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The Senior Director for Global Programmes at Rainforest Alliance, an NGO, Dr Kwame Osei, has admonished stakeholders involved in the fight against forced and child labour in cocoa and gold mining communities in the country to collaborate and align their efforts towards the total eradication of the practice by 2025.
Dr Osei made the call in a speech delivered on his behalf at a day’s national dialogue in Accra on the possibility of ending forced and child labour by 2025, which was organised by the Rainforest Alliance Ghana, through its “Tackling forced and child labour in Ghanaian cocoa and gold mining communities” project.
It is being implemented in collaboration with Solidaridad West Africa and the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), with funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD).
The programme was attended by more than 130 stakeholders from various public and private sector organisations, including the COCOBOD, Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, representatives of cocoa and gold mining companies and associations, traditional rulers from gold and cocoa producing areas, among others.
The senior project manager of the Child Labour project at Rainforest Alliance, Joyce Poku-Marboah, said both producing and consuming countries were working towards preventing, identifying and eradicating the practice in the cocoa and gold mining sectors.
She said it was for this reason that over the last two years, her outfit, in collaboration with its partners had been implementing the project by working with cocoa companies, traders, cooperatives, farmer groups and gold associations to implement measures that would help to prevent, identify and address forced labour and child labour in cocoa and gold mining communities.
Ms Poku-Marboah explained further that even though most chocolate companies and governments had developed supply chain policies and management systems to address social issues such as poverty and underdevelopment, commitment to ensure the successful implementation of such plans had not been successful.
In a speech delivered on his behalf, the Director of Research at COCOBOD, Dr Francis Baah, said the issue of child forced labour in cocoa production continued to be of global concern.
He said as the regulator of the cocoa sector, his outfit would provide stakeholders with relevant information to guide them in the implementation of strategic objectives to address common challenges and enhance collective impact.
Other speakers at the event included the Head of the Child Labour Unit at the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Esther Ofori Agyemang, and a Deputy Director at the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mawuli Avutor.
