Closing child labour cases Each child identified as being engaged in child labour receives immediate support to ensure they permanently stop engaging in hazardous activities. Our remediation approach is comprehensive, addressing the needs of the individual child, their household and the wider community. A case is considered closed once the child has been confirmed to no longer be engaged in child labour, following 2 follow-up visits – 1 after 3 months and another after 6 months. During these visits, both the child and
their caregivers confirm that the child is no longer working, which can be validated through unannounced visits to the family farm and interviews with the local school to confirm attendance. Tony’s Open Chain closed a total of 813 cases in the 2024/25 season. The reason for the low amount of closed cases lies in the fact that our external partner faced serious system issues throughout the season, with regard to the monitoring and follow up of cases. Recognising that we had outgrown the old system and could no longer depend on external vendors, we made the strategic decision to move in-house. By setting up our own CLMRS data tracking system, we are addressing past challenges and positioning ourselves for success and scale moving forward. This lays the foundation for stronger data integrity and operational resilience. Since the start of Tony’s Open Chain, 6,056 cases of child labour have been closed. 88 The cases that could not be successfully closed typically require support beyond what Tony’s Open Chain and the cooperative can feasibly provide – such as interventions for children with special needs. In these instances, partner cooperatives refer families to relevant state services, including social welfare, health and education, and follow up to ensure support is delivered. However, these services are not always equipped to respond effectively, which is why our broader strategy also focuses on strengthening the system. For example, we work with UNICEF to build the capacity of district social welfare offices in Ghana, enabling them to better handle complex cases. Each case differs in its level of complexity and the level of intervention needed to ensure the child can permanently stop engaging in hazardous activities. In some cases, it is as simple as enabling the child to obtain the birth certificate needed for school enrolment, providing school kits with essentials like notebooks, uniforms, shoes and bags, or supplying bicycles for those travelling long distances. In other cases, the issue is more structural, requiring a longer-term intervention that spans not just the child or their household, but the family’s income and wider community.
KPI 2.3
# of child labour cases closed at Tony’s Open Chain partner cooperatives with the CLMRS
Total: 813
1,752
1,718
213
Longest-term partner cooperatives
600
Newer partner cooperatives
2024/25
2022/23 2023/24
88. We refer to a case as being closed when two consecutive follow-up visits have confirmed that the child is no longer working. Cases may also be closed due to the decision of the family to leave the partner cooperative or move community. Cases are also automatically closed when the child turns 18.
We began disaggregating this KPI into the categories of Initial Collaboration Agreement, 1st MoU, and 2nd MoU and beyond in 2024/25, therefore this disaggregation is not applied to the previous years.
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Ending exploitation in cocoa together
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