Resources

This infographic summarises key findings from a study to examine the impacts of an unconditional cash transfer programme on cocoa-growing households in Ghana. The pilot project was set up as a randomized control trial to test whether cash transfers can help reduce hazardous child labour. Read the report: Cash transfers, resilience and child labour in Ghana Download the infographic:

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).

Child labour in cocoa-growing areas is caused by a complex interplay of social, economic and cultural factors. These differ greatly between households, communities and countries. As a result, measuring child labour is costly. Surveys to measure the number of children in child labour are complex to administer and require large samples.

Improving access to education has long been considered an important means of combating child labour. But how important are the different elements of ‘education quality’? And which should be addressed first in order to reduce child labour? In fact, the evidence is limited. To help answer these questions, ICI conducted a study based on data from 258 cocoa-growing communities in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. The study explored the relationship between child labour and two elements of education quality: school infrastructure & services, and school management.