In the cocoa sector, child labour is especially prevalent in West Africa, where according to the latest figures  1.6 million children are estimated to be working on cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

Today, as we approach World Day Against Child Labour, Fairtrade, which has been actively working to prevent and remediate child labour through its strict certification standards, monitoring systems, and remediation programmes, recognises that the problem still remains large and that eliminating all forms of child labour as noted in Target 8.7 a specific goal of Sustainable Development Goal 8 by 2025, this year, is nowhere close to reality.

However, Fairtrade is finding that small investments in community building proposals are responding to the needs that communities have identified as a priority for child labour prevention. In fact, Fairtrade’s Child Labour and Forced Labor Prevention and Remediation Programme, which was first launched in 2023, is producing positive results.

A newly released Fairtrade report showed that €145,000 in Fairtrade funding, along with supplemental funding from the cooperatives, has financed nine projects that include renovating school facilities, building new classrooms, and offering new modes of transportation.   

“These small investments that aid in the well-being of children are making a real impact; we need to continue to fund projects whose end goal is to keep children in school,” said Jon Walker, Fairtrade International’s Senior Advisor, Cocoa. 

Three of these projects from Fairtrade’s Child Labour and Forced Labor Prevention and Remediation Programme are now complete, including one carried out by ABOCFA Cooperative in Ghana. The cooperative used its €20,000 in funding to renovate the dilapidated Aponoapono Presby Primary School building and also construct a new classroom to better accommodate children and improve teaching and learning.

Plus, they provided 20 children with items needed to attend school, such as uniforms, educational books, backpacks, and shoes. These children are now back in school, maintaining good attendance, and are no longer working on the farms. The project’s total beneficiaries include 240 children.

Another completed project funded by the programme was overseen by CA SCOSACI Cooperative in Côte d’Ivoire. The existing community school needed an extensive renovation – the roofs were leaky and there were no classroom doors - as well as more space because the shift learning schedule implemented to accommodate all the children was not beneficial.

The community members, including the teachers, found that when the children were not in school all day, they were often on the farms, which opened them up to child labour. The school can now house 171 students.

Meanwhile, an ongoing project by DAVO Cooperative in Côte d’Ivoire, which when completed will be financed with over €20,000 in funding, includes the construction of a three-unit construction block that will replace the palm leaf roof classrooms unhabitable during the rainy seasons. Moreover, the classrooms will accommodate all students instead of splitting them into shifts because of the lack of space. The project’s beneficiaries once completed will be 281 children.

Fairtrade recognises that poverty is one of the root causes of child labour, and while we cannot solve this endemic problem alone, the Child Labour and Forced Labour Prevention and Remediation Programme is changing lives one child at a time. 

To read the latest report on Fairtrade’s Child Labour and Forced Labour Prevention and Remediation Programme, click here.