Resources

The Cocoa Barometer 2020, produced by the Voice Network, provides an overview of the current sustainability developments in the cocoa sector and highlights current critical issues. It presents an overview of sustainability developments at the national, global and industry level and explores challenges related to living income, human rights (including child labour), the environment, and the creation of an enabling environment.

Earlier this year the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) analysed data from 263 communities in Côte d’Ivoire to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child labour. In these communities, 1,443 cocoa-growing households were visited under ICI’s Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS) between 17 March and 15 May 2020 to identify cases of child labour.

The Fair Labor Association has released a social impact assessment of Nestlé’s Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems in Côte d'Ivoire, implemented with the International Cocoa Initiative. The report shows that CLMRS are having a positive impact on child protection and farmer livelihoods and suggests areas to strengthen their impact further.

The International Cocoa Initiative’s 2021-2026 Strategy acts as a road map to achieve scale-up of action within the cocoa sector. At ICI, we want to see cocoa-growing communities thrive within a dignified, sustainable and responsibly-managed cocoa supply chain, where child rights and human rights are protected and respected, where child labour and forced labour are eliminated.

This analysis compares the situation in 263 cocoa communities prior to, and during the partial lockdown, to understand the effects of this shock on child labour. This study was not designed to analyse – and should not be used to draw conclusions about – broader trends in relation to child labour prevalence.