Stepping up efforts to check child labor in African cocoa-producing communities ⁰

Child labour is a common phenomenon in African cocoa-producing communities, most of which are in West and Central Africa. The use of child labour in cocoa-producing communities is spurred by poverty which impedes efforts by farmers to employ adult labour for their cocoa production.

According to the World Cocoa Foundation, “Cocoa is grown by millions of smallholder farmers with a high prevalence of poverty. Many cocoa-growing families have no choice but to put their children to work because they cannot afford other sources of labour and it is often an accepted cultural practice to help keep the farm running.”

Though culturally accepted in African cocoa producing communities, the World Cocoa Foundation is striving to remedy this situation to give children in cocoa-producing communities a chance to have a normal childhood and an opportunity to get the education they need to make informed decisions later in life by establishing broad coalitions with other key sector stakeholders.

In a message on its website, WCF has indicated that it has been working with several key actors to give children in those communities a new lease on life. “In broad coalition with governments, companies, and development organisations, a layered approach has been adopted. The primary goal is to combat child labour through a diverse set of solutions. These include efforts to confirm that children possess a birth certificate and have access to quality education. Child labour monitoring and remediation systems have been leveraged as essential tools, focusing on mitigation and providing remediation support to children involved in, or at risk of, child labour. Efforts also extend to assisting their families and communities in addressing the underlying challenges and poverty, one of the primary root causes of child labour. To address the issue of child labour we are working with our partners help increase farmers’ incomes in rural areas,” the WCF said.

WCF and its partners are setting up child labour monitoring and remediation systems to help authorities identify child labour issues and address in a timely fashion and appropriately.

“Child labour monitoring and remediation systems are set-up in order to identify and address child labour. They can be embedded in a company’s supply chain or at community level. It involves systematic monitoring, identification of child labour risks and remedial actions such as education and alternative livelihood support,” WCF stressed.

Meanwhile the World Cocoa Initiative, for its part, has undertaken a series of measure to help with efforts to check child labour. Among those efforts are the training of community members to monitor and report on the commitments of government and companies on child labour – to strengthen accountability towards local communities and their voice in global debate; the engagement with Government and local authorities to identify needs and strengthen systems to prevent, identify and address child labour and forced labour risk; setting up an online platform through which cooperatives, farmer and gold mining associations/groups can access free piloted, validated tools and training materials to improve their systems to prevent, identify and address forced labour; while at the same time allowing policy makers, law enforcement agencies and relevant government ministries to access dedicated platforms to strengthen their work.

The World Cocoa Initiative is also promoting good practices with supply chain actors at the national and international level, while building the capacity of community-based organizations to strengthen advocacy and accountability in the tracking of government commitments. It is also organizing community-based awareness raising activities with community members, in particular women and vulnerable groups, on forced labour indicators, child labour, rights and access to social services; providing hands-on trainings in alternative livelihood activities for cooperatives and at-risk vulnerable families and the setting up of Village Savings and Loans Association in Ghanaian cocoa-producing communities; and setting up a remediation fund to support child labour victims.

Also, with funding from the Norwegian Government through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, ICI, Solidaridad and the Rainforest Alliance are collaborating to address child labour and forced labour in the cocoa supply chain and gold-mining communities in Ghana.

 By Cecilia M. Manjang