For the boards of the two multi-stakeholder initiatives, it therefore seemed only logical that the Cocoa Platform, founded in 2018, would share its existing coordination office with the Coffee Platform launched in 2024.
In this spirit, Filippo Veglio, President of the Cocoa Platform, says: “The shared coordination office creates strategic added value. It allows us to use resources efficiently and to increase impact for our members in a targeted way.” Referring to the revised SWISSCO Roadmap in 2025, he adds: “We are taking a clear step forward: it is more focused, more binding and much closer to practice. Six shared, measurable ambitions provide orientation, and clear responsibilities create commitment.”
Anita Aerni, Executive President of the Coffee Platform, also sees great potential in the close cooperation: “For the SSCP, the shared coordination office is an important step. The pooled expertise leads to greater professionalisation, which represents a major opportunity for the further development of the Coffee Platform.”
We can now look back on the pilot year 2025. The conclusion: the experience has been consistently positive. We pooled our resources at strategic, operational and administrative levels and achieved concrete synergies. The next step is to identify in which areas additional synergies make sense and are valued by our members, and where greater independence is more appropriate. During this learning process, feedback from members is a crucial piece of the puzzle for our success.
Fine-tuning the organisation
At the start of 2026, we slightly reorganised our Coordination Office. The aim was to achieve even more continuity and quality in communication, events and projects through efficiency gains. In addition, we want to ensure faster coordination of shared issues. In doing so, we are deliberately strengthening our coffee expertise – without losing sight of the cocoa sector.
An important part of this further development is the stronger integration of perspectives from cocoa- and coffee-producing countries. In addition to Joseph Bandanaa as Country Lead for Ghana, we will strengthen our team over the course of this year with regional experts from Latin America and Asia. These local specialists will enable us to integrate perspectives from producing countries in a more targeted way and to further enhance effectiveness and collaboration in the projects of our members active in these regions.
Behind the shared Coordination Office are:
– Christian Robin, Managing Director SWISSCO–SSCP
– Nicoletta Lumaldo, Deputy Managing Director, Lead Living Income and Peer & Community Learning
– Fabienne Bauer, Lead Regenerative Agriculture & Project Monitoring
– Esther Waldmeier, Lead Human Rights & Accountability
– Joseph Bandanaa, Country Lead Ghana & Regional Advisor Africa
– Romane Humbel, Programme Manager & Peer and Community Learning
– Joël Frei, Communication Officer
– Laura Ulrich, Office Manager
The two Platforms in the cocoa and coffee sectors remain two independent initiatives – but they are supported by a strong, professionally structured Coordination Office. This serves as a stable foundation for the years to come.
Christian Robin
Managing Director SWISSCO–SSCP