A increasing number of entities seek direct lessons learned and/or engagement with ICI as an expert on child labour in support of their initiatives on the ground. ICI views this as part of its mandate to act as a clearinghouse and share lessons learned while engaging in particular projects because they offer the opportunity of leveraging a larger scope of engagement on the ground 

Outlined below you will find the Events and News archive.

Events’ archive

19 June 2008: ICI participates to the Cocoa Forum 2008 in Ottawa, Canada, an event hosted by Save the Children Canada ( More about this international cocoa expert and child rights forum).

11 June 2008: ICI participated to Antislavery & ILO Event "Is there slavery in your supply chain?" held on May 1st 2008 at Clifford Chance, London. Read the  meeting notes to which ICI was invited to speak.

January 2008: ICI has decided to assist a World Vision Australia field visit, although this was not an ICI sponsored or organized event. As they are planning a campaign on child labour in cocoa, with a specific focus on child trafficking, their aim was to come to see for themselves the situation (see issue 7 of the newsletter). 

September 2007: For the first time, the ICI Board meeting will be held in West Africa. From 02 to 05 October, ICI Board members will be meeting in Accra, Ghana, to decide on ICI’s programme and budget for 2008. Field visits to cocoa-growing communities will also be organised. A pre-Board visit will take place in Ivory Coast. This represents an excellent opportunity for Board members to see first hand ICI’s programmes and achievements in the region.

June 2007: The World Day Against Child Labour (WDACL) focuses on the plight of the estimated 132 million of children working in agriculture around the world. The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) welcomes this attention which supports our mandate to eliminate the worst forms of child labour and forced labour in the growing of cocoa. In today's statement, the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) agrees “it’s time to focus on agriculture” on the World Day against Child Labour.

News’ archive

4th August 2008: Ghana National Programme for the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour in Cocoa announces the release of Ghana's cocoa certification report.

Certification July 1st Deadline: Statement from Sen.Harkin and Rep.Engel and the chocolate and cocoa industry  as well as the statement from the civil society on the Harkin-Engel Protocol. Read as well Verité's year-end report and ICI comments on the Certification deadline.

February 2008: We believe there has been misrepresentation of both the cocoa sector and the work of ICI in a series of articles released recently in the international press, including a Fortune's article. Please see the ICI's response. 

January 2008: For the first time, U.S. Representative Eliot Engel and Senator Tom Harkin, together with a U.S. Congress delegation (CODEL), visited Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. Representative Engel and Senator Harkin used this opportunity to evaluate the progress in establishing a certification system against child and forced labour in cocoa farming (see issue 7 of the newsletter).

January 2008: Peter McAllister, Executive Director of the ICI, met in January with Steve Chalke, Phil Lane and Ruth Dearnley, from Stop The Traffic United Kingdom, in order to share opinions and concerns regarding child and forced labour in the cocoa growing sector.

Archive 2007: Please contact us