The Federal Government is partnering with the Lutheran World Relief (LWR) to reduce the global number of child labourers in the cocoa value chain estimated at 1.56 million.
The 1.56 million children in child labour engage in hazardous works on cocoa farms. The conditions on the farms impact the children’s access to health, access to education, and future livelihoods.
To this end, the Child Labour Education and Resilience (CLEAR) project of the Lutheran World Relief (LWR), towards eliminating of child labour in cocoa production, has been launched in Ondo State.
The CLEAR project, which spans one year from October 2023 to the end of September 2024 in Idanre and Ifedore local government areas of Ondo State, seeks to address the causes of child labour, to empower communities that have limited education on child labour, to help improve net income from cocoa farming and other sources, and to equip children of cocoa farmers with life-building skills.
Speaking during the launching of the project in Akure, the Ondo State capital, Chief Of Party, Lutheran World Relief, Nene Akwetey-Kodjoe, said the project was founded by Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in partnership with the Ondo State Government, Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria (CFAN), Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, and International Labour Organisation (ILO).
According to Akwetey-Kodjoe, “we are to ensure that in these two specific communities, Idanre and Ifedore, the children are not involved in child labour or to ensure the incidences of children working in hazardous conditions in the production of cocoa is reduced to the barest minimum.
“So, we are bringing on board the support, we have a little bit of funding for the year to eliminate or reduce the incidence of child labour in hazardous tasks, not children helping their parents. This particular project, the CLEAR, is limited to these two communities in Ondo State and we have a larger project called TRACE in agriculture and cocoa ecosystems. So we amplify whatever we learn in the implementation of CLEAR in the TRACE project.”
