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our structured approach to fight child labor in Ghana + Côte d’Ivoire

Child labor remains a prevalent problem in the cocoa supply chain due to severe poverty – as well as a lack of awareness. Children helping their parents out on the farm is not illegal, but the exposure to hazardous activities – as well as working long hours – is. Additionally, there are cases where children are forced to work away from their family and do not have the option to stop. Child labor is far more common than forced labor, occurring in different levels of severity as defined by the International Labor Organisation (ILO).

To drive down child labor, we use a rights-based approach. This means we work to protect the dignity of every child found to be in child labor.

We do this by implementing the Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System – CLMRS for short. This system was developed by ILO and adapted for the cocoa industry by the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) + Nestlé.  



CLMRS helps the co-ops we work with to identify instances of child labor, find alternative solutions and prevent the use of child labor by raising awareness. The CLRMS aims to get a child out of child labor within a period of 6 to 12 months after the case is found. The cooperatives, with support from ICI and Tony’s, roll out the system to all their members, moving beyond the farmers we work with to try and reach the entire community. 

All the farms we source from are covered by the CLMRS. Here’s how this system works in practice..

1. facilitator selection:

Self-motivated community members are recruited as Community Facilitators. Teams are gender- and age-balanced.

4. individual remediation activities: 

Child labor remediation efforts are planned at cooperative level. They include health insurance and birth certificates (see below), among other things. 

2. household visits:

Community Facilitators visit households annually to have conversations in a safe setting about what kind of activities children are allowed and not allowed to do, and why. A survey is carried out and the information is logged. On top of annual visits, Facilitators also undertake unannounced farm visits as an extra check.

5. follow-up and case closure: 

To assess the effectiveness of the implemented remediation activities, a minimum of 2 follow-up visits are carried out by the Community Facilitators: 3 and 6 months after identification. If the child isn’t working at either visit, they’re no longer considered a laborer. The household will continue to be visited annually. 

3. child labor identification:

95% of cases of child labor are identified through discussions with children + their families. When child labor is identified, the Community Facilitator immediately discusses the situation with the household to determine necessary remediation actions. The family also receives targeted awareness-raising support. The information logged (see step 2) is validated by the Monitoring and Remediation Agent at the partner cooperative, who is responsible for the implementation of the CLMRS.

The last step is ongoing throughout the process, and not part of an audit.. community development and measurement: Long-term solutions beyond specific cases and cocoa farmers are sought, such as the improvement of education, sanitation, healthcare and access to diverse income.

Every child discovered to be involved in child labor receives immediate help aimed at permanently getting them out of child labor. Addressing child labor requires an approach that considers the needs of individuals, households and the entire community.

For individual children..

.. the support is geared towards getting them back to school. This includes arranging birth certificates for school enrollment, providing school kits (notebooks, uniforms, shoes, etc.) and organizing bicycles so kids can cycle to school. Older children can participate in vocational training programs, where they can choose and pursue trade-based professions. They receive training, a stipend, the needed equipment for their chosen trade and placement in functional literacy + numeracy classes.

For households.. 

.. the support involves equipping families with tools like wheelbarrows and Pelle Bongos, which are safe tools used to open cocoa pods. These tools enable older children to help around the farm without the need to carry heavy loads or handle sharp tools. Families with multiple children engaged in child labor may receive support to access alternative income-generating activities, to enable them to hire labor for cocoa farming tasks rather than relying on their children. 

For communities..

.. the focus is on enhancing infrastructure to create a nurturing environment for children. This includes ensuring the presence of accessible schools, readily available water sources and accessible healthcare facilities. 

Our approach to fighting child labor addresses its root cause: poverty. How? By sourcing cocoa responsibly, according to our 5 Sourcing Principles. They include paying a higher price long-term and investing in the development of supportive environments within cocoa communities. These environments are crucial because even cocoa farmers earning a living income might live in areas lacking essential amenities, like schools.

Tony’s CLMRS in action

Since we started implementing it in 2017, 18,747 households have participated in the CLMRS. We’ve also done 259,840 awareness raising sessions on Child Labor, with 110,183 sessions in 2022/2023.

In 2022/2023, we found 1,072 cases of child labor in our supply chain, out of 31,358 children in the cocoa communities that are part of Tony’s and our Mission Allies partner co-ops. When combined with the cases we are still working to close from previous seasons, this results in a child labor rate of 10.5%, significantly below the industry average. At our longer-term partner co-ops, the child labor rate drops even further to a notably low 4.4%.

The respective cooperatives are developing remediation plans to make sure that these cases receive follow-up as well. However, the remediation process should be initiated faster; there should be the option for the cooperative to start remediating right after finding a case. This is one of the reasons why we actively push for the co-ops to become owners of the CLMRS.

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