Accra: The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) and its partners are working to integrate child labour monitoring systems to enhance access to data on child and forced labour issues. The ICI expressed concern about the non-coordinated child monitoring systems deployed by private and government institutions and emphasised the need for coordination and harmonisation to enhance efficiency.

According to Ghana News Agency, the issue was thoroughly discussed at the recent meeting between the ICI and its associated members and partners in Accra. The meeting brought together a broad range of stakeholders, including representatives from the Ghana Ministry of Employment Jobs and Labour, COCOBOD, and government officials of C´te d’Ivoire and Cameroon. The meeting explored how Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS) implemented by cocoa and chocolate companies to combat child labour in their supply chains could complement and integrate with government-led systems such as the Ghana Child Labour Monitoring System (GCLMS) and SOSTECI in C´te d’Ivoire.

The gathering focused on enhancing coherence, alignment, and interoperability between government-led and industry-led child protection systems. Mr Mathias Lange, Executive Director, ICI, stated that the rationale for the Framework of Action was to ensure an alignment of monitoring systems in addition to national cocoa traceability systems and child protection case management systems. ‘The objective is to develop and roll out data sharing protocols that allow for alignment, interoperability, and connection of public and private sector systems subject to applicable laws and appropriate confidentiality protections and personal data protection,’ he said.

Mr Mike Arthur, Country Director, ICI, noted that the organisation was well-positioned to educate and reduce the misconceptions about what constituted child labour through training programmes for stakeholders. He expressed concern over the absence of national data and reliable administrative data to track progress in the fight against child labour. ‘We would like to see a reliable consolidation of child labour data through the GCMLS, and the indicators in the GCMLS are informing government development policies and that adequate resources are channelled to tackle the problem of child labour,’ Mr Arthur stated.

In a speech read on his behalf, Dr. Ransford Anertey Abbey, Chief Executive, COCOBOD, called for the enforcement of policies and laws that were meant to reduce the exposure of children to exploitation. He mentioned that COCOBOD had mainstreamed child labour awareness into extension services to educate cocoa farmers to reduce the incidence of child labour along the value chain.

According to the ICI, an estimated 1.56 million children are in child labour in C´te d’Ivoire and Ghana. This figure constitutes 45 per cent of children living in cocoa-growing households, with nearly all those children working on family cocoa farms, alongside their parents and other relatives.