The Hershey Company, a board member of the International Cocoa Initiative, recently launched its 2020 Sustainability Report, outlining progress made tackling child labour through its Cocoa for Good programme. The report details ongoing efforts to identify, address and prevent child labour through the company’s Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems.
Key insights provided by the report include:
A total of 64,231 children were monitored by Hershey’s CLMRS in 2020
- 6,829 children identified in child labour and in the process of receiving remediation
- 83 classrooms in cocoa-growing communities were renovated
- 6,562 school kits were distributed, and 3,367 children received support to obtain a birth certificate, enabling access to education
- 5,673 community members received support to diversify their income
- 184 Village Savings and Loans Associations were set up to empower women
According to the report, CLMRS covered 97% of farmers in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana that Hershey’s sources its cocoa from directly. At ICI, we look forward to continuing to work with Hershey as it scales up its CLMRS to tackle child labour and improve the livelihoods of farming communities.
Read Hershey’s 2020 Sustainability Report here.