We know that children’s education is one of the most important factors in improving outcomes not just for the individual but for the whole community.

That’s why we’re committed to helping to increase educational opportunities in cocoa-growing regions. In addition, our Protecting Children Action Plan aims to address the root causes of child and forced labor through human rights due diligence processes and targeted community-based investments.

Building schools, building futures

Education continues to be one of the most powerful ways we can foster positive change in cocoa growing-communities.

That’s why we work with the Jacobs Foundation and others with the aim of collectively providing access to quality primary education for 5 million children in Côte d'Ivoire. Part of this involves helping to improve the school environment, from building classrooms to school canteens.

We are also, along with Swisscontact, supporting pilot vocational schools in South Sulawesi. The aim here is to strengthen youth engagement and contribute to the professionalization of cocoa-farming.

Of course, it doesn’t matter how good schools are if children can’t attend them. Which is why we are working with our suppliers to raise awareness on the importance of having birth certificates so that families in West Africa can claim their children’s right to an education.

Our Protecting Children Action Plan

Our strategic approach to protecting children includes four main levers, designed to be mutually reinforcing: increased income, women’s social and economic empowerment, access to quality education, and monitoring and remediation systems. A primary objective of these levers is to reduce risk of child labor and forced labor.

Our first priority is for our suppliers to have in place systems designed to monitor, identify and remediate cases of child or forced labor as appropriate.

Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation systems use community-based monitors who work closely with the cocoa-growing community to help monitor, prevent and raise awareness on child labor. Bertin is one of these monitors and says, “What I appreciate the most about my job is building trust between the farmers and myself. Once I earn their trust, I can engage them and help them understand how important it is to work together for the children’s wellbeing.”

In 2020, through our suppliers, nearly 2,800 community child labor monitors were deployed in cocoa growing communities in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.