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OPA News Release: [07/26/2002]
Contact Name: Bob
Zachariasiewicz
Phone Number: (202) 693-4686
Labor Department and USAID Release Data from Collaborative Survey on
Child Labor on Cocoa Farms in West Africa
West African Governments and
U.S. Chocolate Manufacturers Working Jointly with U.S. to Eliminate
Problem
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
and the Labor Department today released key findings that indicate that some
284,000 child laborers work in hazardous conditions on cocoa farms in West
Africa, 200,000 of whom work in Côte d’Ivoire and most of whom work
alongside their families. Such hazardous work includes spraying pesticides
without personal protection and clearing undergrowth with machetes. There is
also evidence that up to 2,500 child workers may have been trafficked for cocoa
work in Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria.
Deputy Under Secretary for International Labor Affairs Tom Moorhead
said, “These children are not only working in dangerous jobs, they are
also losing the chance for an education. That’s a lose-lose proposition.
But with this survey information we can better define the problem and in turn
design a better program to address the problem. Most important is that the
chocolate manufacturers and the West African governments have been working
closely with us to eliminate exploitative child labor in the cocoa
industry.”
“Clearly poverty is the underlying cause for the child labor
situation in West Africa,” noted Jim Gockowski, the researcher from the
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) who supervised the
USAID-sponsored work.
The survey is one of the first tasks of a public-private partnership,
the Sustainable Tree Crops Program, which seeks to raise the income and quality
of life in cocoa-producing communities. The new data will provide information
for policy discussions and shape projects.
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and national
research collaborators in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria
conducted a set of surveys with the support of USAID and USDOL, the global
chocolate industry, ILO’s International Program on the Elimination of
Child Labor (IPEC), and West African governments. The researchers interviewed
more than 4,800 farmers, child and adult workers and community leaders for the
surveys. Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ghana produce two
thirds of the world’s cocoa, with Côte d’Ivoire alone
accounting for 40 percent of the world’s cocoa supply.
A summary of findings on the surveys is available at
http://www.iita.org,
http://www.usaid.gov, and
http://www.dol.gov/ilab now, and a
synthesis of the findings will be available August 1 at all sites.
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