Resources

This report presents research commissioned by the World Cocoa Foundation that explores the financial and business case for supporting Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs), a key part of cocoa sustainability strategies.

Cash transfers are increasingly used as a way of addressing poverty across the world. Evidence shows that they can have a positive impact on children’s welfare, improving access to education, nutrition, health and material wellbeing. However, much less is known about their impact on child labour. To fill this evidence gap, the International Cocoa Initiative conducted a review of evidence on how cash transfers affect child labour. The study is part of an ongoing project with Nestlé and ECOM, supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

This paper steps back from dominant discourses around child labour, and examines how we can arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the forms, prevalence, drivers, and dynamics of child work - particularly work that is harmful. The authors aim to open space for new discourses, strategies, and interventions with which children’s harmful work in agriculture might be addressed.

This review examines evidence of the impact of unexpected shocks that either increased or decreased incomes on child labour, as well as the effects of policies and programmes to increase household incomes. It was conducted by the International Cocoa Initiative in partnership with the Swiss Cocoa Platform and State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

This brief review by ICI looks at evidence from past pandemics to understand the risks for children and identify what can be done to address them. It draws on evidence from other pandemics, notably Ebola, to understand how children were affected, exploring how applicable these findings might be to cocoa-growing communities.