Ghana: Country Releases Certification Report On Child Labour in Cocoa Industry

	Email This Page Print This Page Comment on this article Visit The Publisher's Site

Public Agenda (Accra)

30 June 2008
Posted to the web 30 June 2008

Accra

The National Programme for the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour in Cocoa (NPECLC) coordinated by the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment has released two reports in relation to eliminating worst forms of child labour in cocoa.

A press statement last Thursday said the two reports; the Cocoa Labour Survey in Ghana also called scale-up survey and the Hazardous Child Labour Activity Framework, (HAF) were reviewed at a separate key stakeholder meetings about three weeks ago.

It said the survey was conducted in the current 2007/2008 cocoa season as a scale up to a pilot survey conducted in 2006 covering 15 cocoa-growing administrative districts within the six cocoa-growing regions that accounted for 60%of cocoa production in Ghana.

It said as part of a National Child Labour Activity Framework being developed for all sectors, HAF was also developed to clearly spell out hazardous conditions of cocoa related activities and determine which ones children should or not perform.

Over 1,700 households, 3,452 children aged between 5 and 17 and 1,391 adults were interviewed as well as 66 focus group discussions involving children and adults were conducted by a team of researchers drawn from the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness of the University of Ghana, Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana, Ghana Statistical Service, Employment Information Bureau, the University Ghana Medical School and Civil Society Organizations undertook the research which covered it said.

The survey examined specific economic and demographic information on the cocoa sector, child and adult working practices in addition to detailed description of legal frameworks and remediation activities to promote child welfare with analyses and recommendations to improve occupational health and family welfare within the cocoa communities in the country.

It said the government was committed to eliminating worst forms of child labour in cocoa and other sectors as a sure means to achieve overall child development.

The government commended COCOBOD for committing funds for the NPECLC to expand remediation activities to uncovered districts, the World Cocoa Foundation for supporting the survey and UNICEF and the Royal Danish Embassy for supporting remediation activities. Government also expressed appreciation to the support by district assemblies and civil society organizations working to ensure the practice is eliminated. GNA

Read comments. Write your own.

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.

Share this on: Facebook Digg Del.icio.us StumbleUpon Muti

Copyright © 2008 Public Agenda. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed Sign up for FREE daily 'top headlines' by email >>

Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | My Account

Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement.