Bamboo bicycles provided to the community facilitators implementing the CLMRS in Ghana The International Cocoa Initiative and Nestlé Ghana have launched the first ever private sector Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) for cocoa production in the country.
ICI's CLMRS is a structure embedded in the supply chain of chocolate and cocoa companies which aims to identify and remediate cases of child labour. The system is based on the presence of facilitators (such as lead farmers) within cocoa-growing communities who are trained periodically to raise awareness on the issue of child labour, identify cases and request remediation actions that are implemented by ICI together with the company and relevant national agencies.
All information is collected via smartphones and gathered on a data base from which systematic analysis can be conducted and remediation strategies can be refined. Started as a pilot in 2012, the system currently monitors 24,000 cocoa farms and 31,000 children in Côte d'Ivoire. The questionnaires and training material have been adapted to the Ghanaian legal framework and were endorsed by the National Steering Committee on Chlid Labour (NSCCL) under the Child Labour Unit of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.
Being the first of its kind in Ghana with Nestlé, the CLMRS is covering 3,000 farmers in four cocoa districts and six administrative districts of the Ashanti Region. 90 community facilitators and four assistant field coordinators are the main agents implementing the system. To enable the community facilitators to move between their assigned communities, Nestlé and ICI collaborate with Ghana Bamboo bikes Ltd. to provide them with unique bamboo bicycles.