Conclusion No single intervention can address all the complex factors contributing to child labour, such as poverty, lack of access to education, and limited awareness of children’s rights and need for attitudinal changes. Companies need to address the complex and persisting poverty and human rights issues that characterise the sector, including hazardous child labour. Paying cocoa prices that enable farmers to earn a living income is a primary step to eliminate these issues and toward creating a truly sustainable cocoa industry long-term.
Remediation serves to directly address the harm already caused by exploitative practices in the cocoa industry.
Awareness-raising must remain the foundation of remediation efforts because it changes attitudes, builds community support for children’s rights, and creates the conditions in which targeted interventions can succeed. Combined with material support such as school kits, bicycles and assistance in issuing birth certificates, it removes immediate barriers to schooling and boosts enrolment and attendance. Where available, labour brigades reduce on-farm demand for child labour, while vocational training and strengthened income-generating activities offer longer-term alternatives for older children and their families when paired with market-linked support. To achieve sustained reductions in child labour, programmes should integrate continuous awareness campaigns with accessible educational supports, scalable labour substitution, market-oriented skills training, and measures to improve household incomes. They should also be complemented by more wide-reaching investments in community development and infrastructure to create environments that support children’s well-being and reduce the root causes of child labour. Only a coordinated, multi-faceted approach will secure lasting access to education and protect the wellbeing of children in cocoa-growing communities. Acknowledgements This study was written by Tony’s Open Chain, based on findings from studies carried out by Inputs Africa (Côte d’Ivoire), and Participatory Development Associates (Ghana).
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