Resources

Recent declines in world cocoa prices are likely to place additional pressure on already financially-constrained smallholder cocoa farmers in West Africa if they result in sustained lower farm-gate prices paid to farmers. Several studies indicate that the majority of cocoa farmers live in extreme poverty, earning a per capita daily cocoa income of between $0.40-1.60. Any further lowering of farmer incomes as a result of declining cocoa prices could exacerbate the risk of child labour for a number of reasons.

The United States Department of Labor published its 2016 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Côte d’Ivoire. The findings point to a significant advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in the country.

The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) commissioned a study, ‘Researching the Impact of Increased Cocoa Yields on the Labour Market and Child Labour risk in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire’ with the support of The International Finance Corporation (IFC), The Jacobs Foundation, The Lindt Cocoa Foundation, The Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) and The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF).

The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) commissioned a research study to examine the impact of public and private investments in raising cocoa farmers’ productivity on the risk of child labour and on the labour market in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.

This paper, published in the Cambridge Journal of Economics, examines multiple factors behind child labour in Ghana.