The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) has started implementing a remediation system to curtail child and forced labour in cocoa producing communities in Ghana.

Deputy Country Director of ICI, Prince Gyamfi, says the system has an inherent goal of helping to improve the income of farmers.

The ICI has collaborated with the Ghana Agriculture and Rural Development Journalists Association to build the capacity of journalists in reporting on child and forced labour.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that out of 24.9 million people who are in forced labour, 4.3 million are children.

The United Nations Children's Fund, through its principles and guidelines for media reporting on children, expects journalists to protect children in reporting on child and forced labour.

In line with this, the International Cocoa Initiative has trained 35 agriculture and rural development journalists from four cocoa producing regions in child and forced labour.

The training is to deepen journalists' understanding and also improve their skills for writing ethical reports on child and forced labour.

"We expect the media to use their platform to great awareness on child labour and also distinguish between what a child can do and what a child cannot do which I call acceptable work for children.

Creating awareness will help us fight child and forced labour, "Prince Gyamfi, is Deputy Country Director of the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) said.

Prince Gyamfi spoke about the ICI’s remediation system to curtail child and forced labour in cocoa producing communities in Ghana.

" We're supporting farmers to improve their income activities which include helping farmers to form village saving loan associations and also helping them to diversify their incomes, "he added.

President of the Ghana Agriculture and Rural Development Journalists Association, Richmond Frimpong, emphasised the need to empower journalists to report adequately on child and forced labour.

"Child labour has become a major concern in the cocoa growing communities and I believe this training will help journalists report adequately," Richmond Frimpong said.

The four-day workshop was organised under the auspices of the NORAD-funded "Tackling Child /Forced Labour in Ghanaian Cocoa and Gold Mining" and implemented by ICI and its partners Rainforest Alliance and Solidaridad West Africa.