Response to BBC News’ Special Report from the Ivory Coast on Child Labour in Cocoa Farming
November 10 2011 – The global Chocolate and Cocoa industry has and continues to unequivocally condemn the worst forms of child labour in the Cote d’Ivoire cocoa supply chain.
Since signing the Harkin-Engel Protocol agreement in 2001, industry has made great strides to identify precisely where child labour occurs in the cocoa sector and industry programmes have already made a difference to over a million vulnerable children in West Africa; including building schools, training teachers, improving farmer education and much more. The Protocol has been an important catalyst for change in labour practices in the cocoa sector of Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana and although we’ve come a long way, we recognise there is still much to be done and the task is not complete until child labour is a thing of the past.
Building on the results and lessons learned over the past decade, one year ago on September 13th 2010, industry joined in partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor, Governments of Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana and the offices of Senator Harkin and Representative Engel and signed the Declaration of Action and Framework of Action to support the Implementation of the Protocol and accelerate efforts to reduce the worst forms of child labour.
The Framework of Action represents a new partnership with a common purpose and clear goal of bringing about an aggregate 70 percent reduction in the worst forms of child labor in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana by 2020. To this end the Framework of Action aims to support new or expanded initiatives that:-
- Remove children from the worst forms of child labor, such as hazardous labor, through activities including educational or vocational training and the removal of workplace hazards
- Prevent the exposure of children to the worst forms of child labor through increased access to schooling and vocational training and improvements to the quality and relevance of education
- Promote sustainable livelihoods for the households of children in cocoa growing areas
- Measure the worst forms of child labor and the impact of the initiatives of the partners aimed at addressing them through the establishment and implementation of community-based child labor monitoring systems in cocoa growing areas and the continuation of regular national child labor surveys.
The Framework of Action steering group has committed to inform all interested stakeholders and parties on the efforts underway to achieve its overall goal, and recently issued a joint interim statement to mark the first anniversary. http://www.dol.gov/ilab/programs/ocft/news.htm
The international chocolate and cocoa industry including ADM, Barry Callebaut, Cargill, Ferrero, The Hershey Company, Kraft Foods, Mars Inc., and Nestlé immediately obligated to the Framework and, they have already committed US$ 2 million for a Public – Private Partnership with ILO-IPEC (International Labor Organisations’ International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor) focused on community based Child Labor Monitoring Systems (CLMS) and capacity building of governments, social partners and cocoa farmers in combatting child labor.
http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/news/WCMS_162692/lang–en/index.htm
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In the UK/EU Contact Joanna Scott +44(0)7879 486070 joanna@cocoafarming.org.uk
In the U.S. Contact Susan Smith (202-534-1440) susan.smith@candyusa.com