Eliminating Child Labor in Cocoa (ECLIC)
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The Problem
Cocoa is one of Côte d’Ivoire’s most important commodities, but farming families face persistent poverty, with the average Ivoirian cocoa farmer’s income equaling less than $1 a day. Poverty is one of the factors contributing to child labor on cocoa farms. In 2013/2014, some 1.2 million children were engaged in child labor in cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire. Working in the cocoa sector can be hazardous, particularly for children, many of whom work long hours, carry heavy loads, and use dangerous tools.
Our Strategy
Project Objectives: The rights of children working in 50 cocoa-growing communities in Côte d’Ivoire are protected and child labor is reduced.
Immediate objectives include:
Objective 1: 50 cocoa-growing communities have developed and implemented CAPs to address child labor at the community level.
Objective 2: Cocoa-growing communities are aware of and understand key issues related to child labor.
Objective 3: Children engaged in or at high-risk of child labor have access to educational opportunities.
The project is designed to reach these objectives through the following activities:
Objective 1
- Conduct a baseline survey to identify cocoagrowing communities for project implementation.
- Train and support Community Action Plan-Community Child Protection (CAP-CCP) committees to design CAPs
- Provide advocacy training to CAP-CCP committees.
- Implement prioritized CAP activities, including providing income-generating activities for mothers of children engaged in or at risk of child labor.
Objective 2
- Undertake pre- and post-assessments of community understanding of child labor and occupational safety and health (OSH) issues.
- Organize community-wide training on child labor and OSH concepts and regulations.
- Train children on child labor concepts and children’s rights
Objective 3
- Provide assistance to children engaged in, or at risk of, child labor to attend formal primary schools and non-formal catch-up programs.
- Provide marketable vocational training opportunities for youth ages 14-17.
- Establish a school feeding program to increase children’s enrollment, attendance, retention, and learning outcomes.
- Support the development of a code of conduct between teachers and students to reduce the incidence of violence, harassment, and abuse in schools towards children.
- Facilitate the development of organized, adultsupervised travel to remote schools.
- Undertake an assessment of children living in encampments and develop a pilot program to improve their access to educational opportunities in encampments.
Targets:
The ECLIC project will empower 50 cocoa-growing communities to design and implement Community Action Plans (CAPs) to address child labor at the community level. In these communities, the project will target 5,450 vulnerable children engaged in or at risk of child labor in Côte d’Ivoire, with a focus on child labor in cocoa production. The project will also target 1,500 vulnerable households for sustainable livelihoods promotion.
Results
International Cocoa Initiative
