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The Fair Labor Association has released a social impact assessment of Nestlé’s Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems in Côte d’Ivoire, implemented with the International Cocoa Initiative. The report shows that CLMRS are having a positive impact on child protection and farmer livelihoods and suggests areas to strengthen their impact further.
The report covers several key findings:
- CLMRS run by Nestlé is effectively collecting data on child labour among cocoa producers and is also supporting capacity building within cooperatives to carry this out.
- The report found high levels of awareness of legal minimum working ages, but highlights a need for further awareness on specifics of light versus hazardous work.
- Educational activities, such as construction or renovation of school buildings, distribution of school kits, and bridging classes, are having a positive impact on school attendance.
- Community Service Groups are successfully filling labour gaps and reducing a reliance on children. 95% of beneficiaries reported that they no longer rely on their children to fill these gaps.
- Income Generating Activities have had a positive impact on school attendance, with children in households where mothers are engaged in such activities attending school more regularly.
The report also found a strong perception among community members, particularly men, that CLMRS activities have been beneficial.
ICI welcomes the evaluation of the CLMRS implemented with Nestlé and the recommendations made to strengthen its impact to further increase child protection.