The Senior Director for Global Programs at the Rainforest Alliance, Dr Kwame Osei, has called on stakeholders involved in the fight against child labour in cocoa and gold mining communities to continue to collaborate and align their efforts towards the total eradication of the menace by the year 2025.

Dr Osei made the call in a speech delivered on his behalf at a day’s national dialogue on the possibility of ending forced and child labour by 2025.

“The production of many commonly traded goods—coffee, cocoa, tea, bananas, palm oil, gold, and timber—often involves the use of labour with inherent human rights abuses."

"While progress has been made in recent years, some systemic problems such as child labour, forced labour, and gender inequality, just to mention a few, still exist in many supply chains,” he explained.

The dialogue was organised by the Rainforest Alliance Ghana, through its 'Tackling Forced and Child Labour in Ghanaian Cocoa and Gold Mining Communities' project.

This project is being implemented in collaboration with, Solidaridad West Africa and the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), with funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD).

The dialogue meeting brought together over 130 stakeholders from various public and private sector organizations including the COCOBOD, Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice.

Also present were representatives of cocoa and gold mining companies and associations, traditional rulers from Gold and cocoa-producing areas as well as other interested parties.

The Senior Project Manager for the Child Labour Project at the Rainforest Alliance, Joyce Poku-Marboah, said that both producing countries (Ghana inclusive) and consuming countries have raised concerns about the menace of forced and child labour.

She noted that these countries are working seriously towards preventing, identifying, and eradicating it in cocoa and gold mining as well as other sectors.

That is why over the last two years, the Rainforest Alliance in collaboration with its partners have been working to implement measures that will help to prevent, identify and address forced labour and child labour in their daily operations across the globe in cocoa and gold mining communities.

Some of the partners include cocoa companies, traders, cooperatives, farmer groups and gold associations.

She explained further that even though most chocolate companies and governments have strengthened their supply chain policies and management systems, and joined initiatives that aimed at addressing social issues, such as poverty, which contributes to the perpetuation of child and forced labour, commitment to ensuring the successful implementation of such plans and initiatives remains a challenge.

She therefore called on the government and cocoa/gold mining companies to endeavour to fulfil their commitments, towards achieving the objective of eliminating forced and child labour from the gold and cocoa sectors by 2025.

In a speech delivered on his behalf, the Director of Research at COCOBOD, Dr Francis Baah, said the issue of child labour in cocoa production remains a global concern which has brought about the formulation of legislations from consuming markets (US and Europe).

This is why the National Plan of Action 1&2 and the Ghana Accelerated Action Plan Against Child Labour (2023-2027) have been developed to provide a framework to accelerate actions to support national efforts aimed at annexing the canker.

Dr Baah further explained that as the regulator of the cocoa sector, COCOBOD has a vested interest in the possible impact of the commitments made by stakeholders including government, companies, and communities to end child/forced labour in the cocoa sector.

COCOBOD will therefore provide stakeholders with the relevant information to guide the implementation of strategic objectives to address common challenges and enhance collective impact, he added.

Other speakers at the event include Esther Ofori Agyemang, the Head of the Child Labour Unit at the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations as well as Mr. Mawuli Avutor, the Deputy Director at the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Over the past two years, the Rainforest Alliance and partners (ICI and Solidaridad) have executed the NORAD-funded 'Tackling Child and Forced Labour Project' across 40 communities in Ghana.

This project is working with cocoa companies, traders, cooperatives, farmer groups and gold associations to implement measures that will help to prevent, identify and address forced labour and child labour in their daily operations across the globe in cocoa and gold mining communities.

Community-based organisations within this project have trained volunteers to engage with and document commitments and actions related to child and forced labour at the community level.

Volunteers have been actively involved in awareness-raising, quarterly dialogues, and monitoring the fulfilment of commitments from government agencies and companies at the district level.

This workshop serves as a platform to showcase the achievements and challenges of this project, fostering collaboration among government, companies, and communities for effective action and commitment fulfilment. It further facilitates a collaborative space for reviewing approaches to combat forced and child labour, involving companies, government representatives, and community stakeholders.