The Child Labor Cocoa Coordinating Group Annual Report is released on behalf of the signatories to the Declaration of Joint Action to Support Implementation of the Harkin-Engel Protocol, which was signed in 2001 by the U.S. Department of Labor, the governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and the National Confectioners Association, on behalf of the international chocolate and cocoa industry.
The 2018 Annual Report was jointly drafted with input from each of the organizations signatory to the Declaration and describes progress made during the past year in support of the goals of the Declaration and Framework. In particular, this report highlights notable efforts being undertaken by the partners in relation to education and vocational training, application of protective measures to remove workplace hazards from cocoa farming, establishment and implementation of community-based child labor monitoring systems, the promotion of livelihood services for the households of children working in the cocoa sector, and the implementation of nationally-representative child labor surveys in the cocoa growing areas of both countries.
Additionally, the report highlights a number of key efforts by the partners, which go beyond the original commitments of the Declaration and accompanying Framework, and which are intended to contribute to a reduction in the worst forms of child labor in cocoa growing areas of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.
Read the original press release from US Department of Labour
