"Chocolate companies offer “mixed-bag” on women’s rights", 31 Oct 2014

Leading chocolate companies Mars, Mondelez International and Nestle have made some progress on their 2013 promises to improve gender equality in their cocoa supply chains but significant gaps still remain, according to an independent evaluation published today...Monique van Zijl, campaign manager for Oxfam’s Behind the Brands campaign [said:] “Mars, Mondelez and Nestle have improved and deserve real credit for making gender equality a priority. But they still are not doing nearly enough to change how they conduct business to make equality a reality."...The report scores the Impact Assessments and Action Plans on a scale of 1-10 using uniform criteria.  Mondelez received the highest marks for its Action Plans (5.8/10), while Nestle’s Impacts Assessment was rated strongest (6.5/10). Mars showed the least progress overall, particularly in its Action Plan (2.8/10)...