Child labour is a complex issue. The vast majority of cocoa in West Africa is grown by smallholder farmers. Households in cocoa-growing areas face the realities of rural poverty such as a scarcity of land, food insecurity, limited access to quality education, lack of access to drinking water and inadequate health services. Studies shows that most of the children who work on cocoa farms do so within their immediate or extended family. Not all of this is child labour. However, when such work harms a child’s health, development, or education it is unacceptable according to internationally agreed conventions. This can have negative impacts on future generations and as such we consider child labour as both a symptom and a contributing factor to the cycle of poverty.
Child Labour
Beyond these situations, other exploitative practices also exist. Forced child labour is a risk that is present in the cocoa supply chain, though it tends to be much less common. When children, even with their consent, are taken from their families to be exploited in cocoa farming this constitutes human trafficking. (See below for a more detailed definition of child labour and other forms of exploitation).
Forced labour affects less than 1% of children living in cocoa-growing regions in Ghana.
Studies suggest that forced labour risks are present in the cocoa sector affecting both adults and children, but it is much less common. However, its impact on those involved can be more serious.
Forced Labour
Forced labour is far less prevalent than child labour in the cocoa supply chain, though its impacts can be more serious. According to estimates by the Walk Free Foundation, forced labour affects less than 1% of children in cocoa-growing areas in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, and less than 0.4% of adults working in cocoa in these countries
As part of our mission to tackle human rights issues in the cocoa supply chain, we work with our members and partners to identify, address, and prevent the risk of forced labour.
Source: Cocoa Initiative
FEDCO Interventions
At FEDCO, we are committed to playing our part to see that forced labor and the worst forms of child labor are eliminated in all our cocoa growing areas. We believe children should not conduct work inappropriate for their age and should have improved opportunities to attend school. That’s why we are implementing child labor monitoring and remediation systems, while continuing to support farmers with training on child and forced labor avoidance.
We harness their diverse skills and influences to define and promote holistic responses that tackle all the multiple root-causes of child labour simultaneously, through responsible supply-chain management and child-centred community development. Our operational experience on-the-ground in more than 50 cocoa communities and farmers’ cooperatives (with more than 1,000 member farmers) has helped us isolate a combination of interventions that bring results and promise.
