Prospects to achieve decent work in cocoa supply chain
In a closing address to the 5th World Cocoa Conference, the ILO addressed challenges and opportunities to make the cocoa supply chain more sustainable, based on its decent work approach.
24 April 2024
BRUSSELS (ILO News) – At the 5th World Cocoa Conference, the ILO underlined the nexus between low incomes, the vulnerability of cocoa farmers to uncertainties, climate change impact, and global market fluctuations, and the decent work deficits in the sector.
New legal frameworks in the main chocolate-consumer countries constitute an effective means of generating change, but they are insufficient. “They must go hand-in-hand with tackling the root causes of decent work deficits in the cocoa sector,” said Lieve Verboven, Director of the ILO Office for the EU and the Benelux countries, in a closing address to the Conference.
The stakeholders in the cocoa supply chain have failed to address these root causes in a holistic and collective manner. Efforts remain fragmented and very often do not contribute to greater cooperation between all actors, including addressing the complementarities between the roles and responsibilities of the public and private sector.
In an opening address to the Conference, Her Majesty the Queen of the Belgians underlined that sustainability is indeed essential for the millions of farmers who are not paid adequately to have a decent standard of living and support their families. Queen Mathilde recently visited cocoa plantations in the Nawa and San Pedro regions in Côte d'Ivoire, as part of the ILO’s ENACT Project. “Cocoa should become sustainable, which means ensuring decent work and fair remuneration for producers, access to school for children, and the preservation of forests,” she said.
Over the past 10 years, the ILO has been on a journey to discover strategies which will effectively tackle the root causes of decent work deficits and ensure a sustainable cocoa sector. First, the ILO seeks to advance all fundamental principles and rights at work, which are essential to attain decent work in the cocoa supply chain.
“We pay particular attention to organizing workers,” Ms Verboven explained. “Finding their collective strength, voice and bargaining power can empower those who are vulnerable to discrimination, poor working conditions, low wages, child and forced labour and exposed to an unhealthy and unsafe environment.”
Second, ILO’s development cooperation programmes increasingly support the design, implementation, and financing of a whole of government response, across ministries such as labour, social protection, agriculture, education, health and finance. This is the only way to achieve systemic change and impact at scale, in the elimination of child labour and deforestation.
Third, the ILO has intensified its engagement with the private sector to address the root causes of child labour in supply chains and support greater cooperation with the Government on decent work deficits, including in cocoa. For example, the ILO Child Labour Platform, the leading business initiative to eradicate child labour in supply chains, has a working group on Côte d’Ivoire which brings together ten companies and the government to jointly increase access to and the quality of health insurance. A total of 6050 cocoa farmers have been affiliated to the system.
In producing countries, the cocoa supply chain tends to be characterized by small-scale farmers who struggle with low productivity, low earnings, limited value-addition, and decent work deficits. “The fourth strategic lesson learned is that we aim to works towards achieving the triple nexus of higher productivity, decent working conditions, and environmental sustainability in the global cocoa supply chain,” Ms Verboven concluded. Achieving this triple nexus also requires producing and consuming countries, exporters, importers, farmer-based organizations, and other key stakeholders to work together in an integrated manner.
Frédéric Lapeyre, Director of the ILO priority action programme “Transition from the informal to the formal economy”, took part in a plenary panel debate organized by the Belgian Government. He underlined that sustainability in the sector cannot be achieved without securing a living income for cocoa workers and their families, which calls for a fair remuneration for the fruit of their work as well as an extension of social protection coverage.
At the same time, access to effective quality health services needs to be ensured, and complementary income-generating activities need to be supported, thanks to an enabling business and productivity ecosystem and skills development.
The Conference was hosted by Belgium and brought together cocoa farmers, cooperatives, cocoa and chocolate multinationals, logistics companies, financial institutions, civil society organisations, Ministers and representatives from the EU institutions.