Child labor in the cocoa sector of West Africa : a synthesis of findings in Cameroon, Cote d"Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria

Detailed individual country reports will be published once they are finalized. The studies focused on understanding and describing work situations in the cocoa sector that pose particular risks for children and that can hinder their human development. One major area of concern was the reported trafficking of children and reported forced or compulsory child labor in the cocoa sector of West Africa. Pertinent categories in which children are most likely to be subjected to these risks are salaried workers and children without family ties. Hazardous work is another area of concern. Findings are also presented on children as a factor of production (the number of children employed with kinship relations to the farmer far exceeded any other category of child worker), and the negative effect of child labor on education (e.g., of Ivorian children between 6 and 17 living on cocoa farms, approximately a third had never attended school). The picture that emerges is of a sector with stagnant technology, low yields, and an increasing demand for unskilled workers trapped in a circle of poverty.