Towards Child Labor Free Cocoa Growing Communities

Targets:

The project targets at a minimum 5,000 children to be withdrawn and prevented from the WFCL in the cocoa producing areas of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. The project targets at a minimum 2,000 families for the provision of livelihood services in order to sustainably withdraw and prevent children from the WFCL.

Immediate Objectives:

• In selected cocoa growing communities:
  • Children will have improved access to relevant quality education;
  • Households will have enhanced sustainable livelihoods;
  • Communities will develop and implement plans to eliminate child labour in their communities;
• National capacity to deploy an appropriate child labour monitoring system will be improved; and
• Partner organizations capacity to contribute to eliminating child labor will be increased.

Summary of Activities:

• Rescue and rehabilitate children from hazardous and exploitive labor, and prevent new children entering hazardous or exploitive labor by awareness-raising campaigns among groups at risk and through direct action programs;  
• Provide formal and non-formal education, referral to local schools, catch-up classes, or occupational skills training, for children withdrawn or prevented from exploitive child labor;
• Improve the quality of education by working with government officials to improve the curriculum, increase vocational training opportunities, reduce teacher absenteeism, and provide relevant extracurricular activities;
• Provide livelihood services to families, including income generation training, financial management skills development and improved access to credit.
• Reinforce efforts related to child labor monitoring systems; and
• Work with communities in cocoa producing areas to integrate sustainably reducing and preventing WFCL into their community development plans.