem. But luckily everything else was adequate. The auditor advised to filled out the log book and send the documentation for further audit. In the same village, we went to meet Amiruddin Syah at the buying station unit of Poli Polia. Indro Surono, the auditor, was doing the same inspection method as the one before. So far, nothing crucial spotted.

Lastly the final agenda for PR team, we visited the cocoa farm of Juslan. Located in Andowengga Village, Ladongi,

East Kolaka. We stopped at his house which is also used as a kindergarten. Using a motorbike we headed to his cocoa farm situated about 500m from the house. His 1-ha farm produced about 300kg last year and expected to produce more this year. We unnoticed that it was already 2PM. PR had to traveled at least 3 hours to reach Kendari. So after Juslan’s farm, PR team said goodbye to the field team in Kolaka and Indro Surono, auditor. It was a nice experience to see how the certifica-tion process is undergo. Certification is surely going to benefit each party espe-cially the farmer itself with a stable selling price.

After a long ride in the rain, PR team finally arrived at a hotel in Kendari located just in front of the beach. Too bad that PR was already tired and decided to end the night early.

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Woke up refreshed, PR had a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel. Then it was time to start packing again before returning back to Jakarta. The hotel pro-vides a free airport transfer which gives some time to relax before rushing to the airport. Waiting for boarding, PR Team put some notes on the trip made and slightly feeling homesick. “Soon, home sweet home”, I said inwardly and with a smile on my face./as

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top left: Drs. Hasanuddin Darjo giving his foreword | top right: Workshop participants posing together after the end of day 1 of the event

SCPP Supports Workshops of Establishing Aceh Cocoa Forum Strategic Plan

SCPP continued its measures to strengthen the organization sustainability and function of supported- by- SCPP cocoa forums situated in the central part up to the western part of Indonesia. This March 1st to 3rd, 2014, SCPP facilitated work-shops of establishing Aceh Cocoa Forum Strategic Plan in Medan, the fourth largest city in Indonesia that has over 4 million inhabitants.

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On Tuesday morning, one by one the attendees derived from Aceh Cocoa Forum board members as well as Aceh provincial and county government staffs entered Alium meeting room at Grand Serela Hotel where the three-day workshop took place. After everyone was gathered, precise at 9AM as scheduled, Meri Juli Sianturi, SCPP Sumatra Regional Manager, gave her opening speech. Meri hoped that this chance of actually sitting and

being together out of Aceh Province, so that everyone can focus on the workshop, should be maximized properly. “Also, the strategic plan of the Aceh Cocoa Forum (ACF) should be determined thoroughly so that the ACF’s vision of making ‘Aceh as the Largest Cocoa Producer with the Best Cocoa Quality in Sumatra in 2020’ can be achieved”, she uttered.

Next, the Chairman of Aceh Cocoa Forum, Drs. Hasanuddin Darjo, MM, gave his foreword. He expressed his deeply grati-tude to Swisscontact for being so support-ive to the Forum by facilitating this decent event. He mentioned that thus far ACF has been running its function well so that Aceh cocoa is now more familiar nationally and hopefully internationally in the near future. At the moment, ACF together with other cocoa forums supported by SCPP have become the down line of a national Cocoa Forum or CSP based in Makassar. Through this collaboration is expected that communication and advocacy regarding cocoa sector can be aligned and justified accordingly so that cocoa business devel-opment can be perceived by everyone involved in the sector in particular by the smallholder cocoa farmers.

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left: Exposing the mission of Aceh Cocoa Forum | right: Workshops participants derived from various organization during sharing session

Other significant player in the Aceh cocoa sector certainly is the Department of Estate Crops of Aceh Province (DISBUN). Representing this institution, Ir. Cut Huzaimah, MP gave her speech. She appreciated so much the supports and helps given by Swisscontact to cocoa sector in Aceh during the last four years. Overall the institution both at provincial and district level fully support the implementation of SCPP by Swisscontact in the area. She suggested that Swisscontact needs to increase coordination and communication with the institution to create greater benefits comprehensively. The workshop was attended by approximately 25 participants. The consultant facili-tator, Ahmad Ma’ruf commenced it by having an introduction session and sharing the workshop rules with participants. Then continued with a series event of discussion between the participants in which each institution shared updates and issues about cocoa develop-ment in their area to formulate the workshop’s target. The event was filled in with conduct-ing a SWOT analysis to identify Forum’s strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats until night time. The occasion on that day was ended formally with a joint dinner served special for the participants at the hotel’s restaurant corner.

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After enjoying leisurely breakfast served by the four-star hotel, all partici-pants headed to their seats from yesterday to begin the second day of the workshop. The facilitator started with showing the thus far created SWOT analysis on current situa-tion of Aceh Cocoa Forum (ACF). Some parts were still needed to be completed. Therefore, the group was encouraged to continue analyzing the Forum and formu-lating the strategy of developing the Forum afterwards.

During the process of formulating the strategy, details of indicators and mile-stone were also determined. One of them is that ACF will do fundraising by preparing and submit at least 4 event proposals in a

year to the government and non-government institutions.

After lunch time and praying time for an hour, the workshop was continued with drafting the strategic plan based on the SWOT analysis given. This session run tougher and intense than other previous sessions as each participant shared their various opinions.

The participants were so focused in drafting the narration of the strategic plan and didn’t realize that the dinner time arrived and they needed to take a break. The second day workshop was ended then by another joint dinner at the same place as on the first day.

clockwise: Group discussion on the milestone of the strategic plan| Facilitator Ahmad Ma'ruf conducting a SWOT analysis | Workshops participant discussing the SWOT analysis | Goodie bag and note book distributed to workshop participants | Group discussion on indicators of the strategic plan

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On the final day, the participants had a plenary meeting of the drafted stra-tegic plan. Summary of opinions and input by the participants of the plenary session was reviewed, documented and then legalized as the Aceh Cocoa Forum stra-tegic plan. The strategic plan is set for six year [2014 – 2020]. Aceh Cocoa Forum’s missions among others are making Aceh Cocoa Forum as an accountable, credible, inno-vative and responsive organization; and establishing partnership, coordination and collaboration with Aceh cocoa stake-holder in order to enhance the sustainable productivity and competitiveness. The Forum will pursuit its vision of “making Aceh Province as the largest cocoa producer with best bean quality in Sumatra in 2020”.

Prior to the event closure, the results of the workshop and the follow-up were declared by the Forum. Drs. Hasanuddin Darjo, MM,in his closing speech thanked every-one for their time and presents so that the target of having Forum strategic plan can be realized. In particular to Swisscontact, Darjo said that no words could describe the kindness of this NGO which always sup-port the Forum and side-by-side with other Aceh cocoa stakeholder developing Aceh cocoa.

Closing the event, Meri Juli Sianturi, thanked all participant for their contribu-tion in establishing the Forum strategic plan. “With the established strategic plan we expected that Forum can be more beneficial and functional as a communi-cation, advocacy and network platform to all Aceh cocoa stakeholder and certainly Forum can be self-sufficient in the near future”, she concluded.

The three-day workshop was ended at lunch time around 1PM. Immediately after; all participants who are mostly based in Aceh were sent to the Railway station nearby to catch their flights back to Aceh./mw

left: Strategy of Aceh Cocoa Forum | right: SCPP Team, Aceh Cocoa Forum board member and Aceh Government staffs posing together after the closing | insert: Drs. Hasanuddin Darjo giving his closing speech

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cocoa flower

PR team would like to thank SCPP Makassar team [Haerul N, Sinta, Riri, Sahrir, Sumilia, Lukmansyah] as well as to Kolaka field team [Ahmad Maulana, Muhammad Syahrir, Asdar] for the support and the wonderful arrangements during PR’s field trip in Sulawesi.

Also our big thanks to SCPP staffs in Medan [Meri Juli Sianturi, Untung S, Rahmayanti, Ardiansyah, Azhar, Vivi, Supinar, Isnaini, Helvi Yudho and others] who have given their big efforts in making the event a success.

Thanks once again everyone!

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Text & Graphic by Public Relations Team