The Voice Network joins groups welcoming framework tackling child labour in cocoa supply chains

Key civil society organisations including the Voice Network and the Child Labour Coalition have welcomed a new five-year framework of action from the Child Labour in Cocoa Coordinating Group tackling the still prevalent major issue in the sector, reports Neill Barston.

The latest 2024-2029 document from the organisation that was set up as a public-private initiative by the US Department for Labour Bureau in 2010, and supported by the World Cocoa Foundation and major confectionery companies, aims to make meaningful inroads into the significant problem that has seen a total of 2.1 million children in West Africa exposed to the worst forms of child labour within the industry.

Its emergence comes amid the backdrop of major legislation being brought forward including the EUDR environmental laws being enacted from the end of 2025 – which primarily concern deforestation, but are also interlinked to respecting human rights and traceability within supply chains. The EU is also bringing forward parallel corporate due diligence frameworks that will provide further impetus to driving change within the cocoa and related sectors.

As the International Cocoa Initiative, also among supporters of the action plan, explained, the framework form the Child Labour in Cocoa Coordinating Group has been devised to assist in defining roles and responsibilities, as well as ensuring greater coordination and collective action, and to mobilise further support, in addition to ensuring actions are in line with the priorities of the cocoa-producing countries.

Notably, signatories have reaffirmed their commitment to work together to contribute to the prevention and progressive elimination of child labor in cocoa growing communities of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

This involves key actions including improving the well-being and development of children and their families in cocoa-growing communities;  as well as enhancing the coverage of effective private Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS), and their alignment and interoperability with the Système d’Observation et de Suivi du Travail des Enfants in Côte d’Ivoire (SOSTECI) and the Ghana Child Labor Monitoring Systems (GCLMS), as well as national cocoa traceability systems and child protection case management systems.

The five-year framework also sets out to improve access to quality education as well as technical and vocational training;  strengthen social services and social protection. In addition, one of its stated goals is to increase household income and women’s and youth empowerment in cocoa-growing communities in Ivory Coast and Ghana; and  promote social dialogue to address child labor and its root causes, including through efforts to engage farmers and workers at the community level in cocoa-growing areas and others active in cocoa production.

Framework welcome
For its part, the collective of non-profit organisations, including the Voice Network led by managing director Antonie Fountain who spoke at our World Confectionery Conference in September, which also includes the Ivorian Platform for Sustainable Cocoa and the Ghana Civil-society Cocoa Platform welcomed the latest set of guidelines setting out a strategy for reducing child labour.

A joint statement read: “As representatives of the Child Labor Coalition, the VOICE Network, the Ivorian Platform for Sustainable Cocoa and the Ghana Civil-society Cocoa Platform, we congratulate the Child Labor in Cocoa Coordinating Group for the signature of the new 2024-2029 Framework of Action. We are pleased to see a new global agreement to contribute to the prevention and progressive elimination of child labor in cocoa growing communities of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, that supply half of the world’s cocoa.

“While we appreciate the more holistic perspective of this Framework than its predecessors, and the mention of farmers livelihoods and the role played by cooperatives, we regret the limited number of civil society consultations in the process by which this Framework of Action was developed. Indeed, there were only few discussions with rights-holders such as farmers, community representatives, and local and global civil society, despite repeated requests and attempts at engagement. It is disheartening to be at this stage again, even though it is recognised in the text’s preamble that addressing the root causes of child labour requires immediate and comprehensive multistakeholder action and effective coordination,” with the collective adding that such key communities had to be included in any formal procedural discussions to ensure the delivery of these plans to enhance children’s rights.