Better Cotton Project to Break Down Healthcare Barriers for Farmers in Côte d’Ivoire

Better Cotton has launched a two-year pilot project in Côte d’Ivoire to boost cotton farming communities’ access to essential, quality healthcare services and create a replicable model for marginalised groups around the world. 

The pilot project will build an accessible, community-tailored health programme for an initial 8,000 people. In Côte d’Ivoire, 46% of the population lives below the poverty line, and the country has some of the lowest health metrics in West Africa.  

Better Cotton has teamed up with its Programme Partner in Côte d’Ivoire, SECO – a subsidiary of Olam Agri – and Elucid, a social enterprise, to create a unique ecosystem that fosters both health outcomes and cost savings.  

The two-year project will introduce Elucid’s digital healthcare platform to some of the country’s farming regions to enrol cotton farmers and connect them with local accredited healthcare providers. Elucid’s platform will ensure secure payments and enable user feedback, providing local healthcare services with a tool that can help them improve their plans. 

Better Cotton and its project partners will engage agricultural producer organisations (APOs) to promote local ownership of the platform, streamline uptake among communities, track its use, and ensure it addresses relevant challenges. 

Successful implementation will increase the number of farmer households under social protection, remove barriers to healthcare and unlock opportunities for sustained investment in the service beyond the project’s end date. 

By creating a working model for health programmes in the cotton sector, Better Cotton can not only contribute valuable learnings to other commodities and regions, promoting more sustainable agricultural practices across sectors, but also present valuable data on the correlation between health outcomes and farmer incomes. 

Notes to Editor 

General: 

• For interview requests, please contact Chris Remington ([email protected]).     

• The project has been funded by Better Cotton, ISEAL and Olam Agri. 

• Funding will cover healthcare for the platform’s users over the two years. 

• The project marks the introduction of Elucid’s digital platform to Côte d’Ivoire cotton sector. 

• To learn more about Elucid’s digital health monitoring platform, visit: https://www.elucid.social.  

• This project was made possible thanks to a grant from the ISEAL Innovations Fund, which is supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO and UK International Development from the UK government. 

Côte d’Ivoire: 

• Despite the Government of Côte d’Ivoire adopting a national social protection strategy and Universal Health Coverage law mandating enrolment in 2019, only 27% of people enrolled in 2024 and only around 5% are actively accessing care through the system. 

• Agricultural producer organisations in Côte d’Ivoire are embedded within local farming communities and already have established relationships with farmers, providing a strong foundation to support the delivery of the project. 

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