Mark De Waard

Senior Program Officer Cocoa
IDH, Sustainable Trade Initiative
Partnership Expert / IDH-P4D Co-coordinator

Mark de Waard works at IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative in the cocoa team as a Senior Program Officer. He is in this role involved in the coordination of public-private partnerships aim to create a sustainable cocoa sector in cocoa-producing countries in West- and Central Africa and cocoa importing countries in Europe. He is also involved in the development of innovative business models around increased productivity, diversified incomes and access to markets, which ultimately should contribute to reaching a Living Income for smallholder cocoa farmers.

Mark holds an MSc degree in Social & Cultural Anthropology where he researched participatory development approaches in rural East Africa.

Within the CocoaSoils programs, Mark is responsible for the coordination of the IDH colleagues that work in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria who are engaged in facilitating in-country partnership committees and policy engagement. Besides that, Mark also plays a role in convening the private sector partners within the CocoaSoils consortium and facilitating the annual CocoaSoils Forum.