A community development approach is one way to tackle child labour. Following a participatory model, it brings communities together and allows them to play an active role in implementing child-centred development. This approach can be run on its own or together with Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS).
The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) began implementing community development activities in 2007 and ran an improved four-year Community Development Programme, aligned with the CocoaAction Community Development Package, between 2015-18. ICI continues to implement this approach with several partners in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire often in conjunction with CLMRS. In line with other long-term industry-funded child protection approaches, that studies have shown to be effective, ICI’s programme had success tackling child labour and improving the situation for communities as a whole.
This short animation explores how a community development approach works in practice.
To find out more about the approach, see here.