ICI board member Hershey’s published its 2018 sustainability report, listing the activities of its “Cocoa For Good” Strategy with a focus on addressing poor nutrition, poverty, at-risk youth and vulnerable ecosystems. Hershey’s commitment is to invest $500 million in its cocoa communities by 2030.
Cocoa For Good’s has four pillars are interconnected and all are key to helping build sustainable livelihoods and economic resilience for cocoa growing families and communities.
- Nourishing Children gives children the tools to reach their full potential, including better nutrition at school and improved quality of education.
- Empowering youth works with communities to combat child labor and supports youth to become tomorrow’s leaders by equipping them with life and business skills as well as access to resources to create successful futures.
- Prospering communities provides training and financial support to cocoa farmers and their families so they can grow their business, stabilize their household income and economically empower women.
- Preserving ecosystems works closely with farmers and communities to protect forests, spread more environmentally responsible agricultural practices and promote agroforestry and shade-grown cocoa to eliminate deforestation in cocoa communities.
Working to Eliminate Child Labour
In 2018, Hershey’s further strengthened efforts to combat child labour by introducing the Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) through its suppliers at Cocoa For Good farms and their local communities.
CLMRS is a leading method of detection and remediation of child labour and was developed through the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI). The program takes advantage of the structure of the supply chain and community groups to identify child labour and monitor and remedy the cases found.
The system allows the community, the members of the cooperatives and the provider's staff to be facilitators who create awareness about the need to eliminate child labour, identify cases and request remediation. As trusted members of the community, facilitators are in the best position to identify child labour in cocoa, implement the most appropriate child protection practices and use impactful awareness-raising methods. As part of the process,CLMRS helps facilitators receive training and develop skills to detect and report child labour.