On November 26th, ICI together with the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, organized a snapshot session on “Groups at risk: lessons and good practices on a smart mix of measures in the agricultural sector” at the 13th UN Forum on Business and Human Rights at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
In a fully packed room, Sarah Dekkiche (Director of Policy and Partnerships at ICI) and Peter Antwi (Deputy Director at the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations of the Republic of Ghana, and focal point on Child Labour) reflected on the drivers and obstacles of a “smart mix of measures” (including national, international, voluntary and mandatory measures) to protect human rights in the context of business activities in the agricultural sector. The session explored good practices in the actions of States, businesses and other stakeholders as well as discussing the impact of multistakeholder initiatives.
Sarah Dekkiche reminded participants that over the past decade, voluntary practices have encouraged companies to respect human rights through conducting ongoing and risk-based Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD). This is now accelerating with the inclusion of HRDD requirements in many new regulations and directives. In the cocoa and chocolate sector, many companies are implementing community centred or supply chain focused Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS) as a way of supporting their HRDD efforts, and we know that currently CLMRS can reduce hazardous child labour by over 35% (see ICI’s 2023 Annual Report). Today’s ambition consists of continuing to reinforce these processes and systems to make them more efficient and cost effective, in addition to scaling them up to cover all cocoa growing households, especially in West Africa.
Peter Antwi added that in parallel, the government of Ghana has been working on a national Child Labour Monitoring System (CLMS), which will complement private systems and help coordinate prevention and remediation activities by highlighting areas where measures should be collectively implemented. In order to do this, the national CLMS and the private sector CLMRS will need to be fully aligned and interoperable. The national CLMS will further feed into the national traceability system which is also being developed.
Peter also highlighted the government’s role in accelerating access to basic services, such as education, health and social protection, which implies greater support from all actors in the sector, including companies, civil society organisations (CSO) and donors. He added that in addition to reviewing the CLMS to make it interoperable with related systems such as the government’s Social Welfare Information Management System (SWIMS) and the CLMRS, the government has also developed Standard Operating Procedures for addressing child labour, to guide the operations of partners. Furthermore, he noted that the Ghanaian government is also in the process of developing a Compendium of Statistics on Child Labour. The goal of the Compendium is to identify key national indicators on child labour and clearly define how to measure them, to guide partners in the development, implementation and reporting on their interventions, in addition to supporting the interoperability of systems. Finally, Peter stressed the importance of multistakeholder organisations in coordinating and aligning the actions and commitments from the various players.
At the end of the session, a participant asked who should support smallholder farmers and cooperatives, and in what form. The speakers suggested that this is a shared responsibility between the public and the private sector, underlining that companies should be providing both technical and financial support to the producers and cooperatives they are sourcing from. This will become even more relevant as the new ARS1000 standard on sustainable cocoa is rolled out in Ghana (as well as in Côte d’Ivoire) which places expectations on farmer groups and cooperatives to tackle human rights issues.
On the question of how a living income for producers can be guaranteed, Peter Antwi mentioned the Ghana-Côte d’Ivoire Cocoa Initiative (CIGCI) which introduced the Living Income Differential, designed to improve income to farmers through a premium on exported cocoa beans. Programmes such as cash transfers were also mentioned by Sarah as a good practice with the caveat that an income increase should always be accompanied by a series of supporting measures (including access to basic services) to result in a reduction, rather than an increase, in child labour.
Finally, questions arose on what is being done from a gender perspective to address child labour. To this the speakers highlighted the specific role of the Ghanaian Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection which has initiatives on women’s empowerment. The speakers also noted the role of companies in supporting such initiatives, emphasizing that indeed studies have shown that increased incomes amongst women leads to a reduction in child labour.