ILO’s new partnership sees eight companies pledging $2m to combat child labour in cocoa areas in Ghana, Ivory Coast

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has signed a new partnership deal with eight companies to fight child labour in cocoa growing communities in both Ghana and Ivory Coast, two of the world’s leading cocoa producing countries.

The companies are ADM, Barry Callebaut, Cargill, Ferrero, the Hershey Company, Kraft Foods, Mars Incorporated and Nestlé. All the companies have pledged $2 million to a new Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with the ILO.

Activities funded under this PPP will complement other projects of the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) underway in both countries, according to a statement on ILO’s website.

“The $2 million contribution will support IPEC’s work during the next four years in three key areas: strengthening the capacity of governments, social partners and cocoa farmers to combat the worst forms of child labour in cocoa growing communities; supporting the development and extension of community-based child labour monitoring systems; and enhancing the coordination role of tripartite national child labour steering committees to those ends,” said the ILO.

The statement cited Ron Graf, chair of the industry coalition as saying “We are extremely pleased to be working with IPEC to strengthen child labour monitoring systems in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Expansion and refinement of these important tools are critical next steps in helping cocoa communities take action on behalf of their own children.”

By Ekow Quandzie