Nestle Ghana and ICI launches Child Labour Interventions

Nestle Ghana in collaboration with International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) have instituted the first ever private sector Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) to raise awareness, identity issues and request remediation actions by relevant national agencies.

The new non-punitive system would be covering 3000 farmers in six cocoa districts all in the Ashanti Region namely-Bekwei A in Asante Bekwei, Bekwei B in Obuasi, Nsokote A in Adansi South and North, Nsokote B in Amansie Central and Bosome Freho and B.  

In all, 90 community facilitators and four assistant filed coordinators have been trained as main agents on the field for the CLMRS implementation.

Speaking at the launch in Ashanti Bekwai, Mrs Ama Amoah, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager of Nestle said Nestle was committed to enhancing the quality of life and contributing to a healthier future for cocoa farmers and their children in the cocoa sourcing areas.

“We do this by ensuring happy healthy lives for individuals and families by building resilient communities and caring for the planet”.

Nestle Ghana and ICI are partnering Ghana Bamboo Bikes Limited to produce bicycles for the facilitators to facilitate their monitoring and remediation system as well as promoting private-private partnership.        

Through a farmer-community-supplier based approach, CLMRS agents would help to devise and organise specific intervention efforts needed to help each child whiles support the data gathering process. 

Mrs Amoah said “Nestle believe that there is no place for child labour in our value chain and we are also guided by the values of respect for self, others, diversity and the future”.

She said the system had a combination of different methodologies ranging from data gathering about the prevalence of child labour violations within the cocoa value chain, and putting in pace specific measures to remediate children who would be identified.

Mrs Amoah said though the intervention was being implemented in Ashanti region, it would be extended to other cocoa growing sourcing areas in the future. 

Nestle commended the facilitators for successfully going through the training and urged them to use the bicycles for their intended purpose.

Mr Frank Yeboah Asuamah, Supply Chain Projects Coordinator of ICI explained that all information collected would be via smartphones and gathered on a data base from which systematic analysis would be conducted and remediation strategies refined.

He said the training materials used were developed by ICI and approved by the national authorities in Ghana, adding, “We are at ICI want to promote cocoa communities where children of cocoa farmers would be in schools, and not to be engaged in any hazardous work and yet, active and supporting of their parents in the daily activity that contribute to their socialisation”.

He was of the hope that with such productive interventions by Nestle and COCOBOD, the system would help bridge the socio-economic gap in the cocoa communities and improve the lives of farmers and their children.

Mrs Elizaberth Akanbombire, Principal Labour Officer of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations commended both ICI and Nestle for the intervention to corroborate all the efforts by government and pledged government’s supervisory support to ensure that the intervention yielded positive results.  

Mrs Bernice Dapaah, Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Bamboo Bikes Limited commended ICI and Nestle for the timely intervention entreated the users not hesitate to report back to them should they experience any challenge with the bicycles. 

She announced that her outfit would also offer services of the bicycles after a period of time and was hopeful that their usage would help achieve the goals and targets set for the system.

Nana Tuffuor Krontihene of Kentenkyire, a suburb of Bekwei commended ICI and Nestle for the initiative and urged the facilitators to ensure that they educate farmers intensively on the child labour issues to ensure that all children of school going age were in school during school hours.

Source: GNA