PLEASE NO PLAGERISM MY PROFESSOR IS SOOO STRICT ON THIS AND THEY
WILL GIVE ME A ZERO!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ☺
•
•
•
•
PAPER:
3,500- 4,000-words
12 size with times new roman
Questions you can use for this essay: (you have room to formulate a concreate question
around this topic)
o The dilemma
o How do they deal with promoting child labor in Ivory Coast, how does the EU
reconcile/ make up for this?
o Capitalism
o We need coco and we need to promote human rights? How do we reconsolidate both?
o Isn’t it ironic that the EU knowing that the Ivory Coast uses child labor for cocoa
agreed on free trade with the Ivory Coast?
o As you can see the paper is based on Ivory Coast child labor in cocoa, and the EU.
Essay:
o I. Intro
o II. Literature review – theoretical, what people have been saying,
▪ human rights and financial (child labor)
▪ financial benefit compromising human rights
▪ they want to help but they have child factories
▪ ONLY one paragraph
o III. Jump into your topic
o IV. Your opinion can ONLY be in the conclusion (Give 2-3 paragraphs on what you
think is going on and how EU should maybe work on)
LINKS that can help :
https://www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ilab/reports/child-labor/CotedIvoire.pdf
http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/10578/1/FulltextThesis.pdf
Tackling Child Labour
2017 Report
WORKING TOGETHER
1
The Nestlé Cocoa Plan helps
us secure a high-quality,
reliable supply of cocoa
from communities in West
Africa. Resilient, sustainable
communities are better able to
do this, and as such, support our
business in reaching consumers
with the confectionery and
beverage brands that they know
and love. Tackling child labour in
cocoa, and the other initiatives
we invest in as part of the Nestlé
Cocoa Plan, are a core part of
how we do business in a way
that benefits society and delights
our consumers.
The Nestlé
Cocoa Plan aims
to improve the
lives of cocoa
farmers and the
quality of
their produce.
Better farming
Better lives
Better cocoa
2
3
Contents
Introducing our
first report
A summary of
our progress
07
10
CHILD LABOUR
Increasing insight
into a complex problem12
Ivorian government:
prohibited activities for
children in the cocoa industry
15
OUR APPROACH
Targeting change
that makes a real and
long-lasting difference20
Child Labour Monitoring
and Remediation System
Strong collaboration
Real change cannot be brought
about by one organisation or
company working in isolation.
Collaboration is needed.
The partnership between Nestlé
and the International Cocoa
Initiative (ICI) is changing the
way that the cocoa industry
tackles the issue of child labour.
We are proud to present this
groundbreaking report together.
WORKING TOGETHER
23
OUR COMMUNITIES
Educating people
about the dangers
of child labour28
Educating mothers
32
OUR ACTIONS
Fostering improvement
in West Africa34
Challenges
42
OUR AMBITIONS
Sustaining cocoa
into the future46
Increasing impact across
the cocoa supply chain
48
The beginning
of our journey
52
Unless otherwise stated, the reporting period
for all figures produced by the Nestlé Cocoa
Plan or the International Cocoa Initiative for
this report closed June 30, 2017.
4
5
Introducing our first report
What is the
Nestlé Cocoa Plan?
The Nestlé Cocoa Plan aims
to improve the lives of farmers
and their communities, and has
three pillars of activities: better
farming, better lives and better
cocoa. We train farmers in better
agricultural practices, distribute
higher-yielding cocoa trees,
promote gender equality, address
the child labour issue and
develop long-term relationships
with farmer groups.
For more information visit:
www.nestlecocoaplan.com
What is the International
Cocoa Initiative?
Established in 2002, within the
framework of the Harkin-Engel
Protocol, the International Cocoa
Initiative (ICI) is a non-profit
organisation that promotes
child protection in cocoagrowing communities. ICI works
with the cocoa industry, civil
society, farmers’ organisations,
communities and national
governments in cocoa-producing
countries to ensure a better future
for children and to contribute to
the elimination of child labour.
For more information visit:
www.cocoainitiative.org
What is the Fair
Labor Association?
Founded in 1999, the Fair Labor
Association (FLA) strives to
improve workers’ lives around the
world by creating lasting solutions
to abusive labour practices by
offering tools and resources to
companies. Within the context of
the Nestlé Cocoa Plan, the FLA
conducts an annual, independent
review of our progress in tackling
child labour, which is publicly
available through its website.
For more information visit:
www.fairlabor.org
6
According to a 2013/2014 study
conducted by Tulane University
commissioned by the US Department
of Labor, an estimated two million
children are engaged in hazardous
work in Côte d’Ivoire’s and Ghana’s
cocoa industries.1
Following these recommendations,
Nestlé became the first company
in the cocoa industry to begin
comprehensively tackling the
issue through our own CLMRS,
introduced as part of the Nestlé
Cocoa Plan in 2012.
With cocoa being a key
ingredient for many Nestlé
brands, including global
favourites like KitKat® and
Nesquik®, the way in which we
source cocoa is strongly linked
to both our business success
and our impact on society.
For us, high-quality, sustainable
cocoa sourcing must include
a robust approach to tackling
the problem of child labour.
Initially centred in Côte d’Ivoire,
the scope of our efforts broadened in
2016, when we extended the CLMRS
to Ghana. Reporting on our progress
in Ghana will begin in 2018.
We are firmly opposed to all forms of
child exploitation and are committed
to preventing and eliminating child
labour wherever it occurs in our
supply chain. Following the limited
impact of previous measures to
address child labour in cocoa, in 2011
we partnered with the Fair Labor
Association (FLA) to look into the
issue. One of the recommendations in
the FLA’s comprehensive report was
to set up a Child Labour Monitoring
and Remediation System (CLMRS).
Since its launch, the system has
allowed us to drill down into the
part of the supply chain covered by
the Nestlé Cocoa Plan to identify all
children actively engaged in child
labour or perceived to be at risk of
it. This has been a challenging, but
worthwhile task. It has allowed us to
take a more robust and systematic
approach to the issue than has been
seen elsewhere in the industry to date.
Our approach is entirely integrated
into our supply chain, and is led by
our Confectionery Strategic Business
Unit as a way of improving the way
we do business. This reflects our
fundamental business philosophy –
creating value for society alongside
value for our company.
We are grateful to the FLA, which
first proposed the implementation
of a CLMRS system (and which has
continued to independently audit our
supply chain since2) and also to the
International Cocoa Initiative (ICI),
an organisation that promotes child
protection in the cocoa industry. ICI’s
expertise has been so fundamental in
the design and implementation of the
CLMRS that its execution should be
viewed as a joint effort between our
two organisations.
Our first report provides an honest
account of our efforts to spearhead
the food and beverage industry’s
approach to what is a highly complex
and persistent issue.
Through adopting an open and
realistic reporting approach, we
hope that our insights will help other
organisations respond effectively
to the issue. In this regard, we
have worked with other cocoa
and chocolate companies within
CocoaAction, the World Cocoa
Foundation’s strategy for cocoa
sustainability, and are pleased that
the CLMRS approach is fully
integrated into its design.
Our efforts have come a long way in
a relatively short time and this would
not have been possible without the
help of others.
We believe that every child deserves the
chance to create their own future.
7
Child labour
has no place
in our
supply chain
Leadership
Prevention
Continuity
In 2012, Nestlé became
the first company in the
industry to establish a
comprehensive supply chain
approach: the Child Labour
Monitoring and Remediation
System (CLMRS).
The system identifies cases of
child labour (or children at
risk) within Nestlé’s supply
chain and provides targeted
solutions to prevent similar
situations going forwards.
Children are monitored
on an ongoing basis until
they turn 18, allowing for
the effectiveness of solutions
to be assessed.
Advocacy
Growth
We will openly share
the successes and
failures of
the system.
The system will grow
substantially in Côte d’Ivoire.
Additionally, over the next
12 months, the Nestlé Cocoa
Plan will continue to be rolled
out in Ghana.
Impact
Child labour has been reduced
by 51% over a three-year period
in our supply chain.
8
9
A summary of our progress
This report looks, for the first time,
at the effectiveness of efforts made by
Nestlé and the International Cocoa
Initiative (ICI) to tackle the problem of
child labour. Since 2012, we have worked
together to implement a pioneering supply
chain-based monitoring and remediation
system in Côte d’Ivoire.
40,728
5–17 year olds currently being monitored by
the Nestlé Cocoa Plan CLMRS, with scale-up continuing
5,232
Children being helped to date in the upstream supply chain
by the Nestlé Cocoa Plan CLMRS
10
Tackling child labour
Focus of the work to date
Nestlé is firmly opposed to all
forms of child exploitation and we
are committed to preventing and
eliminating child labour wherever
it occurs in our supply chain.
The Nestlé Cocoa Plan sources cocoa
from tens of thousands of small-scale
producers through supply chain
intermediaries, such as co-operatives
and large multi-national suppliers.
Area of work
Our efforts are focused in Côte
d’Ivoire and we are in the early
stages of rolling the CLMRS system
out in Ghana.
CÔTE
D’IVOIRE
GHANA
1/3
Of Nestlé’s cocoa
Supply chain
Around a third of Nestlé’s total global
cocoa supply is currently bought
from producers covered by the
Nestlé Cocoa Plan.
48,496
Cocoa producers
The primary focus of the work to date
on child labour has been to accurately
identify all of these producers and
their children. As a result, Nestlé
and ICI have been able to uncover
which children are involved in (or
at risk of) child labour and to begin
remediation work with them.
The process has been
extremely challenging,
but the initial results are
promising. Owing to the
CLMRS’ community-based
approach, farmers have had
the confidence to share
accurate and reliable
information on the numbers
of children potentially
working in the sector.
Our upstream
supply chain
Nestlé
Commodity suppliers
and traders
This has enabled Nestlé and ICI to
better understand the full scale of
the problem. Moreover, through this
open engagement, we have learnt
more about the causes of individual
cases of child labour, allowing
for more focused and effective
remediation activities to take place.
Co-operatives
CLMRS
Putting in place a CLMRS is a key
requirement for producers and
co-operatives participating in the
Nestlé Cocoa Plan. As such,
a significant number of them are
now working to eradicate child
labour in Nestlé’s supply chain.
7,002
Farmers
Children identified working on
farms or in communities covered
by the Nestlé Cocoa Plan.
11
CHILD LABOUR
Increasing insight
into a complex problem
Child labour in cocoa is a significant
challenge. Understanding the scale and
complexity of the problem is the first step
towards finding the right solutions.
12
13
Child labour:
what it is and what it is not
Forced labour
The vast majority of child labour
cases we discover are children
working within their own
communities and almost always
with their own families. Cases of
forced labour are rare in Nestlé’s
cocoa supply chain.
Since 2012, we have uncovered
three violations of forced labour
benchmarks and immediately
took action to report and remedy
them. The cases were identified in
2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Two concerned incidences of
young workers on farms whose
wages were being sent to their
parents; and the other a case of
a farmer who was holding the ID
documents of his sharecropper.3
Nevertheless, we recognise that
in certain geographic areas, and
amongst specific population
groups, there is an inherent risk
of forced labour. We are working
with ICI to see how our monitoring
efforts might be made even more
sensitive to this risk.
Given that most children found
are working with their families,
our approach to dealing with
them is necessarily more nuanced.
We seek to understand the causes
and work with the families to
find solutions.
According to the International Labour
Organization (ILO), child labour is:
In Côte d’Ivoire, the government has
specified seven hazardous tasks that
are strictly forbidden for children in
the cocoa industry.
Importantly though, as the ILO
also points out: ‘not all work done
by children should be classified as
child labour.’5 This means that there
are some age-appropriate tasks that
children can legally do to help their
families. For example, in the cocoa
drying process, children can help
their parents spread the beans out
evenly over a large table so that they
dry properly. This task is in no way
hazardous to their health, nor does it
interfere with their schooling if done
only occasionally.
Carrying heavy loads
Burning fields
Felling trees
Hunting
Using animal-drawn
cultivation techniques
Selling, transporting
or handling of
agro-chemical products 6
Division of child labourers based
on their relationship to the farmer
‘Work that deprives
children of their
childhood, their
potential and
their dignity, and
that is harmful to
physical and mental
development.’4
Consequently, when we discuss child
labour in this report, it is specifically
‘the worst forms of child labour’ such
as those identified by the Ivorian
government that we are referring to
(see overleaf).
14
Ivorian government:
prohibited activities for
children in the cocoa industry
Both parents
82.0%
Uncle/Aunt
10.9%
Others
6.8%
Mother
0.1%
Father
0.1%
Grandparents
0.1%
Note: ‘Others’ includes cases linked to
the farms of people unrelated to the child
in question, such as neighbours or other
members of the co-operative.
Charcoal manufacturing
and lumber jacking
Note: A new list of prohibited activities was
adopted in June 2017, including items such
as using a machete and driving motorised
vehicles. The data in this report however,
is based on the original list above.
15
Moreover, with just 36.5% of the
rural population having access to
electricity in Côte d’Ivoire, many
students are unable to study in the
evenings because of a lack of light.9
16
Mathilde Koua N’Godo Sokoty,
Nestlé Cocoa Plan
Human Rights Manager, Côte d’Ivoire
Charcoal manufacturing
and lumber jacking
Using animal-drawn
cultivation techniques
2.2%
1.1%
Note: Children may be involved in more than
one kind of hazardous activity.
Gender
Boys are more likely to be involved
in child labour than girls.
Division of child
labourers based
on their gender
Girls
39.2%
Boys
60.8%
19.3%
Occurrence of child labour based on
cocoa plantation characteristics
M
F
Gender of the
manager
3ha
Area of the
cocoa farm
Yes
33.3%
Average 19.4%
10
11
28.6%
27.4%
The features of the farm itself have
a limited impact. There are fewer
cases of child labour in farms run
by women than in those run by men.
Farmers with less than three hectares
of land are less likely to employ child
labourers than those with larger
farms. Farms with a Métayer
(a sharecropper) are slightly more
likely to have children engaged in
hazardous activities.
24.1%
6.4%
Features of cocoa farms
22.3%
11.2%
Percentage of children
not at school participating
in child labour
19.3%
Felling trees
Percentage of children at
school also participating
in child labour
19.2%
12.5%
15.8%
Burning fields
Occurrence of child labour
based on age
13.7%
16.3%
11.0%
Selling, transporting
or handling of
agro-chemical products
36.0%
85.7%
23.4%
Carrying
heavy loads
Occurrence of child labour based
on presence at school
8.7%
Hazardous activities associated with
cases of child labour in cocoa
Hunting
Of adults in Côte d’Ivoire
are illiterate 16
22.3%
The older children are, the more
likely they are to be child labourers.
ICI’s analysis suggests that almost a
third of children aged between 14–17
years old were involved in hazardous
activities.17 This is possibly because
as children age more of them begin
to drop out of school, and as their
bodies mature they are viewed by
their parents as being more
physically capable.
Average age of cocoa farmers
in Côte d’Ivoire 14
59%
10
members
or more
Children in school are slightly
less likely to be child labourers
(but note that school attendance
does not automatically prevent
children from working).
45
Average life expectancy
in Côte d’Ivoire 15
Between
7 and 9
members
85.7% of all cases of hazardous child
labour uncovered involved carrying
heavy loads, such as cocoa beans,
firewood or water.
Average median age in
Côte d’Ivoire 13
52.8
Between
3 and 6
members
6%
“There is a belief in
Côte d’Ivoire that life
is tough, and children
must be deliberately
placed into difficult
situations so that they
become tough too.”
Less than
3 members
5
6
7
8
9
12
13
14
15
16
17
Based on 39,215 children of Nestlé Cocoa Plan
farmers — 6,808 of whom have subsequently
become adults.
19.1%
In rural areas, there is an acute lack
of schools, with children often
having to walk several kilometres to
the nearest one – if any are reachable
at all. Those schools that do exist
are often overcrowded and lacking
in resources.
Additionally, there is a lack of
awareness involved. For example,
it is common for parents to think
that carrying heavy loads will help
build the muscular strength of their
children, however, it has been proven
that carrying heavy loads can impair
the normal development of a
child’s spine.10 Very few parents
would deliberately inflict this on
their children.
No
Age
21.2%
Education and
infrastructure problems
Many farmers involve their children
in work because they intend to
provide them with useful, practical
‘training’ for potential future careers
as farmers. These parents usually
undertook the same tasks themselves
when young, so do not perceive
them as wrong.
Yes
Presence of
electricity
in the
community
Education
19.5%
Against this backdrop of an ageing
farming population are contrasting
countrywide demographics. In Côte
d’Ivoire, 53.5% of the population
is under the age of 19.8 These
demographic trends create a fertile
environment for child labour to exist.
They also help explain why, in so
many cases, farmers maintain that
they need their children to help them
in the fields.
Culture and tradition
19
No
Child labour by type
18.7%
Poverty is a significant problem
for cocoa farmers and it is
also a contributing factor to
urbanisation. As young adults leave
rural communities, the farming
demographic is ageing.7 Where
farmers would previously have drawn
on the support of their older children
(young adults in their late teens and
early 20s), they now look to their
younger children for support. There
are fewer young professional farmers
in rural areas in Côte d’Ivoire to
sustain cocoa growing communities.
Given its proximity to the equator,
sunset in Côte d’Ivoire is at around
6pm every day, exacerbating the
problem. Issues like these have a
cumulative effect on children’s
attainment and attendance in school.
Yes
Presence of a
drinking water
source in the
community
22.3%
Of children said, “helping their
family” was their main reason
for working12
Poverty and demographics
No
22%
Yes
Presence of a
school in the
community
Occurrence of child labourers based
on household size
16.5%
95%
19.0%
Occurrence of child labour based
on community characteristics
24%
CLMRS data involving 39,215
children aged 5-17 analysed in
February 2017 demonstrates
the multi-dimensional nature
of the problem.
18.9%
Children from larger households
are more likely to be engaged in
child labour than those from
smaller families.
24.7%
Communities with more amenities
have a slightly reduced prevalence
of child labour.
19.6%
Size of household
17.5%
Ivorian children estimated to
be in child labour in cocoa
growing areas11
Amenities
17.0%
The causes of child labour are unique to each child, which
makes it a challenging issue to address. Whilst every case must
be considered individually, there are some root causes and
indicators that can be examined collectively.
1.9m
CLMRS
socio-demographic
indicators
19.3%
What causes child labour
No
Household
has a Métayer
Note: This data should be used for insight
into the population covered by the CLMRS
only and not to categorically determine,
in a statistical sense, the relationship between
the variables.
17
In summary
Child labour in cocoa is
a widespread and challenging
issue, driven by multiple
factors. Solutions must
take into account these
cultural, economic and social
considerations. As explored
in the next chapter, this
is what our system aims
to provide.
18
19
OUR APPROACH
Targeting change
that makes a real and
long-lasting difference
The Nestlé Cocoa Plan aims to improve the
lives of cocoa farmers and the quality of
their products. This includes tackling child
labour. With ICI, we have introduced a Child
Labour Monitoring and Remediation System
(CLMRS) to help address this complex issue.
20
21
Introducing
the CLMRS
Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System
How it works
Step 4
Step 5
At the co-operative level, the
Child Labour Agent (CLA)
verifies the information and
validates the report submitted
by the CLP
ICI analyses the data coming
from a co-operative, identifies
trends and suggests a palette
of remediation activities that
will be implemented by ICI with
the support of the CLA and CLP
Community-driven, holistic and
embedded into the heart of our
supply chain, the Child Labour
Monitoring and Remediation System
(CLMRS) is a new way to approach
the problem of child labour.
In the short time since its launch,
the system has proved to be highly
effective. An internal evaluation
conducted in 2017 (with a sample
of 1,056 children) in co-operatives
where the system was set-up between
2013 and 2015 indicates a reduction
in child labour of 51%. This means
that over half of the children engaged
in child labour from this sample were
no longer doing so in July 2017.
Step 1
The Community Liaison Person
(CLP) visits the households and
farms of every member of the Nestlé
Cocoa Plan co-operative to gather
basic information on the issue
Step 3
WORKING TOGETHER
This information is entered
into a centralised database
via a mobile app
Step 6
This is the first
programme of its kind
in the cocoa industry.
Step 2
A child is spotted
(or self-declares) engaging
in a hazardous activity
51%
In 2017, 51% of children
identified are no longer
in child labour18
22
ICI, or one of its local partners,
implements or distributes
remediation support to the
child and/or their parents
Step 7
The child is monitored to ensure
the process is successful, and the
effectiveness of the remediation
activities is critically reviewed on
an on-going basis
23
Focus of the
work to date
Case study
Nurturing
change
Going beyond certification
Nestlé’s initial response to the
problem was to try and end child
labour by placing significant
downward pressure on our
supply chain. We used the highly
reputable certification bodies
Fairtrade and UTZ to audit and
verify that child labour was not
present in our suppliers’ fields.
Farmers’ certification bonuses
were in fact dependent upon
them conforming to this.
In time, we came to find that
without additional support
for farmers on the ground,
certification alone tended to
drive the issue underground.
Put simply, when the auditors
came, the children were ushered
from the fields and when
interviewed the farmers denied
they were ever there.
This is not to put the blame on
the certification system, but it
merely highlights that it has its
limitations. We needed to get
closer to the problem ourselves
and tackle its causes.
In response, in 2011 we
commissioned the FLA to
investigate and report on the
issue of child labour in our supply
chain.19 The FLA subsequently
recommended that we develop
our own CLMRS to tackle the
issue. To do so, we worked
closely with ICI, whose expertise
has backstopped the entire
effort since day one. The project
started in Côte d’Ivoire in 2012,
with our first activities in Ghana
beginning in 2016. We are
pleased that UTZ has adapted
its certification standard to
accommodate the system.
24
The size of the CLMRS is substantial,
with over 75 co-operatives and
48,000 farmers covered, representing
over 130,000 tonnes of cocoa supply.
The main achievement of the CLMRS
to date has been to interview these
farmers and identify which of their
children are actively engaged in (or
at risk of) child labour. As the Nestlé
Cocoa Plan continues to expand, this
will remain a key focus in new areas.
Not only has this information
allowed us to start taking more
targeted action, it has also supplied
a baseline of data, against which we
can monitor the long-term success of
the programme.
By using local people (the CLPs) to
gather the information, farmers are
reassured that they will not face
commercial sanctions for admitting
to child labour when they have no
realistic alternatives. Consequently,
more farmers acknowledge that their
children are in fact working in the
fields than would otherwise be the
case. Moreover, they are much more
candid about discussing why their
children are there in the first place.
This gives us a vastly improved
understanding of both the scale of
the problem and the conditions that
produce it. As a direct result of this
insight, 7,327 children have been
identified as being in child labour
since the programme began in 2012.
Allowing for children turning 18
and successful remediation, 7,002
children are deemed as being
presently in or at risk of child labour.
The CLMRS has so far followed up
with 5,232 of these children, with
the rest to follow once we have more
closely analysed their situation and
identify, together with our local
partners, the best course of action
in each case.
This number of child labourers is
significant. It is precisely because the
Nestlé Cocoa Plan has a system in
place that these children have been
successfully identified and that we are
therefore able to support them.
40,728
5–17 year olds currently
being monitored by the
Nestlé Cocoa Plan CLMRS,
with scale-up continuing
5,232
Children being helped to date by
the Nestlé Cocoa Plan CLMRS
5.5m
CHF spent on tackling child labour
in 2016, covering the CLMRS and
school building 20
1,553
Number of communities in
which the system is operating
Mathilde Koua N’Godo Sokoty,
Nestlé Cocoa Plan
Human Rights Manager, Côte d’Ivoire
Nestlé’s Mathilde Koua
N’Godo Sokoty admits
to working as a child
labourer herself when
she was growing up.
She recalls how difficult it was to
concentrate in the afternoons because
she was so hungry and the school
didn’t have a canteen. She would run
home and head straight to the fields
to help her parents work just so she
could get her next meal faster.
As an adult, Mathilde met a young
girl of around 13 during one of her
village visits. Though clearly very
bright, the girl had, however, stopped
going to school. Given her personal
situation, the girl was deemed as
being at high risk of child labour.
Mathilde took the time to talk to her.
After about an hour the girl was brave
enough to mention that she secretly
wanted to go back to school but felt
that it was impossible. She was also
worried about having fallen so far
behind that her friends would
laugh at her.
Mathilde followed the case up herself,
speaking to the girl’s father and
getting his support for the idea of a
return to school. She also organised a
school kit with all the materials, like
pens and books, that the girl would
need. Mathilde then encouraged
the father to go with the local
Community Liaison Person to speak
to the director of the school.
During the meeting, the pair
managed to convince the director to
allow the girl to re-enter the school
even though it was the middle of the
academic year.
“It turned out she didn’t need to
worry as she is very intelligent and
soon caught up,” said Mathilde.
“Her results one year on are really
quite brilliant. I still follow the case
personally and when I see her grades
come in, it really moves me. We were
able to make a huge difference to her
thanks to the system.”
Now working as the Nestlé
Cocoa Plan Human Rights
Manager in Côte d’Ivoire,
Mathilde feels it is particularly
hard for girls here to study after
school, as their mothers expect
them to help with chores
around the home for hours.
That leaves them too tired to
do homework and they often
start to fall behind the boys.
25
In summary
Our CLMRS approach
is an effective way of
identifying, monitoring
and addressing child
labour in cocoa-growing
regions. Many challenges
remain, however we are
learning from our experience
and are continuously
improving the way we
tackle this issue.
26
27
OUR COMMUNITIES
Educating people
about the dangers
of child labour
A lack of awareness about the negative
effects of child labour can play a role in
perpetuating it. To address this, we are
investing in Community Liaison People
(CLPs) to work with and educate their
own communities.
28
29
Walking through
the small village of
Koffessou in Côte
d’Ivoire, Community
Liaison Dibi Konan
spotted two children
doing something he
didn’t like the look of.
163,407
As an experienced cocoa farmer
himself, Dibi had been chosen by
the elders to work with the Nestlé
Cocoa Plan in the village to help
tackle child labour.
Since the village is so small, Dibi
knew the two boys personally. They
were the sons of a local cocoa farmer.
Community members educated on child labour issues
1,246
Our CLPs are chosen directly by
their communities. Because this
happens in a traditional way, they are
trusted and respected by the people
they represent.
Community Liaison
People (CLPs)
This makes them ideal not just to
identify cases of child labour but also
to raise awareness levels and foster a
change in attitudes. To this end, CLPs
are taught how to run awarenessraising sessions as part of their job
training and are provided with
materials to support these activities.
These awareness-raising sessions are
either run at a community-wide level
or with small groups of people, such
as particular families depending
on the circumstances. Topic areas
covered include clarifying what
tasks children can and cannot do
and taking a detailed look at each of
the specifically prohibited tasks for
children in cocoa production.
At first the community sessions
are well-attended, animated affairs,
which function as community
forums, where general questions,
points and concerns are raised and
shared by the farmers and their
families. However, if after a while
the enthusiasm drops off, this is the
right time to begin concentrating
on more targeted sessions with
individual families.
30
75
The youngest was just six years
old and the eldest still only eight.
Approaching them he saw they
were setting a rat trap – Agouti or
the Greater Cane Rat is considered
something of a delicacy in this
part of Africa.
Tending to a trap is viewed as
hunting, which is counted as child
labour by the Ivorian government.
Since traps are dangerous, Dibi
immediately stopped the boys and
sent them home.
As soon as he could, he visited the
boys’ father for an explanation.
In this particular case, it actually
transpired that the father was
unaware that the boys had been
hunting. They had taken it upon
themselves to try setting the trap,
nake i
s
n
A
having watched their father do it
many times before. Dibi helped the
father explain to the boys why what
they had done was dangerous. Having
first gotten the approval of the father,
he showed the boys a real picture
from his teaching materials of a child
that had been bitten by a snake while
setting a rat trap.
“They were really shocked,”
commented Dibi, “they swore they
would never do it again and I could
tell they meant it.” While this was
not cocoa-related child labour, what
they were doing was dangerous and
needed to be stopped. The Nestlé
Cocoa Plan’s system provided a
mechanism to do this and to prevent
it happening again.
Case study
t he g
s
s
ra
!
Education inspires education
Child Labour Agents
(supporting CLPs)
Notably, these efforts dovetail
with other work being done by
the Nestlé Cocoa Plan, such as
farmer education, where 57,000
farmers have been educated on
better farming practices.21 This
programme is creating a more
professional body of farmers,
who are less likely to use their
children as child labourers.
4,917
Community awareness-raising
sessions conducted since 2012
Dibi Konan
Nestlé Cocoa Plan
Community Liaison
5,877
“It’s a story I like, one
that really touches me,
because those children
won’t hunt anymore
and they’ll be safe.”
Small group awarenessraising sessions conducted
since 2012
31
Educating
mothers
Our education efforts in the
community are not only limited to
awareness-raising and supporting
schooling for children as a direct
remediation activity. We also support
other initiatives. For example, pilot
schemes have been launched in some
communities to teach mothers basic
literacy and numeracy skills. Where
offered, these courses have proved
extremely popular (often being
oversubscribed). Not only does this
help empower the women themselves,
but it also allows them to better help
their children with homework and
impress upon them that education
is valued by their family and society.
We hope that efforts like these will
gradually help to increase adult
literacy in the communities we work
in. However, there is a challenge
here: whilst women are extremely
interested in the programme, their
heavy workloads mean that in reality
they often drop out. The questions
going forward are how to structure
the programme to minimise
dropout, and what else can be
done to make women’s lives easier
so that they have more time.
By the end of 2016, 300 women were
reached by these activities with a
further 600 expected to participate
throughout 2017 and 2018.
In summary
Increased community
awareness supports
efforts to reduce child
labour. We believe
that appropriate
and well-targeted
educational initiatives
can shift attitudes.
32
33
OUR ACTIONS
Fostering
improvement
in West Africa
Helping children by removing them from
child labour is at the heart of our actions,
but there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
By investigating individual situations,
testing different methods to offer support
and rolling out those that work the best,
we are taking children out of risk.
34
35
Finding the
right solutions
9,869
Remediation actions undertaken
In some cases, remediation is highly
individualised and focused on the
specific needs of a particular child.
In others, it can cast its net wider and
aim to tackle broader problems that
affect the whole community. We are
trying various forms of remediation
across this spectrum and are
continually refining our approach
as we learn which actions are most
effective. We are also committed to
reporting publicly on how successful
these approaches are, to accelerate the
learning curve of others.
Here we detail some of the
remediation activities we have
tried so far.
42
Schools built or refurbished
17
‘Bridging classes’ running
4,517
Birth certificates provided
5,578
School kits handed out
36
Educational
remediation
If children should not be working,
where should they be? The
obvious answer is school. School
provides children with significant
advantages. It increases their
future potential and reduces their
chances of being in child labour.
However, our data also indicates
that being in school does not
completely eliminate the risk of
a child working in hazardous
conditions after school hours or
during weekends.
Nonetheless, facilitating access to
education is clearly an important
piece of the puzzle. In a move
warmly welcomed by Nestlé, the
Ivorian government made primary
school education compulsory in
2015. However, the government still
faces an enormous task to provide
schools to every community.
While school-building is the role
of government, Nestlé has played
its part by building or refurbishing
42 schools in Côte d’Ivoire at a
cost of CHF 2.1 million.22 This has
improved access to education
for over 10,000 children and
young people.
Birth certificates
Aside from the educational facilities
themselves, another major obstacle
frequently faced by children is the
lack of a birth certificate, which is
compulsory for entry to secondary
education. Since the start of the
programme we have enabled
4,517 children to continue their
education by providing them with a
birth certificate. We also welcome
the recent initiative by the Ivorian
government to begin providing birth
certificates on a large scale to those
who need them, which could benefit
1.5 million Ivorian children.
Another obstacle to education that
we attempt to remove is related to
the costs of providing children with
the necessary materials for school.
To this end, 5,578 school kits have
been handed out to children over
the last three years.
Supporting those who have
dropped out of school
In addition to supporting
mainstream schools, the Nestlé
Cocoa Plan is piloting 17 ‘bridging
classes’. When children who
have dropped out of education
subsequently attempt to re-enter
school, they often find they have
fallen too far behind to keep up.
A ‘bridging class’ is specifically
designed to help children make
up lost ground without the social
stigma that comes with having
fallen behind. This effort would not
be possible without the significant
support of the Jacobs Foundation,
which is funding part of the project.
37
1,305
11x
Number of
women supported
with income
generating activities
Increases in income are 11 times
more likely to impact children’s
welfare if they are in women’s
hands than men’s 25
Why toilets can help
girls’ education
Other initiatives
Empowering women
Many schools in Côte d’Ivoire
do not have toilets. Girls find
this particularly difficult as they
have to go further into the bush
to relieve themselves. There,
they are at greater risk of being
bitten by snakes or insects, and
there have also been cases of
girls being harassed. As a result,
many are obliged to walk several
kilometres back home or to a
relative’s house to go to the toilet.
Some even report needing to
take the bus to do this. This is an
unpleasant experience, which
in itself can discourage school
attendance. Even for those who
persevere however, they are
forced to miss some schooling
simply to go to the bathroom,
impacting grades and further
discouraging attendance.
Unfortunately, improving access to
education is only half the battle –
61% of all child labourers identified
actually attend school.23 That means
we need to take a broader approach to
tackling the issue.
A partnership for water,
sanitation and hygiene
Nestlé’s longstanding partnership
with the International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies (IFRC) is delivering
clean drinking water, sanitation
facilities and hygiene training
for more than 200,000
people in Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa
communities between 2014–2018.
Having identified this issue,
the Nestlé Cocoa Plan has
financed the construction of
hygienic, modern toilets for girls,
boys and staff in every school it
has been directly involved with
refurbishing or building. It is a
simple measure, but one that
makes a significant difference.
38
Community Service Groups
In order to support farmers with
hazardous tasks and reduce their
need to ask their children for
help, we have formed Community
Service Groups. Made up mostly
of young people, we equip and
train these groups, which also
provide valuable employment to
young adults. The cost of their
labour is divided between the
Nestlé Cocoa Plan and the farmer,
so that farmers only pay half price
for the help received.
An additional advantage of the
system is that it works on credit,
so if a farmer needs to wait for
their crop to be sold to have
enough cash, the Community
Service Group is willing to wait for
payment until the farmer is ready.
The efficiency, reduced price and
credit facilities offered by these
groups make them an attractive
proposition for local farmers. To
date, 411 families have used groups
like these so that their children no
longer need to work in the fields.
The groups also help ensure that
Nestlé is supplied by a reliable,
high-quality source of cocoa.
Another way to help children is
through the empowerment of
women. Our initial research in the
area indicates that women tend
to spend more of their income
on supporting their children than
men, and that they may be less
inclined to allow their children to
become involved in child labour.
We approach this topic in two
ways: labour-saving devices and
income-generating activities. Both
involve bringing women together
in groups.
Labour-saving devices such
as cassava-grating machines
introduced to the community
have saved women hours of
time preparing food every week
(see case study) as have the
171 water pumps refurbished
in the framework of the Nestlé
Cocoa Plan. 24 These initiatives
leave mothers with more time to
complete other household chores
or farm work. We hope this will
have a significant impact on their
children, particularly young girls,
who are often required to help
with chores at home. Reducing the
burden on them should facilitate
school participation and reduce
the risk of involvement in child
labour. Moreover, as family income
increases, there may be more
disposable income available to pay
for farm hands and less likelihood
of parents having to rely on their
children to work.
39
Case study
“We do it for the children.”
Aya Kouadio, President of the Koffessou Women’s Group
The voices rise from
the field in harmony.
One woman sings a lyric
and the choir of women
farmers chant it back
like an echo as they work
the land with smiles
on their faces…
Bah
yô
kpa
…they intone:
‘For the children’s sake.’
Late, under the shade of a thatched
roof made of branches and leaves,
Aya Kouadio mixes her cassava
one last time. Grated down to
the consistency of couscous, this
particular bowl is due to be cooked
for a village celebration, but on
another day, it would have been
heading to the nearest market to be
sold. Aya is proud of the product.
As President of the Koffessou
Women’s Group, she helped handplant the cassava field along with
the other women in the group.
The group was suggested by a
member of the Nestlé Cocoa Plan
team who helped the women
negotiate with the village chief to
set aside a small section of land for
them to work collectively.
Traditionally, it is the men who plant
the cash crops, while the women help
their husbands and tend to small
patches of land to grow vegetables
or spices to vary the family’s diet.
But the new group allowed the
women to grow their own vegetables
commercially – their collective effort
giving them the scale they needed.
“Before this group existed, we only
used to work in our husbands’ fields,
now we have something that belongs
to us,” Aya explains. “Even though
we still work with our husbands,
I think that having our own project
helps us.”
The proceeds are split evenly or
channelled to a particular person in
need as required. “It means that if a
child needs a pen, pencil or chalk to
go to school, [and can’t afford it] the
group can buy it for them,” Aya says.
40
“It means that all the children can
go to school now.”
The encouragement from Nestlé to
diversify the village’s range of crops
in this way is also welcomed by Aya.
“Cocoa cannot always cover all the
costs,” she says, “so having another
source of income is valuable to us.”
In addition to proposing and setting
up the group, the Nestlé Cocoa Plan
also provided a petrol-driven cassavagrating machine.
“The machine saves the women
hours,” says Darrell High,
Head of the Nestlé Cocoa Plan.
“It can take up to two hours to
manually grate a cassava down
into a couscous-like substance
called Attiéké, which is a very
popular way of eating it here.”
Darrell continues: “The machine not
only gives the women that time back,
it also means that they can charge to
grate cassava for other women or sell
the finished product in other villages
in addition to the raw vegetables.”
Aya and the other women visibly
enjoy being part of the group
because they have a clear motivation.
“We do it for the children,” says Aya,
“we want to help the children and we
want to help their mothers too.”
To date 1,305 women have benefitted
from the development of revenuegenerating activities such as this.
41
Challenges
Despite the major strides that
the CLMRS has taken, significant
challenges remain.
Awareness-raising
Time constraints
Resistance to change
Attendance at community
awareness-raising sessions
diminishes over the long term as
subject-fatigue begins to kick in.
Seeing the impacts of our
remediation efforts takes time.
It can be weeks or even months
before bureaucratic processes can
be completed and birth certificates
can be issued, or women’s groups
can be engaged with to discuss
food crop growing initiatives.
If children have been practising
certain hazardous activities for
years they and their families are
often resistant to change. This is
especially true when they have few
alternatives, and when working
like an adult brings them status
amongst their peers.
Motivating everyone
Remediation limitations
Constant flux
It is challenging to continually
follow up on the work of 1,246
CLPs (especially given their
remote locations) to ensure
they all continue to spend time
on CLMRS activities.
Not all remediation activities
attempted have proven successful.
For example, where other crops
have been trialled as an incomegenerating activity, sometimes
they have been lost due to
weather-related issues beyond
our control. Where community
groups are founded and supported
by the Nestlé Cocoa Plan, there is
always a risk that internal group
disagreements might inhibit
their effectiveness.
Co-operative membership is
rather fluid. People join and leave
(and re-join again) on a constant
basis. Ensuring changes to
members’ status is communicated,
updating the data base, and
visiting and re-training them is
a difficult endeavour in isolated
villages, which can sometimes
be hours away from the nearest
tarmacked road.
Maintaining equipment
Underlying infrastructure
Reaching people
The equipment provided at the
beginning of the system set-up
in a co-operative (e.g. bikes,
cell phones) can easily fall into
disrepair in rural Côte d’Ivoire.
The maintenance and replacement
of equipment for CLPs is a huge
and constant logistical burden.
Simply ‘sending the child back to
school’ is rarely an option. Even
when schools exist, they are often
too far away or already at capacity.
Nestlé has supported the Ivorian
government by building schools,
but many more need to be built and
teachers found to staff them.
The sheer isolation of some of the
farms and villages is a challenge
in itself. Supplying school kits,
providing literacy classes to
women, offering ‘bridging classes’
to children, are all more difficult
as a result.
Individualisation limitations
Social limitations
System costs
Every case is unique but a
programme this size needs
a certain degree of
standardisation, so it is difficult
to provide a perfectly
personalised solution to all.
The lack of a comprehensive social
welfare system is a limiting factor
in finding a complete solution.
The CLMRS has cost implications.
Working to make it as effective as
possible is essential if the system
is to be sustainable at scale and in
the long term. For example, when
the CLMRS was launched, the CLAs
were newly hired co-operative
employees. A more cost-effective
approach is to give someone in the
current workforce the additional
responsibility, as has been done
more recently.
42
43
In summary
Remediation is at the very
heart of our efforts to tackle
child labour. Education is
an important component
but must be accompanied
by activities that reduce the
need for children to work
with their parents in the fields.
Not all remediation activities
we have attempted have proven
successful. When the right
remediation activity is applied
to the right problem however,
the results can change lives.
44
45
OUR AMBITIONS
Sustaining cocoa
into the future
We are determined to end child labour in
cocoa and other supply chains. Although
many challenges remain, one way we can
make progress is through expanding the
Nestlé Cocoa Plan.
46
47
Increasing impact across
the cocoa supply chain
Challenges
Ambitions
Nestlé Cocoa Plan
Increase
our reach
150
175
230
By end 2017
By end 2018
By end 2020
Source 150,000
tonnes of cocoa
through the Nestlé
Cocoa Plan
Source 175,000
tonnes of cocoa
through the Nestlé
Cocoa Plan
Source 230,000
tonnes of cocoa
through the Nestlé
Cocoa Plan
thousand
tonnes
Expanding the Nestlé Cocoa Plan
Nestlé is currently sourcing around
a third of its total global supply of
400,000 tonnes of cocoa through
the Nestlé Cocoa Plan, but in order
to completely eradicate child labour
from our supply chain, we need to
further expand our reach.
The Nestlé Cocoa Plan will continue
to expand globally and within West
Africa. With new co-operatives
expected to implement the CLMRS
within a year of joining the Nestlé
Cocoa Plan, our efforts to tackle child
labour will expand in parallel.
Specifically, over the next 12 months
we will focus on rolling out the
CLMRS in co-operatives covered by
the Nestlé Cocoa Plan in Ghana.
Maintaining the high-quality and
efficacy of the system as it expands
is another key concern, as is
improving stakeholder understanding
and increasing the number of
partnerships we have on the ground.
48
Bringing other organisations into
the fold and sharing our learnings
with our industry peers will be
an important stepping stone in
increasing our collective impact.
We will also seek to support and
encourage change beyond our own
supply chain.
Collective action
Certification bodies are especially
important in this regard and we
are very supportive of the work of
Fairtrade and UTZ. In particular,
UTZ has adapted its certification
standard, and now requires certifying
entities to set up a child labour
monitoring and remediation system.
CocoaAction, a voluntary industrywide strategy that works to align
key stakeholders on regional priority
issues in cocoa sustainability, has
adopted a version of our CLMRS
into its community development
pillar. Equally, in an example of
reciprocal learning, we are running
holistic community development
programmes in over 30 communities
in parallel to the CLMRS, following a
CocoaAction proposal.
In order to make the
programme more sustainable,
we intend to ingrain it into the
supply chain more deeply and
hand over more responsibility
to the co-operatives.
All co-operatives in
Côte d’Ivoire will adopt
the CLMRS within a year
of joining the Nestlé
Cocoa Plan
They already manage the
certification system, the costs
of which are paid through the
certification premium.
We are progressively moving
towards this approach for
covering the costs of running
the CLMRS at co-operative
level. Our figures show that the
premium paid for certification
can cover these costs, while
the costs of remediation
will continue to be covered
by Nestlé.
thousand
tonnes
thousand
tonnes
Around 57% of total
anticipated supply
CLMRS
Maintain
the efficacy
of our CLMRS
as we increase
its scale
Continue to
observe and learn
from remediation
successes
and failures
• Implementing best practices
throughout the system
Engage
with an everwider circle of
stakeholders,
including
competitors
Continue to
show leadership
on the issue
• Assisting other organisations, including
ICI members, in efficiently adopting and
expanding CLMRS as a principle of responsible
supply chain management
• Continuing to find solutions that improve
the cost effectiveness of the system
• Reaching beyond the industry and engaging
with interested stakeholders from other sectors
• Sharing learnings to help tackle child labour in
the broadest sense possible
49
In summary
We will expand our
CLMRS through the
Nestlé Cocoa Plan.
We will continue to
take a lead on tackling
the problem and making
progress in eliminating
child labour from our
supply chains.
50
50
5151
The beginning of our journey
Child labour has no
place in our supply chain.
However, as we have
shown, it is a complex
and challenging issue
to tackle.
It has multiple and varied
causes, which make
remediation difficult. Although
we are proud of the significant
progress we have made,
we know we are still at the
beginning of our journey.
The main success of the
programme to date has been to
work with over 48,000 farmers
and their children to identify
which of them are at risk
and to put in place measures
to improve their situations.
Allowing people to open up
about the issue has been a
significant factor in this, and a
notable success in its own right.
We have tightened our definition
of what it means to be ‘taken out
of child labour.’ Consequently, it
is too early in most cases to state
categorically that a child has been
completely removed from child
labour without risk of a relapse.
However, ICI statistical evaluations
show that we have had a significant
impact across a representative sample,
giving us a strong sense of optimism.
We can state categorically that our
remediation efforts are already
improving the lives of over 5,000
children, in over 1,500 communities.
Although we need to wait for
the long-term trends to emerge
before we can truly judge the success
of our efforts, we have created a
system that is beginning to have
an impact in tackling the problem.
Having established a baseline of
statistical evidence since 2012, we
can now start to comprehensively
report our progress against this as
we move forward.
Finally, we are proud to be the
first company in the industry to
have taken such a robust and
comprehensive approach to dealing
with child labour and to report in
such detail on our efforts.
We believe the system has been
successful, but are open and honest
about the challenges we face, from
running the system itself to finding
appropriate remediation methods and
dealing with difficult cases.
Through ICI’s forum, we have
been able to share the results and
challenges of our experience in an
open and constructive way with
our peers. As a result, the model
has been accepted as industry best
practice and is being adopted by
seven other ICI member companies.
Moreover, as other ICI members learn
and innovate based on their own
experiences, it will begin to fuel an
ongoing, industry-wide collective
learning process.
The greater the number of
organisations committed to tackling
child labour in cocoa, the greater the
impact we will collectively have.
We will work closely with others in
the cocoa and chocolate industry
as part of CocoaAction,26 the World
Cocoa Foundation’s strategy for cocoa
sustainability, certification bodies like
UTZ, as well as NGOs, and national
and local governments, to help drive
change beyond our supply chain.
We hope this report helps drive more
effective and transparent responses to the
issue of child labour in cocoa, right across
the industry.
52
53
References
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
http://www.childlaborcocoa.org/images/Payson_Reports/Tulane%20University%20-%20Survey%20Research%20on%20Child%20Labor%20
in%20the%20Cocoa%20Sector%20-%2030%20
July%202015.pdf
10
These reports are publicly available on
the FLA website: http://www.fairlabor.org
http://portal.fairlabor.org/fla/go.asp?u=/pub/
zTr5&tm=5&Rid=1508&Fdn=13&Fna=NES+Libre+2013%2Epdf (2013)
http://portal.fairlabor.org/fla/go.asp?u=/pub/
zTr5&tm=5&Rid=1626&Fdn=13&Fna=Nestle%5FDivo%5F2014%2Epdf (2014)
http://portal.fairlabor.org/fla/go.asp?u=/pub/
zTr5&tm=5&Rid=1626&Fdn=13&Fna=Nestle%5FDivo%5F2014%2Epdf (2015)
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/lang--en/index.htm
11
12
13
14
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/lang--en/index.htm
Le Ministre d’Etat, Ministre de l’Emploi des Affaires
Sociales et de la Solidarité, arrêté N°1427
MEMEASFP/CAB/DGT/DLTE, du 04 mai 2015.
http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/0aac
6c0044900aab84728cc66d9c728b/MarketIn
sights_Case+Study+3_May2015.pdf?MOD=A
JPERES
15
16
17
18
https://worldinfigures.com/rankings/index/22
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.ELC.
ACCS.RU.ZS (2014)
19
20
54
https://books.google.ch/books?id=cYqig0fCYEM
C&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=child+labour+carry
ing+heavy+loads+spine&source=-bl&ots=yWzT
72p7oe&sig=9muahZU0sY0G0iP_W6ULvmXM
pU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjXjdGk_6HVAhX
BOBQKHfcuBSoQ6AEITzAL#v=onepage&q=spi
nal&f=false
(1.864.622 children) http://www.childlaborcocoa.
org/images/Payson_Reports/Tulane%20Unive
rsity%20-%20Survey%20Research%20on%20
Child%20Labor%20in%20the%20Cocoa%20Sec
tor%20-%2030%20July%202015.pdf (p.36)
ICI analysis of CLMRS data,
covering 39,215 children – February 2017
21
22
23
24
25
26
http://www.nestle.com/asset-library/documents/
library/documents/corporate_social_responsibility/nestle-csv-full-report-2016-en.pdf (p.88)
http://www.nestle-cwa.com/en/csv/communities/
cocoa-plan
ICI analysis of CLMRS data,
covering 39,215 children – February 2017
http://www.nestlecocoaplan.com/better-lives/
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTARD/Resources/webexecutivesummaryARD_GiA_InvstInWomen_8Pg_web.pdf
http://www.worldcocoafoundation.org/aboutwcf/
cocoaaction/
https://worldinfigures.com/country-profiles/ci
http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/0aac6c0044900aab84728cc66d9c728b/MarketInsights_Case+Study+3_May2015.pdf?MOD=AJPERES
https://worldinfigures.com/rankings/index/287
Thank you to Koffessou village
and Didoko school for allowing us
to take photographs and conduct
interviews for our case studies.
https://worldinfigures.com/rankings/index/218
ICI analysis of CLMRS data,
covering 39,215 children – February 2017
2017 ICI evaluation of a representative sample of
1,056 children. This followed a 2015 ICI evaluation
of a smaller sample of 387 children.
http://www.fairlabor.org/report/assessment-nestle-Cocoa-supply-chain-ivory-coast
http://www.nestle.com/asset-library/documents/
library/documents/corporate_social_responsibility/nestle-csv-full-report-2016-en.pdf (p.88)
55
www.nestlecocoaplanreport.com
www.nestlecocoaplan.com
www.nestle.com
www.cocoainitiative.org
56
Child labour and cocoa production
in West Africa
Morten Bøås and Anne Huser
This report analyse to what degree children work in cocoa production in Ghana and
Côte d’Ivoire, and in what part of the production process they are involved. The report
gives an understanding of the situation for cocoa farmers and the children working in
the cocoa sector. The report is the fifth report in a series of working papers from a Fafo
research programme on child labour, generously financed by the Norwegian Ministry of
Foreign Affaires.
Child labour and cocoa production
in West Africa
The case of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana
P.O.Box 2947 Tøyen
N-0608 Oslo
www.fafo.no/english/
Fafo-report 522
ISBN 82-7422-530-9
ISSN 0801-6143
Research Program on Trafficking and Child Labour
Morten Bøås and Anne Huser
Child labour and cocoa production
in West Africa
The case of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana
Fafo report 522
© Fafo 2006
ISBN 82-7422-530-9
ISSN 0801-6143
Cover photo: Lise Bjerkan
Cover page: Fafo Information Office
Printed in Norway by: Allkopi AS
2
Contents
Foreword ...........................................................................................................................................5
1 Introduction – the issues ..............................................................................................7
Child labour and the Western world..................................................................................... 8
Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana............................................................................................................ 9
Child labour: what it is and what it is not .........................................................................10
2 Child labour in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana:
the state of the art .........................................................................................................13
3 About a tree .........................................................................................................................16
The seasonal calendar..............................................................................................................17
4 The political economy of
cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire .....................................................................20
A double movement of transformation ............................................................................21
Autochthonous and strangers in Western Côte d’Ivoire .............................................24
The nationalist era and the rise of the Boigny state......................................................25
The end of the Ivorian miracle and the ‘Ivoirtié’ discourse .........................................28
The ‘chocolate’ war' ...................................................................................................................29
5 The political economy of cocoa production in Ghana
31
Social structures .........................................................................................................................32
Cocoa production in Ghana...................................................................................................33
Childhood, education and labour in contemporary Ghana.......................................37
6 Cocoa production and the organisation of labour ..............................39
Labour............................................................................................................................................40
Challenges for cocoa farmers ................................................................................................43
Why is child labour not that common
in Ghanaian cocoa production? ...........................................................................................44
7 Children and their vulnerabilities .....................................................................47
8 Conclusions and recommendations .................................................................53
Bibliography ................................................................................................................................55
3
4
Foreword
The Fafo Research Programme on Trafficking and Child Labour
Over the past seven years, Fafo has developed a research profile on child labour
and policies to combat it. Studies of work life are a core research area for Fafo, and
our surveys of living conditions have targeted children and youth as a particularly
important group to be examined. Fafo’s origins in the trade union movement have
resulted in a particular interest in developing institutional frameworks for regulating
work and labour rights issues in the best interests of national economic development
and the work force.
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs drew upon Fafo’s expertise to assist
in preparing and hosting the International Conference on Child Labour in Oslo in
1997. Since then, Fafo has been commissioned by the International Labour Organisation, the World Bank, and others to provide applied research of interest to those
combating child labour. The studies have been multifaceted and have addressed such
issues as child labour and international trade, child relocation and domestic work,
how to identify and measure child labour in national statistics, and how to identify
and study child soldiers and the trafficking of children.
International efforts to combat child labour must be knowledge-based; that is,
they require a good empirical understanding of its causes, forms, and extent. One
challenge is to develop methodologies that can strengthen the planning and efficiency
of national programs to counter child labour. It is Fafo’s aim to contribute to this goal
by providing knowledge and methods to map the challenges and measure results.
In 2002, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs generously agreed to finance
a Fafo program on child labour, enabling us to collate and consolidate our research
on the subject. The specific objectives of the program are to:
1. Help improve the empirical understanding of the variations of child labour,
including their social and family contexts;
2. Improve and validate qualitative and quantitative methods to study and map
child labour, with a particular focus on its worst forms;
5
3. Explore how an understanding of children as actors may help develop preventive
measures aimed at improving living and working conditions for children and
reducing the prevalence of child labour.
We are pleased to present, Child Labour and Cocoa Production in West Africa: the
Case of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the fourth in a series of working papers from this
program. This report attempts to understand the situation of children involved in
cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, with a particular emphasis on how
child labour in cocoa farming is a consequence of poverty and economic decline.
Previous reports include Achievements and Setbacks in the Fights Against Child Labour:
Assessment of the Oslo Conference on Child Labour October 1997 by Lise Bjerkan and
Christophe Gironde, Travel to Uncertainty by Kari Hauge Riisøen, Anne Hatløy and
Lise Bjerkan, and Identification of Street Children: Characteristics of Street Children in
Bamako and Accra by Anne Hatløy and Anne Huser. Forthcoming are the reports
Living in a Material World and After the ‘Storm’ both by Morten Bøås and Anne
Hatløy, which respectively analyse children in alluvial diamond mining in Sierra
Leone and the economic activities of returning children in Liberia.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Anne Hatløy, who has ably coordinated our child labour program.
The fieldwork on which this report is based was carried out in June 2004, in Côte
d’Ivoire by Morten Bøås and in Ghana by Anne Huser. I would like to thank the
authors of this report, Morten Bøås and Anne Huser, and Jon Pedersen, Fafo’s
Research Director, who provided valuable input during the work. Special thanks
also to Professor Francis Akindès (University of Bouake) in Côte d’Ivoire and our
colleagues at the University of Ghana, without whom the fieldwork would not have
been possible. Special thanks also to all the children, youth, adults and organisations in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana who were willing to share their experiences and
histories with us.
Finally, we are grateful to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway for its
financial support, without which this report would not have been possible.
Mark Taylor
Managing Director
Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies
6
1 Introduction – the issues
Child labour has become an increasingly important topic in international policymaking. It is debated in multilateral fora such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the World Bank, the International Confederation of Trade Unions
(ICFTU),1 in national trade unions and national employers associations, and in
the global community of non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The voices
in this debate are many. One of the most important cleavages are between those
supportive of ‘a gradualist, step-by-step approach to regulation’ putting ‘the most
intolerable forms of child labour on the political agenda’, versus those who argue
‘that focusing on the worst forms would not be followed by further elaboration of
child labour norms and that there was an even greater risk that many forms of child
labour would be neglected if the worst forms were defined too narrowly, too soon’
(Bjerkan and Gironde 2004:17).
Child labour is undoubtedly an important and controversial issue, but it is also
underresearched and undertheorised. In most Africanist scholarships the issue of
child labour is often neglected and its significance for economic, social and political
relations ignored (Grier 2004a).2 The current report attempts to contribute to addressing this neglect by focusing on the vulnerabilities of children involved in child
labour, and the historical and socio-economic context in which the phenomenon
of child labour is embedded. In particular, it seeks to improve the empirical understanding of child labour in West Africa, with a focus on social and family contexts.
We believe that such an understanding can facilitate a more nuanced debate about
children involved in child labour, about different production systems, and the various
policy responses possible for the improvement of the living conditions of working
children in the short term and the eradicatation of child labour in the long-term.
1
The ICFTU was established in 1949 and has currently 234 affiliated trade union organisations in 152
countries and territories on all five continents, with a total membership of 148 million people.
2
This does not mean that the issue has not be researched or theorised. Important contribution from
Africanist scholarship include Bass (2004), Grier (2004a, 2004b), Honwana and de Boeck (2005),
from a more general perspective Grimsrud (2001a, 2001b) and a series of publications from ILO and
UNICEF has improved our understanding of child labour both as a generic term and an empirical
phenomena.
7
Child labour and the Western world
We have chosen to focus on the cocoa sector in Côte ‘d Ivoire and Ghana for two
reasons. First, we wanted to study child labour within the context of the production
of a commodity that was important for the economy in the country to be studied.
Secondly, we wanted to focus on a commodity with a clear material and ideational
connection to Norwegian and Western consumers.3
Child labour in the production of cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana fulfills
these two criteria. Cote d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer of cocoa beans. Its
average percentage of world production in the period between 1994 and 2003 was
38 percent, and Ghana’s production in the same period was 12 percent.4 Cocoa is
the main ingredient in chocolate, and the average Norwegian consumes 12 kilo of
chocolate per year. There is therefore clearly a material link between Norwegian
consumers and the Ivorian and Ghanian cocoa producers. However, as shown by the
debate that emerged in Norway after the publication of Simen Sætre’s book about
cocoa and chocolate production, there is also obviously an ideational relationship
here as well.5 The idea about chocolate as something good, pure and part of what
it means to be Norwegian was suddenly challenged by the image of cocoa being
produced by small children, severely exploited by cruel farmers and cocoa buyers.
Children had worked for decades on these plantations without much notice from
the outside world. It was only after the Miami Herald and New York Times published
a series of articles about ‘bonded labour’,6 e.g. child slaves on cocoa farms in Côte
d’Ivoire, that the issue come to the fore as a problem to be resolved. The Norwegian
debate followed a similar course. It was only after the publication of Sætre’s book
that the issue of child labour made it from the offices of a few researchers, policymakers in the trade unions and activists in the NGO-community, to becoming for
a shortwhile a topic for general debate and household discussion. In this manner,
the production of cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana helps us to see the relationship
3
See also Bass (2004:6) who argues: ‘Generally, there must be a material connection that links consumers in rich countries with working children in poor countries. (...) Because of the material connection
it has been difficult to ignore child labour’. In the case of cocoa we believe this connection to be both
material and ideational.
4
These figures were compiled from FAOStat (2004).
5
See Sætre (2004), Bøås, Hatløy and Huser (2004), Bøås (2004a), and a good number of other op.eds.
published in Dagbladet and LO-Akutelt in August and September 2004.
6
These articles were written by Sudarsan Raghavan and Sumana Chatterjee and published in the the
Miami Herald and New York Times in 2001. For futher details see Grier (2004a) and Bass (2004).
Similar stories about child slaves and child slave markets were also published in West Africa: A Survival
Guide, the popular backpacker book produced by Lonely Planet.
8
between the situation of children and farmers in West Africa and the consumers in
rich countries such as Norway.
This report discusses the extent to which children work in cocoa production, and
in what parts of the production process they are involved. We analyse the involvement
of children in the production of cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana with the aim of
providing a basis for improved understanding of the situation for cocoa farmers and
the children working in this sector. Our objective is to contribute to a description
of the situation at the household level and the coping strategies applied by these
households. The living conditions of and coping strategies applied by households
involved in cocoa production must also be seen in relation to the world market, both
with regard to actual price level and the structure of this market. Moreover, all such
analyses should address the relationship between these households and the general
economic conditions and level of human development in the country in question.
This means that we contextualise child labour and embed our understanding of the
present phenomena in the historical structures of cocoa production and localities.
Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana
There are important differences as well as similarities between Côte d’Ivoire and
Ghana. They are adjacent states on the West African coast, Ghana is a former British
colony, whereas Cote d’Ivoire used to be under French colonial administration. They
are quite similar in geographical, economical and sociological terms. Nevertheless,
their postcolonial paths have diverged significantly. Côte d’Ivoire experienced remarkable economic growth in the 1960s and 1970s, fuelled by an influx of foreign
investments and an increase in the exports of cocoa and coffee. Ghana, on the other
hand, experienced severe economic recession and political crisis in the same period.
It lost control of its currency and its agricultural exports dropped to levels below
those of the 1920s (see Crook 1991). Today, this picture has changed completely.
Côte d’Ivoire currently finds itself in a state of a civil war and the economy has been
in recession since the late 1980s (see ICG 2003; Bøås 2004b), whereas in Ghana
the living conditions of the population have steadily improved over the past decades
(see Green 1998; UNDP 2004). On the United Nations Development Programme’s
(UNDP) Human Development Index, Côte d’Ivoire is ranked number 163, with a
GDP per capita of US$ 1,520, a life expectancy at birth of 41 years, and an adult
literacy rate of about 50 per cent. The corresponding figures for Ghana are as follows:
its Human Development Index ranking is 131, a GDP per capita of US$ 2,130,
a life expectancy at birth of about 58 years, and an adult literacy rate of nearly 74
per cent (UNDP 2004).
9
These differences also had some important implications for the fieldwork in Côte
d’Ivoire. At the time of writing, a bitter conflict was being fought in the cocoa producing regions in Cöte d’Ivoire. Due to the racial discourse on which this war was
fought, it was not possible to conduct fieldwork in Côte d’Ivoire to the same degree
as we did in Ghana. This is of course a weakness for the study, but we believe that
the material we have gathered and analysed contributes to increased understanding
of child labour in West Africa.7
Another important dimension which we will take into consideration is the
issue of labour migration and subsequent relocation of children. This is an ancient
practice in West Africa although currently more common in Côte d’Ivoire than in
Ghana. This is mainly due to the political system and corresponding production
structure established first by the French colonial powers and later continued under
the first Ivorian president Felix Hoüphoüet-Boigny.
These differences and similarities will be used to structure our empirical presentations, analyses and arguments. However, we do not claim to conduct a formal
comparison between these two countries. Our ambitions are more modest. This is
a field in which not much systematic research has been conducted. Thus, this study
is an explorative investigation into an underresearched field.
Child labour: what it is and what it is not
Our starting point for establishing an understanding of child involvement in cocoa
production in West Africa is the international definition of child labour of ILO’s
Convention 138, which states that child labour is any economic activity performed
by a person under the age of 15 years. However, the Convention (Article 3) states
that the minimum age should be 18 years for work which is likely to be harmful to
children’s health, safety or morals, whereas 13 or even 12 years may be an acceptable age for ‘light work’ which is not likely to be harmful to children’s health and
development, and does not prevent their school attendance (ILO 1973). Thus, not
all work can be considered harmful to or exploitative of a child. Child labour is
therefore defined as work that prevents children from attending and participating
effectively in school or is performed by children under hazardous conditions which
place their health and development physically, intellectually or morally at risk. In
addition, ILO Convention 182 defines the worst form of child labour as the use of
7
The current situation in Côte d’Ivoire is discussed in detail later in the report and its implications
for child labour is analysed as well.
10
any individual under the age of 18 for the purpose of debt bondage, armed conflict,
commercial sexual exploitation, drug trafficking and other types of work identified
as hazardous to children by ratifying members (ILO 1999).8
As a point of departure, we define working children in the cocoa sector as those
who carry out at least one of the following tasks/activities on the cocoa farm on a
regular basis:
• clearing the ground,
• weeding,
• maintaining cocoa trees,
• applying pesticides,
• spreading fertilizers,
• harvesting,
• piling/gathering cocoa pods,
• pod breaking,
• fermenting, transporting,
• drying cocoa beans,
• and other farm related activities.
This also suggest that the tasks only to be performed by persons above the age of
18 years include work with pesticides and the part of cocoa-farming which includes
working with machetes.
In West Africa, as elsewhere, children in rural households traditionally help out
in the fields as part of the household. Not all this work is harmful to the child or
prevent him or her from attending school. In Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana the involvement of children in production differs from region to region and from sector to
sector. Different social practices based on complex historical trajectories may even
provide for important differences between various groups of children working within
the same area and in the same sector. Concerning cocoa production in West Africa,
we distinguish between three different groups of labour (see IITA 2002).
1. Family labour, e.g. children of the farmer or children of close relatives of the
farmer who live on the farm.
2. Foster labour, e.g. children with well-established kinship or communal ties to
the household.
3. Salary labour, e.g. children who work for a salary without any kind of familiy,
kinship or communal ties to the farm household in which they work.
8
According to UNDP (2004) Côte d’Ivoire has ratifed both ILO Convention 138 and 182, whereas
Ghana only has ratified Convention 182.
11
This report is concerned with all these three categories. We assume that both the
work conditions and the vulnerabilities of children vary between and across these
three groups. In parts of the literature, a distinction is made between children working outside the family or kinship networks, e.g. as salary labour (se Grier (2004a).
One argument for making this distinction is that ‘exploitation’ is limited, in the
two first categories mentioned, by kin obligations, but can be extreme in the latter
(see Schildkrout 1981, Rodgers and Standing 1981). We do not assume that this is
necessarily the case, but in the circumstances that we currently find in Côte d’Ivoire
such a distinction can be useful for the identification of the most vulnerable group
of child labourers.
Finally, we believe that it is important to understand child labour not only as a
statistical defintion and a firm categorisation. It is also a social construction that can
vary with the mode of production, gender, class, race and other social structures.
This suggests that we should not understand childeren who work only as passive and
defenceless victims. We must also acknowledge child agency. Child labour is not only
an outcome of social structures and processes, we must also acknowledge children as
actors within these structures and processes. For example, the labour migration that
we identify, particularly in Côte d’Ivoire, is more than just a system of production.
It should also be recognised as a rite of passage for prebubescent boys. It is a form
of resistance to fathers’ labour appropriation and a tool for renegotiating, redefining, and reconstructing what it means to be a junior and a child (See Grier 2004a).
Our point is that the interest of cocoa-farmers in cheap child labour may coincide
with the interests of boys in challenging the authority of senior males in their home
village, be it in Northern Côte d’Ivoire or in Mali or Burkina Faso.
In the following sections of this report, we first discuss the methods we have applied and the challenges of researching child labour in cocoa production in our two
cases. Here, we also comment on the knowledge-base available. In the next section we
introduce the cocoa tree and how cocoa is produced. Based on this, we contextualise
child labour in historical and developmental terms, before we continue to discuss
the current practice of child labour in contemporary Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. In
the final parts of the report we sum up our findings, make our conclusions, and put
forward suggestions for further research and policy interventions.
12
2 Child labour in Côte d’Ivoire
and Ghana: the state of the art
Meaningful statistics about child labour in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are rare. The
few systematic studies that exist have been conducted by ILO, in collaboration with
partners such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID),
the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Sustainable Tree
Crops Programme (STCP).
In 2002 ILO/IPEC9 initiated the West Africa Cocoa Agricultural Project for the
Prevention and Elimination of Hazardous Child Labour (WACAP). This project
is implemented in partnership with STCP and local research institutions in Côte
d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea, and Nigeria. To date, only the results from a
rapid assessment in Ghana are available while reports from the other countries are
not yet finalised. In 2003, the Ghana Child Labour Survey (GCLS) was published by
Ghana Statistical Service. This was the first nationwide survey specifically designed
to collect information on the various aspects of child labour. The findings from these
studies, in combination with information received from studies conducted by Centre
de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement
(CIRAD) and the Laboratoire ‘Economie et de Sociologie Rurale (LESOR, University of Bouaké) form the basis of the written material for this report. In order to
broaden the knowledge base, fieldwork was conducted in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana
in June 2004. A series of interviews were carried out in Abidjan, Bingerville and
Accra, and in Ghana we also conducted interviews and focus group discussions with
farmers in four different cocoa producing regions.10 The aim of these discussions
was to explore what type of cocoa-farming activities children are involved in. In
order to achieve this, the discussions were framed around the seasonal calendar of
cocoa-farming and the socio-economic organisation of the production process.
Family labour is without doubt the most common type of labour in cocoa production in West Africa. In Côte d’Ivoire 87 percent of the permanent labour force
used in cocoa farming comes from the family. Boys are more likely to be involved
9
IPEC is the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour under ILO, established
in 1992.
10
The regions visited were Eastern, Central, Brong Ahafo and Ashanti,.
13
than girls. About 59 percent of children working on cocoa farms are boys whereas
girls account for 41 percent (IITA 2002). This is mainly due to the whole set of
other tasks that girls traditionally perform in rural households, such as caring for
smaller children, making food and fetching water etc. In Côte d’Ivoire, the majority
of children working on cocoa farms are believed to be below the age of 14.
With regard to the issue of relocation of children for work in this sector, the
majority are supposed to came from Burkina Faso (about 60 percent). The remaining children are believed to be of mainly Baoulé origin, coming from the Yamassoukro-Bouaké region or from northern Ivorian ethnic groups such as the Senoufo
and Lobi. The origins of farmers employing these children have been the subject of
much discussion. The IITA study from 2002 indicates that 59 percent of the farmers
employing children as salary labour were Ivorian, of whom 27 percent were of local
origin and 32 percent were internal migrant settlers in the cocoa belt. The remaining
41 percent were immigrant farmers, mainly from Burkina Faso. Overall, the 2002
IITA study found that Burkinabe farmers accounted for an estimated 16 percent
of the farm population, while those from another country, mainly Mali, accounted
for an additional 3.5 percent. This suggests a higher propensity to employ children
as salary workers among the immigrant community in Côte d’Ivoire. One reason
for this could be the much higher level of uncertainty experienced by immigrant
farmers than by ‘indigenous farmers’.11
In the GCLS data, cocoa production is not a separate sector but is just one
part of the broad agricultural sector in Ghana. Hence, the survey does not provide
information on children’s involvement in cocoa production specifically. This survey
can therefore only be used to assess the extent of child labour in society at large. According to the survey, two in five children aged 5-17 years are engaged in economic
activity. However, 64 percent of the children engaged in economic activity are also
attending school (GCLS 2003). In Ghana as in Côte d’Ivoire and West Africa at
large, it is an established socio-cultural practice that children work for the family in
various ways, and children of cocoa farmers would naturally take part in the cocoa
production. The WACAP project commissioned a rapid assessment of selected cocoa
growing communities in Ghana. The study was carried out by the African Centre for
Human Development (ACHD) and interviews were conducted in 42 cocoa growing
communities. Of the children interviewed, 70 percent can be described as involved
in child work rather than child labour (ACHD 2003). This means that their work
does not harm the safety, health or moral of the child or prevent it from attending
school. Full-time child labourers are usually between the age of 8 and 17, and the
majority of them were migrants from the Upper East region of Ghana (ibid).
11
This issue is further discussed in chapter 4.
14
One of the most difficult aspects of this field of study is to establish the actual number
of children involved. National statistics are not well-developed and child labour is
not a phenomena governments have been much interested in documenting. A few
international studies have been conducted, but they are quite general and questions
can be raised about theiy accuracy. The study commissioned by WACAP initially
planned to estimate the number of child labourers on cocoa farms in Ghana, but this
was abandoned due to the sensitive nature of the issue (ACHD 2003). Concerning
the number of children in cocoa production much larger studies are needed if are
to come up with exact figures. However, part of the problem is also definitional. For
many farmers in West Africa the idea that their own sons and daughters, or foster
children for that matter (e.g. category 1 and 2) that help out in the production
should be categorised as ‘child labour’ may seem absurd. The children who work
for a salary are quite easy to identify, the actual number of children in category 1
and 2 will be much harder to estimate.
15
3 About a tree
The cocoa tree is originally from Central America, where its seeds were highly valued
by the Mayas and the Aztecs who not only ate the seeds, but also for a period used
them as a currency for exchange.
The tree belongs to the Theobroma cacao type of the Steraculiaceae family. This
type consists of about 15 different subspecies, all originally from Central America.12
The Theobroma, when fully grown is a tree between five to eight meters in height.
The trunk has the colour of cinnamon, and the wood of the tree is quite light and
fragile. Its leaves are oval in form and shining dark green in colour. The leaves are
from 20 to 25 centimetres long and seven to eight centimetres wide. Its flowers are
yellow and grow on the tree in groups of two or three. The fruit of the tree (i.e.
the cacahoacentli) is a pod. It is between 15 to 25 centimetres long and seven to
ten centimetres in diameter. The pod is oval and furrowy. It usually contains 25 to
30 seeds, which are surrounded by a pulp that is mucous, white in colour and has
a bittersweet taste. The beans are formed by a core constituted by two cotyledons
narrowly surrounding the seed, which again is surrounded by a shell.
The cocoa-tree depends on a hot and humid climate for successful cultivation.
It needs an annual average temperature of 25 degrees or more, and the altitude of
cultivation should not be any higher than 500 meters above sea level. The tree has
a life span of 25 to 30 years, and its prime period of production is when the tree
is between seven and 20 years old. The cocoa tree yields a harvest twice a year. In
Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana the main harvest is from September to December with an
intermediate harvest from April to June.
The ripe pod is picked from the tree with the aid of a knife or machete, and then
opened with a cut by a machete or a blow by a club in order to extract the beans
from the white pulp. Once removed from the pod and cleaned from the pulp, the
beans are covered with large leaves and left to ferment in baskets, piles or in boxes.
In general, this operation lasts from two to eight days and the beans are mixed in
order to ensure an even fermentation. The objective of this process is to allow the
bean to develop the chemical process that gives it it’s aroma, while it simultaneously
reduces it’s bitterness. Thereafter the beans must be dried as they still contain water.
12
Linné was only aware of one of these 15 specifies and he called it Theobroma. This name is made
from two Greek words meaning meal of gods.
16
The beans are therefore arranged on large mats or even on the ground and left in
the sun to dry, for about ten to 20 hours. When this process is completed, the bean
contains no more than six per cent water, and the drying facilitates the development of the aroma as well as keeps the bean from moulding. Finally, the beans are
put into bags of jute (65 kilo in each bag) or sometimes also into containers with
ventilation to avoid condensation.
The usual size of a West African cocoa farm is from five to ten hectares, and
not all of it is devoted to the production of cocoa. A range of agricultural products
will also be planted, some for sale, others for consumption by the household on
the plantation. On an ordinary cocoa farm in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, 1 to 1.5
hectares of land is set aside for young cocoa trees. Here, the farmer will cultivate
products such as yam, macabo, plantain, rice, maize and manioc.13 Another 1 to
1.5 hecatres is utilised for the cultivation of the youngest cocoa trees, e.g. the trees
which yield no harvest. The remaining five to eight hectares is the fully dedicated to
the cocoa farm. This suggests that understanding the seasonal calendar of a cocoa
producer may also make it easier to understand the role that children play in the
cocoa-producing household’s economic activities.
The seasonal calendar
In general, work on a cocoa farm is divided between the maintenance of the existing
plantation and extension work. If a new plantation is to be established this work
usually starts in January. Then the fields will be cleared. If the plantation is an established one, this is the period in which ordinary maintenance work takes place. This
includes weeding, cutting of non-productive branches of the cocoa tree and in some
cases, but not for all, the application of pesticides. In February, extension work will
continue until its completed, and in the case of an established plantation, the cutting
of branches and trees will continue. If the crowns of the trees are fully-grown, other
trees that used to provide shade to the plantation will be cut down.
When the first rain showersbegin in March the work on new fields are devoted
to co-planting. It is in this period that rice and maize are sowed, and plantain trees
are planted in order to provide protection and shade for the young cocoa trees.
In a new plantation or in an older one where significant extension work is taking
place, the entire available workforce will be engaged in this kind of work. In a well
13
A Baoulé cocoa farmer will usually grow only yams, macabo and plantain together with his cocoa
trees, a Béte farmer tends to favour rice, maize and manioc, whereas Burkinabé farmers prefer to grow
rize and maize. See Ruf (1988a).
17
established plantation March is a much calmer month. Some clearing and cutting of
nonproductive branches on the cocoa trees are done: and the maturity of the fruits
on the cocoa trees are supervised.
In April new plantations are marked out. In the old ones, the clearing and cutting
work mentioned above continues, and pesticides (if available or deemed necessary)
are applied to the younger cocoa trees (i.e. those less than two years old). In April,
we also find the first phase of what is known as the ‘little harvest’. This means that
all the materials needed for fermenting and drying the beans are prepared in this
month. In addition, women and girls harvest manioc and plantain on the farms that
co-plants these products. The late yam seeds (the dominant yam type in the forest
zone), are also planted in April and May. This yam is harvested between December
and January.
If it rains abundantly, the farmers who establish new plantations or extend
existing ones, will start planting in May. Working household members (children
may be included in this group) will take care of the agriculture products co-planted
with the cocoa trees whereas the weeding of the young cocoa trees (less than two
years) is primarily carried out by hired labour (i.e. salary labour, children may also
be included in this group). On a well established plantation, some harvesting also
starts in May, as some pods will have become ripe already by then.
June is in the middle of the rainy season. What is now taking place is weeding,
cutting of dead or sick branches and applying fertilizer. Applying fertilizer usually
takes place during the rain because it needs to be mixed with water. If plantain or
manioc have been planted these products are also harvested in this period.
July is the month of heavy rain showers, sometimes followed by thunderstorms.
The harvesting of the rice begins this month, and the general maintenance work
on the plantation intensifies. Due to the rain, one of the most important tasks is
to combat the effect of the weeds that will be invading the cocoa plantation in this
period.
In August, the cocoa plantation must be cleared from trees and branches that fell
down during the thunderstorms in July, and a new round of pesticide application
is conducted while the rice is harvested. The cocoa harvest begins with the removal
of rotten fruits. This is what is known as the ‘sanitary harvest’.14 August is also the
month in which the tree nursery must be prepared for the following year.15 Trees that
14
This so-called ‘sanitary harvest’ must be carried out every second week until the harvest is totally
completed
15
In general, a new cocoa plantation or the extension of an established one is carried out in one of
the two following ways: either the beans are placed in sachets of soil and planted directly or the new
plants first grow in sachets and later the new tree is planted with its roots bare. In Côte d’Ivoire the
majority of the farmers use the first method.
18
can provide shade for the new cocoa trees are also planted during this month. This
may be plantain trees, but sometimes also wild trees are used for this purpose.
September, is the main month for harvesting cocoa, and the time-consuming
work of cutting the pods and separating the beans takes place in this month as well.
In October, the fermenting and drying takes place, and in addition, some general
maintenance work on the plantation is also conducted. In addition, this is the
month where new seeds are sewn into the sachets. In November, a third round of
pesticides may be applied. The harvest will continue, although a lower level than
the two previous months, and some weeding may also be necessary. December is
the end of the season, and the farmer starts to prepare for the next year. Young trees
are looked after, some weeding work takes place and the bush is cleared for the coplanting that will start again in January.
This is the general seasonal calendar of an Ivorian or Ghanian cocoa farmer.
However, as Ruf (1988, 2001) has pointed out, there are significant differences from
farmer to farmer as well. Some only weed the cocoa fields in September, whereas
other farmers start with this work already in June. There are also significant differences according to the size of the farm. In small and average size farms, September
is the main month for ...
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