CHILD LABOUR AND EMERGING TRENDS ON MONITORING SYSTEMS
Fuzz Kitto
Fuzz Kitto is co-Director of Be Slavery Free, a coalition of organisations seeking to end modern slavery through engagement with business, government and consumers. He believes we can only end slavery when we work together.
Around 75% of the world’s cocoa is grown in West Africa. Child labour issues in West Africa for cocoa have been known for over 20 years. According to the NORC Report around 1.56 million children are estimated to be in child labour in two countries alone – Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. 1.48 million children were exposed to at least one component of hazardous child labour in cocoa production.
These are not the only countries where children are exposed to child labour in cocoa. Regrettably there have also been reports on similar problems in other countries such as Brazil and other parts of West Africa. Industry and governments promised repeatedly that they would eradicate this problem. However, serious steps towards making a difference in West African cocoa have only really been approached in the last 8-10 years. Progress is finally being made, though it has taken a long time, and there is still a way to go!
The 2022 Chocolate Scorecard seeks to contribute to understanding what is happening in child labour for cocoa, and to explore ways forward.
For this year’s Chocolate Scorecard, we asked companies – does the company have a child labour, hazardous child labour and worst forms of child labour (slavery and human trafficking) prevention, monitoring and remediation policy (or a similar program)? 97% said they did or were in situations where the problem was being addressed in another manner. This has been a huge step forward, as Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Schemes (CLMRS) have only become the norm over the last three years. Previously CLMRS’s were a rarity.
What is CLMRS? It’s one of the most promising approaches to addressing child labour. The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) consulted a variety of stakeholders to develop a common definition of CLMRS and key indicators. These include:
Raise awareness of child labour
Identify children in child labour through an active monitoring process,
Provide both prevention and remediation support,
Follow-up with children identified in child labour to monitor their status on a regular basis until they have stopped engaging in child labour.
A good CLMRS will help explain what child labour is and train people to monitor for it. It will actively look for child labour, collect and keep data on it, prevent it happening, and if found, it will support remediation, and follow up and regularly monitor the children, until child labour is no longer present.
The Chocolate Scorecard research shows that the uptake of CLRMS has spread, and this is positive because it is a common system with a common language, known across the sector and providing evidence reporting.
However, there is one troubling element emerging from answers to the Chocolate Scorecard: companies’ CLMRS are only in operation for their direct sourced cocoa[1]. ‘Direct sourcing’ is where the cocoa supply chain can be traced to the cocoa co-op (most farmers sell to a co-operative or other aggregator, which on-sells to cocoa traders) and sometimes even to the farm (called ‘farmgate level’ by industry insiders). Why is this a problem? It’s troubling because indirect sourcing can make up around 50% or more of the average cocoa company’s supply chain. In this ‘indirect’ space, there is little or no visibility for chocolate companies on which cocoa farmers are in their supply chain. Without knowing who you source from, you cannot institute CLMRS or do anything to curb child labour! Traceability is key to understanding what is reported for child labour, and what is not able to be reported. (See our traceability blog for more information on that issue.)
Is CLMRS going to solve child labour? It is doubtful that any one system alone can solve child labour. However, it is a key step in the right direction on the journey to both prevent and eliminate child labour.
SO, WHAT ARE WAYS FORWARD FOR ELIMINATING CHILD LABOUR?
With an estimated 1.56 million children exposed to child labour on cocoa farms in West Africa, weaning the world’s addiction to cheap labour (child labour) needs to be a top priority for the global community – consumers, businesses, civil society and government. What are some key steps (not necessarily in this order)?
1. TRUTHFUL ACCOUNTING OF CHILD LABOUR
We asked chocolate companies - how many children (aged 5-17) they had been able to identify through these child labour monitoring systems? The aggregated number was 68,136 children. This is 4.36% of the NORC Report estimated 1.56 million children exposed to child labour in West Africa. We still have a long way to go, if we want the industry to accurately monitor over a million children working in cocoa, and if the bulk of the industry is still to this day reporting finding under a hundred thousand cases of child labor. Monitoring is clearly an order of magnitude off.
However, our Chocolate Scorecard certainly has noted an increasing – and positive – trend of openness and willingness to acknowledge the problem of child labour in cocoa. Dr. Darian McBain, an expert in global sustainability, has often commented that if you want to find modern slavery and human rights abuse you have to look for it. In this vein, it has been disturbing to see repeated public criticism of Tony’s Chocolonely, for their finding of 1,700 children working in their cocoa supply chain. Tony’s was only able to find this child labour because they know the farms in their supply chain and can check. Truthful accounting and assessing of child labour is a necessary step on the path to fixing the problem. Now that Tony’s knows what is happening, the company can deal with it and remedy the situation for these children.
Another example of encouraging news on this front are the periodic farmer family census/surveys carried out by some companies including Barry Callebaut, Chocolats Halba, ETG (Beyond Beans), Ferrero and ECOM. They provide a preliminary insight into farmers’ realities and are a positive step as there is rarely a baseline to know if improvements have been made. This increases the ability of chocolate companies to identify needs and for the voices of farmers to be heard (if they are conducted in a way to include this).
2. ADDRESS UNDERLYING CAUSES OF CHILD LABOUR
Extreme poverty is finally being recognised as one of the driving factors of child labour in cocoa growing areas of the world. We asked chocolate companies If this is found to be the case (ie farmer family is in extreme poverty and using child labour), does the program or scheme provide for an increase in cash to be given to the family?
45% - provide cash for these families
35% - provide in-kind provision (eg. school uniforms, help to increase different income sources)
16% - did not give any increased direct support
This is where living income and child labour are connected. Taking actions on these interconnected realities is a potential path forward for cocoa-growing families and the chocolate industry (Please see also our blog on living income for further information.)
Where children are exposed to child labour, cocoa-growing families are often in desperate poverty. The low price they receive for the cocoa is often the reason why they make the desperate decision to expose their children to child labour – a stark choice between survival or starvation is not a choice at all. A living income would certainly lift the burden and the perceived need for cheap child labour in these situations.
44% of the companies we surveyed claimed good evidence that their programs or schemes are reducing the prevalence of child labour situations. This is a big step forward for those companies.
3. PLAN FOR REMEDIATION WHEN CHILD LABOUR IS FOUND
Remediation is key when exposure to child labour is found. There is no point in monitoring for child labour if it’s not remediated!
We asked - what percentage of the cocoa farmer households in the company’s supply chain are included in programs or schemes to address the situation where children are found to be in situations of child labour? The answers showed:
44% said over 90% are included
28% said between 60-90%
19% said up to 60% were included
9% said that none were included
This means there are many children found to be exposed to child labour who may not be remediated even if they are found.
Child Labour is a “wicked problem”. Wicked problems are challenges with many interdependent factors making them seem impossible to solve. Because the factors driving the problem are often insufficiently known, are in flux, and difficult to define; solving wicked problems requires a deep and multi-faceted understanding of contributing factors, an understanding of the stakeholders involved, an innovative approach provided by systems thinking, and the use of local context knowledge. Exposure to child labour in the cocoa sector is a multifaceted and longstanding problem. That is why in the Chocolate Scorecard we look at traceability, living income, agroforestry, deforestation and climate change, agrichemicals, alongside child labour. Child labour is complex and requires all those other issues to be addressed as well – and it needs business, civil societies, and governments to closely collaborate to innovate, experiment, curate and educate to activate multiple and interconnected solutions. This is where organisations like VOICE Network, International Cocoa Initiative and World Cocoa Federation have a key role. It is starting to happen… though there is still a long way to go!
POSITIVE TRENDS IN COMBATING EXPOSURE TO CHILD LABOUR, THAT WE SEE IN THE CHOCOLATE SCORECARD
CERTIFICATION
There has been some good progress this year with increased use of certification by the big companies. This is not a whole solution to the wicked problem of child labour but it ensures some traceability and a deeper understanding of the supply chain.
Fairtrade child labour standards include:
Children below the age of 15 are not to be employed by Fairtrade organizations. Children below the age of 18 cannot undertake work that jeopardises their schooling or their development. Children are only allowed to help on family farms under strict conditions. The work must be age appropriate and be done outside of school hours, or during holidays. In regions with a high likelihood of child labour, small producer organizations are encouraged to include a mitigation and elimination plan in their Fairtrade Development Plan. If an organization has identified child labour as a risk, the organization must implement policy and procedures to prevent children from being employed.
Rainforest Alliance Certification advances the rights of rural people. Although no certification program can provide a guarantee against human rights abuses, our standard and assurance systems provide robust strategies for assessing and addressing child labour, forced labour…
SOME OTHER POSITIVES INCLUDE
Nestlé’s latest Income Accelerator Program to increase farmer support when they can show they do not have good agricultural practices, agroforestry activities, diversified incomes and school enrolment they receive an additional US$535 - is a very encouraging step.
The farmer family census carried out by Barry Callebaut is a preliminary insight into the realities and is a positive step – giving a baseline to know if improvements have been made and increases the ability of chocolate companies to identify needs.
Chocolates Halba / Sunray’s Child Labour Monitoring Reporting System in Ghana has trained child labour officers certified with Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance to work with all farmers. They are working on ensuring living income across their supply chains. Ecom is doing similar work.
ETG has developed its own child monitoring tool (CLMT) and have developed their Community Risk Survey, Household Survey, Child Survey, Farm Worker Survey with Verité to develop a Risk Based Approach and concentrate on establishing scalable and self-sustaining structure that secure long term remediation for child labour.
A number of companies (including Nestlé) have been employing gangs of workers to prune trees and undertake protected spraying. This addresses several significant inter-related factors like farmer support, youth employment and rural migration.
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[1] We are using the most referred to definition of Direct Sourcing found in the World Cocoa Foundation Monitoring and Evaluation Guidance Manual. https://www.worldcocoafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/MEL-Guidance-Manual-1.2.pdf