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Technical Cooperation Project Summary

Project Title

Oversight of Public and Private Initiatives to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor in the Cocoa Sector in Cote d’ivoire and Ghana

Region/Country

AFRICA/Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana

Project Duration

September 29, 2006 – June 30, 2010

Fiscal Year & Funding Level

FY2006: USD 4,311,513

Problem to be Addressed

The worst forms of child labor in the cocoa sector of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.

Project Objectives

To provide oversight of public and private investment to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in the cocoa sector in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.
Intermediate objectives include assessing:

  • Progress made towards implementation of child labor-free cocoa certification system, covering at least 50% of the cocoa growing areas in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana;
  • Progress made toward establishment of a child labor monitoring system and a credible system for verifying progress made in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana to implement the Harkin-Engel Protocol;
  • Efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in the cocoa sector;
  • The incidence and nature of exploitive child labor in the cocoa supply chain;
  • The enrollment and retention of children withdrawn or prevented from exploitive child labor as a result of efforts to implement the Harkin-Engel Protocol; and
  • The impact of the Harkin-Engel Protocol in promoting efforts to rehabilitate children withdrawn from exploitive child labor in the cocoa sector.

Summary of Activities
  • Conduct annual, nationally representative surveys of child labor in cocoa growing areas of Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, including through the use of satellite and aerial imagery to determine sampling frameworks;
  • Develop multi-media database to present data showing the nature and incidence of child labor, progress made towards certification and the development of monitoring systems, enrollment and retention, and rehabilitation efforts; 
  • Study health implications of child labor in the cocoa sector;
  • Conduct surveys on child labor in the cocoa supply chain, and on school enrollment and retention, and rehabilitation efforts in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana;
  • Publish annual reports and hold annual consultative meetings on progress made toward establishing child labor monitoring, certification and verification systems to implement the Harkin-Engel Protocol; and  
  • Train government officials on techniques for validating efforts to withdraw and prevent children from exploitive labor in the cocoa sector.

Grantee

Tulane University

Implementing Partners

West African Health Organization (WAHO); L'Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Statistiques et d'Economie Appliquée (ENSEA); and Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (University of Ghana, ISSER)

Contact Information

Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking (OCFT)

(202) 693-4843