US Senator, Tom Harkin visits Ghana to check country’s child labour monitoring system in cocoa areas

Senior US senator from Iowa State, Tom Harkin is in Ghana to get a first hand look at the country’s child labour monitoring system in cocoa growing areas.

According to a statement from the US Embassy in Accra, Senator Harkin, whose visit started from October 23 – 25, 2011, “will attend the Child Labour Cocoa Coordinating Group meeting, meet with Ghanaian and Ivorian officials, and visit sites where programs are being implemented as part of the Harkin-Engel Protocol and to get a first hand look at the Ghana Child Labour Monitoring System.”

Mr Harkin together with Congressman Eliot Engel, the governments of Ghana and Ivory Coast, and representatives of the International Chocolate and Cocoa Industry implemented the Harkin-Engel Protocol to eliminate abusive and exploitative child labour in the cocoa sector, where it is especially prevalent a decade ago.

Representatives from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) will be accompanying the Congressional delegation, the statement said.

By Ekow Quandzie