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International Journal of Development and Sustainability
ISSN: 2168-8662 – www.isdsnet.com/ijds
Volume 3 Number 1 (2014): Pages 196-220
ISDS Article ID: IJDS13061305
Mobilizing social capital to deal with child
labour in cocoa production: The case of
community child labour monitoring
system in Ghana
Rita Owusu-Amankwah 1*, Guido Ruivenkamp 1, Godfred Frempong 2,
George Essegbe 2
1 Department of Social Sciences, Rural Sociology Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
2 Science and Technology Policy Research Institute, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Ghana
Abstract
The Government of Ghana is leading the implementation of Community Child Labour Monitoring (CCLM) System as
remediation and monitoring tool to free cocoa production from the worst forms of child labour and trafficking.
Through a mixed-method approach which combines exploratory qualitative and quantitative methods, this paper
sought to understand how CCLM operates and its ability to mobilize or generate social capital to deal with worst
forms of child labour. It also ascertained the emerging household labour re-arrangement to facilitate a more
sustainable change in cocoa production systems. The results indicate that the CCLM as a voluntary social auditing
system is working in the community where members hold themselves accountable for the welfare of children. Task
distribution was developmentally determined and tasks considered appropriate for children are based on their body
and psychosomatic maturity and not only on the age of the child. Again the study asserts that the willingness of
children to support parents even at the expense of school suggests that child labour is family embedded and that
children should not only be targeted for separation from work but should be offered appropriate avenue to nurture
their skills through cultural-legally acceptable work frame.
Keywords: Child labour monitoring system; Worst forms of child labour; Innovation; Social capital; Human capital
* Corresponding author. E-mail address: rita.owusuamankwah@wur.nl
Published by ISDS LLC, Japan │ Copyright © 2014 by the Author(s) │ This is an open access article distributed under the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article as: Owusu-Amankwah, R., Ruivenkamp, G., Frempong, G. and Essegbe, G. (2014), “Mobilizing social capital to
deal with child labour in cocoa production: The case of community child labour monitoring system in Ghana”, International
Journal of Development and Sustainability, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 196-220.
International Journal of Development and Sustainability Vol.3 No.1 (2014): 196-220
ISDS www.isdsnet.com 197
1. Introduction
Globally, over 200 million children are involved in work that is classified as hazardous and injurious to the
health and morals of children (International Labour Organization (ILO), Global Report, 2010). Child labour is
a problem worldwide that affects the physical, psychological, moral and educational development of children.
The global concern for child labour has gained expression in a number of international instruments notably
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1990; ILO Convention No. 138 on Minimum Age 0f Employment
1973; ILO Convention No 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL) 1999; OAU Declaration on the
Rights of the African Child. These in addition to national laws such as the Ghana Children Act, 560, 1999
defines child labour as work that is harmful and hazardous to a child’s health, safety and development; taking
into account the age of the child, the conditions under which the work takes place, and the time at which the
work is done (MMYE, 2008, p.4; ILO 2002).
Child labour has become a critical developmental issue in West Africa’s cocoa socio-economic since 2000
after media exposed trafficked children being forced to work in cocoa farms in Cote d’Ivoire. For the Global
Chocolate industry, it has become a moral and business threatening issue, as governments, consumers and
child right advocates pressurize it to deal with the issue or face a ban on cocoa products. Consumers in the
North who are highly concerned about ethical issues in relation to the use of children on cocoa farms,
advocate for trade sanctions and even request for a complete abolition of child labour. Consequently, the
Global Chocolate Industry was compelled to adopt the Harkin-Engel (H-E) Protocol in 2001 which aimed at
ensuring that cocoa beans and their derivative products are grown and processed in a manner that complies
with ILO Convention 182 concerning the prohibition and immediate action for the elimination of the WFCL.
2. Problem statement
Although there is a general agreement to abolish the WFCL, Basu and Pham-Hoang (1998), Jafarey & Lahiri
(2002), among others are of the view that complete abolition of child labour is an ineffective approach to
dealing with issues of child labour vis a vis the many socio-cultural challenges. In the South, the child labour
issue is embedded in family life and must not be discussed in isolation but in the framework of the
socioeconomic and socio-cultural environment within which cocoa cultivation takes place. In Ghana, for
instance, child work and child labour is under the influence of the extended family system (Ministry of
Manpower Youth & Employment (MMYE), 2007). It is acceptable for parents to send their child to live with a
relative such as the aunt, uncle or grandparents living in the same village or town as part of the social
bonding within the kinship system. The upbringing of the child therefore becomes, not only the responsibility
of the parents but the whole family (MMYE, 2008). Except for hazardous work or the unconditional WFCL,
activities such as house chores and light work on the farm are considered good for the appropriate nurturing
of the child. Culturally, working alongside parents on family farms is seen as essential part of skills transfer.
There is however a thin line between what is acceptable and unacceptable child activities.
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The use of children in economic activities tends to interfere with their education, and in WFCL, interfere
with the health and development of the child. Ensuring that all children go to school and that their education
is of good quality are key to preventing child labour (UNICEF, 2012). Therefore, addressing this problematic
issue of child labour is vital for the development of Africa. The child labour issue is central in the fight against
poverty (Nkamleu and Kielland, 2006) and also for the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals
(Rena, 2009), especially the achievement of universal primary education (Goal 2).
In view of this, H.E protocol was introduced to be adopted by Chocolate industries. This was a system that
called for a mutually acceptable, voluntary, industry wide standard of public certification by July 1 2005. The
public certification was defined by industry as a transparent, credible and progressive process that reports
on the incidence of the worst forms of child labour (WFCL) and forced adult labour (FAL). It also reports on
progress made in reducing this incidence, with the goal of eliminating WFCL and FAL from the sector. It was
obvious that the industry underestimated the tasks involved because the deadline ended without much work
done (ILRF, 2008).
In Ghana for instance, it was the ILO International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC)
West Africa Cocoa Commercial Project (WACAP) that submitted a report on a pilot work done on Child
Labour Monitoring System (CLMS). Based on this among others, the key stakeholders reviewed the protocol
and extended the deadline to 1 July 2008 by which date, certification would have covered 50% of cocoa
growing areas of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.
In this regard, the Government of Ghana collaborated with the Global Chocolate Industry to conduct
surveys to ascertain the extent and nature of WFCL, as part of the implementation of public certification
system. The report was verified by FAFO of Norway and Khulisa of South Africa, independent organizations
commissioned by the erstwhile International Cocoa Verification Board (IVCB) set up by stakeholders for the
purpose of verifying the process of data collection adopted by Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. The Cocoa Labour
study in Ghana (2008) provided empirical data on profile of children in cocoa communities (Figure 1).
In addition, the report on weighted data accompanying the Cocoa Labour Survey in Ghana (CLS) (2009)
provides an overall estimate of children engaged in at least one hazardous cocoa related activity (particularly
carrying of heavy loads) as 839,867, representing 10% of children in cocoa growing communities. This
shows the need to intervene.
The progress made under the protocol has received mixed reactions from various stakeholders. Although
the implementation of the protocol is seen as a catalyst for change (Tulane, 2010 p.14) and that it has
enabled stakeholders’ gain better understanding of the complexity of child labour, but some critics believe
that the methodology of the surveys was flawed (WVIP, 2011) as it could not identify any child trafficking
which was the main issue for the emergence of the protocol (Sheth, 2009; FAFO, 2008). Although there were
no reported child trafficking cases or children in slavery conditions in Ghana cocoa sector (MMYE, 2008), this
assertion has been challenged with the argument that internal and cross border movement of labour has not
been evaluated by available studies (Sheth, 2009).
The voluntary nature has also not gone without attacks. According to Cameron Neil,
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There were no “enforcement mechanisms” (Neil, 2011 p.5).
This argument is said to be theoretically sound because the primary disadvantage of voluntary
agreements arises from the collective nature of their benefits where participants have a strong incentive to
act as free riders (Mazurek, 1998).The industry has been attacked also on the grounds that ‘none of the
activities undertaken under the auspices of the protocol has attempted to monitor or improve labour
conditions within the cocoa supply chain of any chocolate company’ (ILRF, 2008, p2).
Reviewing the progress of H-E protocol in 2010, stakeholders pledged to reduce WFCL in West Africa
cocoa farms by 70% by 2020 and included community based child labour monitoring system as one of the
key objectives to pursue (Declaration of Joint Action, 2010). The question therefore is why CCLM? Does CCLM
have something new to offer to the certification process and is it innovative enough to put the best interest of
children at the centre that leads to structurally sustainable change in the production, marketing and
consumption of cocoa products and their derivatives? This study therefore sought to examine how the CCLM
is being operated at the community level, its potential to mobilize or generate social capital within the
community to deal with worst forms of child labour as well as ascertaining the emerging household labour
re-arrangement and coping strategies being adopted by farm families to facilitate a more sustainable change
in the cocoa production systems.
Figure 1. Profile of Children who live in
Cocoa Farm Households (Source: Ministry
of Manpower Youth and Employment,
2008)
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In the next section, related literature concerning child labour and the evolution of community child labour
monitoring system as a concept that could mobilize social and human capital for development of children is
reviewed. Section four presents the methodology employed and the methods of data analyses. Section five
then presents the case study and results of focus group discussions and in-depth interviews conducted
including the views of children. Section six discusses the results and examines the influence of social capital
in changing the child labour situation using CCLM. The last section then concludes.
3. Literature review
Agriculture is the sector in which most child labourers work, yet it is the least intervened sector (ILO, 2010).
It follows that a breakthrough in the agricultural sector is needed in order to meet the 2016 global target of
eliminating the WFCL. In Ghana, some children are involved in work that is intrinsically dangerous to their
health and safety such as mining, prostitution, fishing, selling on busy streets in the cities, and working with
dangerous machinery, tools and chemicals in the field of agriculture including cocoa sector.
Cocoa production is prominent in the Ghanaian agricultural sector. It is grown in six out of the ten regions
in Ghana. Currently Ghana is the world’s second largest producer contributing 40% of world’s output (ISSER,
2011). Cocoa farming in Ghana is usually a small holder family businessand children often offer some form of
assistance. Most children work in family farms and are unpaid (MMYE, 2007, 2008); ILO 2010). The average
farm size is six acres (approximately 2 ha) and farmers own or operate an average of two farms (MMYE,
2007). Cocoa sector employs an estimated number of 800,000 farmer households with 3.2 million farmhands
giving a total of 4 million people engaged in the cocoa sector (Ghana News Agency, 2011). The community of
cocoa farmers in Ghana is made up of owners, caretakers and farmhands (Mitchell, 2012; Khan (2007)). Over
80% of the cocoa farmers are owner-operators with about 16% being caretakers (MMYE, 2008). In terms of
foreign exchange, cocoa earned the country $2.2 million in 2010 as compared to $1.87 million in 2009
representing 22% increase (ISSER, 2011). This represents 28% of total agriculture foreign exchange earnings
in 2010 (ISSER, 2011).
3.1. Child labour, child work and WFCL
In discussing child labour within the socio-economic context, it is important to provide distinction and a clear
understanding between child work, child labour and the WFCL for better contextualization and
interpretation. Not all work done by children is classified as child labour, and therefore needs to be targeted
for elimination. The ILO Convention 138, Minimum Age for Admission to Employment permits light work for
children from the age 13 for developed countries and 12 for developing countries. The Children’s Act, 560,
1998 of Ghana permits light work from the age 13. Hazardous child labour according to ILO Convention 182
is defined as work which by nature or circumstances in which it is carried out is likely to harm the health,
safety, morals and/or development of the child. This definition which relates very well to cocoa farming
charges national government to determine what constitutes hazardous activities. Some cocoa activities have
been described as hazardous by nature. This may be due to the arduous nature of the activities and skill
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required of the task, the use of unsafe tools, or the insecure setting in which the task is performed.
Subsequently what is permissible or hazardous has been culminated into Ghana’s Hazardous Child Labour
Activity Framework (HAF, 2008) for the cocoa sector. The essence is to fulfil ILO requirement (ILO C. 182) for
national determination of hazardous child labour, provide an important tool for educating communities as
well as provide standards and indicators for measuring progress.
3.2. Conceptualization of the Child Labour Monitoring System (CLMS) process
The concept of child labour monitoring (CLM) especially in the informal production processes such as cocoa
is relatively new, and therefore not much literature is available. According to ILO (CLM Brochure,2005, P1),
CLM involves the development of a coordinated multi-sector monitoring and referral process that aims to cover
all children living in a given geographical area and it closely linked to the enforcement of national child labour
legislation( ILO 2012, Evolution of CLM, P1) and standards such as HAF. Its prime actions include frequent
direct observations to find child labourers and to define risks, to which they are exposed, refer these children
to services such as education, verification that they have been removed and tracking them afterwards to
ensure that they have satisfactory alternatives (ILO 2005 p. 1). This measure was introduced by ILO in
early1990s to serve as a tool initially to identify and monitor formal workplaces where there was child
labour. It was first applied in Bangladesh Garment Industry (Vahapassi, 2000). Later the system was used in
an informal setting of Sialkot soccer ball industry in Pakistan to monitor and ensure that child labourers
removed from their workplaces do not return and prevent new group of children from commencing work
((Lund-Thomsen and Nadvi, 2010 p.10;ILO, 2006). These practices aided the addition of social protection to
monitoring, in order to offer viable alternatives to the withdrawn child labourers (Lund-Thomsen and Nadvi,
2010; ILO, 2006).
CLM system could therefore be ‘highly structured and institutionalized process with specific aims,
objectives, resources, and content’ (Winrock, 2008, p. 162). In the cases of Bangladesh’s garment industry
and Sialkot soccer ball, monitoring was carried out by professional labour inspectors and skilled personnel
(Vahapassi, 2000). CLM can also be community based (CCLM) and more informal and flexible by involving
the wider stakeholders, such as parents, peers, teachers, chiefs and other community members (WINROCK,
2008). In other words it is anchored in community structures and institutions (MMYE, 2008). Community
participation in identifying and monitoring child labour in cocoa farms is critical because labour inspectors
are usually too few to adequately cover all farms and will therefore confine their inspection to large
agricultural enterprises (Khan, 2007). Khan again asserted that
“as insiders, local people knew how child labour was embedded in local culture and everyday life”
(p20).
She further gave two additional reasons why CLM should be grounded at the community level: that
insider knowledge could be combined with outside technical expertise to find the most feasible approaches
and solutions that enable the local people to understand, confront and solve their child labour problems.
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A typical example of CLMS as applied in the cocoa sector in Ghana, Cote ‘d Ivorie, Nigeria and Cameron
was coordinated by ILO/IPEC/WACAP where community stakeholders were the pivot around which
implementation evolved with inbuilt linkages to other child welfare monitoring systems in education, health
and human rights. WACAP’s experience presented three stages of important elements in establishing an
effective CLMS: preparation stage that included awareness creation; mobilization of groups and key actors
and building their capacity; monitoring stage which involved the development of monitoring instruments,
data collection and collation; follow up stage involved reporting and retraining of stakeholders. This
indicates that the active participation of community members as well as community structures both formal
and informal is very critical for the effective operationalisation of CCLM.
3.3. Social and Human Capital in the cocoa-producing communities as resources for facilitating
Change
When rural development and agriculture are concerned, social change is always implied (Bock, 2012). Social
and human capitals are critical resources for facilitating change. Utilizing available community capital
including social and human capital in a manner that enables them to lead the change process could yield
positive results and improve the quality of community life (Haines and Green, 2002). Social capital in the
family as well as in the community plays a key role in the creation of human capital (Coleman, 1988). The
high education and financial status of family members, available and accessible to the child are all indicators
that measure the social capital available to the child. In dealing with social capital outside the family, Haines
& Green (2002) profess that, social structures that make possible social norms, sanctions that enforce, the
role of community, local government institutions, leaders and professional human capital such as teachers,
all facilitate the creation of social capital. This enhances children’s access to facilities which in turn facilitate
their learning and development.
Sandra Franke (2005), distinguished three major approaches to measuring social capital: the micro
approach that deals with actors propensity to cooperate which is referred to as ‘cognitive’ (p.2); the meso
level that focuses on structures that facilitate cooperation; and the macro level that emphasizes a
“community’s environmental, social and political structures that convey values and norms which
in turn create certain condition for social engagement and civic and political participation”
(p.2).
Sandra further emphasizes three areas of concentration at the micro level: firstly, the values and
aspirations that underpin the cooperative relations; secondly, their behaviour and thirdly their perception
about collective issues. At the meso level, the focus should be on the type of network, the position of
members within the network, the types of interactions and the conditions in which they occur (Franke, 2005
p.2). The implications of the key elements in the approaches such as collective actions, structures,
participation and social networks on the outcomes of the implementation of CLMS were key in this study.
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4. Methodology
A mixed-method approach combining both exploratory qualitative and quantitative methods were used for
collection and collation of responses to two main research objectives: the first was how the CCLM is being
operated at the community level and its potential to mobilize or generate social capital to deal with worst
forms of child labour. The second was to ascertain the emerging household labour re-arrangement and the
coping strategies being adopted by farm families in the face of their challenges will also be explored.
Two contrasting case studies were pursued. Firstly, a community in which there has been a CCLM
intervention was studied. Since 2008, most cocoa growing districts and communities have been beneficiaries
of the National Programme for the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour (NPECLC) led by the
Government of Ghana and have created child labour structures at the district and community levels. Dwease,
in the Ashanti region of Ghana, is among 10 communities in Asante Akim Municipality that has a functional
programme dealing with child labour. Secondly, to enable comparison in the assessment of impact of CCLM
on children’s social situations, data was collected from other communities in two high cocoa producing
regions in Ghana where there were no CCLM interventions. The communities were Kwasusu, in the Asutifi
District in the BrongAhafo Region, New Agogo in the Bia District and Aboboyaa in the SefwiWiawso district
all in the Western Region. Whilst the residents of Kwasusu were migrants from the Volta and Northern
regions who have settled mainly to farm, New Agogo is a community of about 800 inhabitants of which the
indigenous Akans represent about 80 percent.
While the exploratory case study was adopted as a primary research methodology ( Yin, 2003; Franke,
2005), the quantitative survey method was used to confirm results from the case studies especially on
children social situations such as school attendance and participation in child work and hazardous work. The
qualitative methods included participant observations, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions
(FGD). The FGDs sought to answer questions such as the extend to which CLMS has prevented/reduced the
WFCL; the factors, mechanisms and processes responsible for change including the roles of individual
community members and groups; and how these factors expressed in social-organizational arrangement and
social networks are impacting on the community. Since the issue is mostly about children, their views were
considered very important to this study. The children groupings were done by age so that the views of all the
relevant age groups could be ascertained. Consequently, three (3) categories of age groups were interviewed
in the study communities: 8-11 years; 12-14 years and 15-18 years respectively. These groupings were based
on the categorization by the children Act 1998; Act 560 (13 years for light work; 15 years minimum of
employment and 18 years for hazardous work) and the Ghana’s Hazardous Child Labour Activity Framework
(see Appendix 1).
A total of 6 of such groups were interviewed. With regard to adults at the community level, the categories
included male cocoa farmer group; female cocoa farmer group and child protection committees. In-depth
interviews were conducted for other stakeholders including assembly persons, programme managers,
district officials, child labour committee chairpersons, head teacher/teachers, religious leaders and chiefs.
Responses of the interviews were recorded and transcribed. In order to ensure confidentiality the
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interviewees were framed anonymously as possible. Permission was sought from the persons before quoting
into the report.
5. Results
5.1. Socio economic analysis
Dwease consists of about 90 percent indigenous Akans and 10 percent Kusasis and Dargatis from Northern
Ghana. Most of the residents in the Dwease community are cocoa farmers who also cultivate other crops such
as cassava, plantain and maize. It was observed in the community that only a few women own cocoa farms.
Most of the farms are owned by the men whilst their wives work alongside with them.
Labour on the farm consists of 60 percent self-labour, 10 percent family labour including wives and
children, 10 percent hired labour on ‘by day’ (daily contract basis), 15 percent “nhwesoↄ” (caretaker) system
and 5 percent “nnoboa” system. The “nnoboa” system is where farmers help each other in turns on their
farms. It is used mainly for breaking of cocoa pods and few of the farmers use it for weeding but this system
is less utilized in the cocoa communities due to lack of trust among farmers, lack of management and
resources to maintain the ”nnoboa” groups, and lack of technical support from appropriate institutions. The
cost of “by day” differs from activity to activity. For instance, the cost of weeding or clearing is Gh 6.00 ($41);
planting, Gh. 5.00 ($3) whilst harvesting and carting cost Gh7.00 ($4.6). In addition to the money, food or
foodstuff is provided by the farmer. The farmers consider this source of labour as a big strain on their
incomes but they are compelled to go for it as it is difficult to get labourers for long term (1year) contract for
a fixed fee to be paid at the end of the contract. The average number of hours worked per day by a daily
labourer on a farm is 4 hours (from 8am -12 noon). The shortage of labour availability leads to the
involvement of children in some hazardous cocoa activities, and calls for the child labour monitoring system.
5.2. The Community Child Labour Monitoring (CCLM) process
The CCLM in Dwease was seen as the process that,
“monitors children’s school attendance and involvement in hazardous activities in line with the
Hazardous Child Labour Activity Framework (HAF, 2008) and apprehend those who do not go to
school” (a respondent).
5.2.1. The process, structure and roles of actors
The structure of the monitoring system (Figure 2) consists mainly of the Municipal Assembly, the Community
Child Protection Committee (CCPC), the Child Panel (CP) and the Chieftaincy institution which is headed by
the community Chief. The CCPC was set up as part of CCLM implementation by the community and the
1 Gh1=$1.5
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Municipal Assembly under the direct supervision of the Municipal Social Welfare Office which coordinates
child labour intervention in the Municipality. The CCPC members were nominated and confirmed by
community members through a durbar. The CP is a provision in the Children Act of Ghana, 1998, with non-
judicial functions to mediate in civil and minor criminal matters concerning children. These structures work
together and ensure harmony in reducing child labour as mentioned by one opinion leader:
“people report cases on children involvement in hazardous activities to CCPC member when
necessary, if CCPC could not solve it, it is reported to CP before it reaches Nananom (Chief and
elders)if need be for further action. After we have handled it, we warn the person not to repeat
what he/she did. If it is beyond us we refer it to the Municipal Social Office”.
This statement depicted a typical key structure and institutions responsible for the CCLM process at the
community level.
Appendix 1 depicts the key operational elements of the CCLM in the community and the roles of key
actors. These are: awareness creation, law enforcement and sanctions, advocacy, child surveillance, conflict
resolution, collection of data on the activities of children below age eighteen (18) years to know the children
in WFCL and those at risk of WFCL. The data gathered by the CCPC is sent to the municipal social welfare for
collation and generation of report. The Municipal Assembly in turn submits the data to the national Labour
Department for collation and preparation of national report. In spite of the importance of data on the
children’s activities, the data collection aspect is yet to be in operation. Another important aspect of CCLM in
the community is child surveillance which entails monitoring of the children in the community, to identify
the children who skip school to go to farm as well as monitoring the weight of the loads they carry from farm.
Figure 2. Structure of CCLM in Dwease
DISTRICT
ASSEMBLY
CHILD PANEL
CCPC
TRADITIONAL
RULERS
PARENTS AND
CHILDREN
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All the key actors and stakeholders interviewed confirmed the effectiveness of the CCPC as far as these
roles (Appendix 1) are concerned. From the responses it could be observed that the CCPC’s monitoring
activities are mostly done in homes and schools in the community. Monitoring activities could not be
extended to farms since it is not possible to visit the farms of the numerous farmers. This is a limitation that
needs to be addressed. While the CCPC is responsible for raising awareness, data collection and monitoring
child labour issues, the CP handles cases brought to it by the CCPC where financial or other circumstances
pose a threat to the maintenance of child’s rights. The CCPC which is a voluntary group reports to the
Municipal Social Welfare Office.
5.2.2. Motivation for participation in the CCLM
According to older respondents, the CCLM process especially child surveillance is similar to the good old
communal system which used to be practiced in Ghana whereby the whole community had joint
responsibility for the protection and proper upbringing of the child. Even though this system is fading away
due to urbanization, the willingness of community members to offer assistance in protection of children was
being rekindled by the CCLM. This explains why even though the work is voluntary, yet some individuals
have committed themselves to it. Every individual, whether an office holder or not tries to provide the
needed support to make the CCLM work in the community. As the Assemblyman at Dwease put it “I was one
of the people who started the programme. I had to go round driving children to go to the classroom to avoid
being sent to the farm. I visit the teachers to find out how the children are doing in school, and also make
follow ups on those who do not go to school. Now with the presence of the CCLM and other committees, the
children are going to school”.
On the part of Nana Banahene, the Chief of Dwease, his personal life has been his motivation. He had this
to share:
“I initially thought it was a disgrace to us if we do not let our children work harder on the farms
because we thought we were rather helping the children. But I have come to realize that this
issue of reducing child labour is to help the children. They have to match others in lifestyle and in
everything. I want the children in my community to excel academically’. My personal exposure
and experience have motivated my involvement in child labour reduction. I had been a
messenger, a clerical assistant, sales representative, a security-man, a chief security-man, sales
manager and commercial manager. Because of what I’ve gone through, I want to encourage all
the young ones to study hard so they could make it in life”.
Mr. Adjei, a head teacher who was key in mobilizing the other head teachers to be involved in the CCLM
activities, took a lesson from his father’s advice. He said that:
“I’m from this community and have observed several children growing in the community I know
that if I do not take good care of them, they’d grow up disturbing both the community and the
nation”.
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Mr. Mensah, who is very instrumental in both the CP and CCPC said:
“I want to see other people get there. Everyone has a kind of character. I have volunteerism in
my life that’s why I am into this activity. I want to be appreciated for good work and also see
results in the community. I’ve dedicated myself to the job. I don’t want to disappoint my
generation and the people who have given me this role to play”.
The permeation of CCLMS in the Dwease community faced some challenges at the initial stages because
both leaders and residents in the community did not understand the concept and issues. According to the
chief,
“a training that we attended at Bunsu after the Scale-up survey changed my perception about
the child labour issues and realized that the issue was not that all forms of children contribution
to farm work was wrong, but the WFCL. That motivated me to mobilize my people to deal with
the issues”.
Opanin Kwadwo Duah, a farmer also mentioned that:
“we thought the issue was about children not participating in farm activities at all, a move that
will “seinkwadaa no na won aye akwadwofo” (spoil our children and eventually make them lazy)
and therefore I was not cooperating until we were sensitized about the WFCL”.
Once there was that understanding by the community on the issues surrounding hazardous child labour
they easily accepted. The way was thus paved for the system to work effectively. Consequently the CCPC had
to meet every Thursday to solve issues pertaining to child r labour attesting to how active the system was.
There were also stable conditions prevailing in the community provided by the leadership of the
community, which strongly supported the activities of the CCLMS. The general consensus of the citizens was
that the chief’s behaviour and activities helped to promote social cohesion. MaameAkuaAbayie had this to say:
“the good work of Nana (Chief) is impacting positively on the programme in the sense that he
does not joke at all with issues of child labour which I think is helping to sustain the programme”.
According to respondents, Nana has been instrumental in ensuring that members of the community
adhere to the regulations of the child monitoring system. He is sincere and administers justice, punishes
those who deserve it and makes sure his words are taken seriously. He is the type that makes follow up on
assignments given to the elders to make sure they are working. The other committees’ members of the CCLM
confirmed that the Chief’s involvement in the child monitoring system has gone a long way to help reduce
child labour and motivated them to work.
Another area that has caused community members to cooperate with the CCLM was the sanctions they
fear to suffer if they fail to adhere to HAF. As one woman farmer put it,
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“Since the programme started, children are no more used for strenuous farm work again. When
a parent allows the child not to be in school and the parent is caught, he/she will be in trouble”.
A child remarked that:
“I was absenting myself because my mother usually would ask me to stay in the shop whenever
she travels. But when the child labour programme started, she realized if she continues that way
she will be in trouble, so she stopped”.
A test case was when a woman was fined two bottles of Schnapps (which costs about $8) by the chief of the
village for allowing her daughter to carry heavy fire wood. The impact was that parents were more
responsible towards their children.
5.2.3. Challenges to the CCLM
It was observed that there was still a lot of work to be done in terms of continuous sensitization of both adult
and children and in sustaining the referral system for social services. According to respondents, there was no
referral system in place and most of children face a lot of needs in terms of school materials and food. A 15
year old boy talked about skipping school the previous week because of ¢2.5 ($1.7) printing fee –
“I weeded for half a day on a cassava farm before getting the ¢2.5 to pay for extra classes and
printing fee.
Even though there is free school system policy in place, other expenses serve as hindrance to their education.
The last time identified child labourers were supported was about 4 years ago. There are no existing
interventions to empower parents economically to better cater for their wards. Lastly, the lack of motivation
(monetary allowances) for the CCPCs threatens the sustainability of the intervention as one of the CCPCs
remarked that:
“If someone does something voluntarily, he relaxes with time especially when not motivated”.
5.3. Perceived Impacts of CCLMS on children’s social situations
In order to make comparison between a beneficiary CCLM community and non beneficiary communities, data
was collected from non beneficiary communities in two high cocoa producing regions in Ghana. The
communities were Kwasusu, in the Asutifi District in the BrongAhafo Region, New Agogo in the Bia District
and Aboboyaa in the SefwiWiawso district all in the Western Region. Whilst the residents of Kwasusu were
migrants from the Volta and Northern regions who have settled mainly to farm, New Agogo is a community
of about 800 inhabitants of which the indigenous Akans represent about 80 percent.
The impact of the CCLM intervention was assessed in terms of school enrolment, attendance at school,
academic performance of pupils, and proportion of children involvement in hazardous and child work, and
parents’ responsibility towards children. A total of 299 pupils were interviewed from the various
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communities and were categorized into various age groups: 8-11, 12-14 and 15-17 years in that order (Table
3).
Table 3. Age distribution of children who were interviewed
5.4. Impact of CCLM on children’s attendance to school
The CCLM have also had relative impact on the attendance of pupils in school. This was evident in the
responses to the interview with the students. Whilst only 19% of the students interviewed at Dwease, where
the CCLMS intervention was taking place had skipped school at least once in the current school term, On the
other hand the absenteeism at Aboboyaa, Kwasusu and New Agogo was 52%, 50% and 32% respectfully
(Table 4).
Table 4. Distribution (%) of students who have missed
school for at least once in total number of children
interviewed
Frequency
Percentage (%)
Dwease
34
19
New Agogo
16
32
Kwasusu
18
50
Aboboyaa
18
52.9
Total
84
28.8
Age
Total
8-11
12-14
15-17
Community
Dwease
60
60
59
179
33.5%
33.5%
33.0%
100.0%
New Agogo
15
15
20
50
30.0%
30.0%
40.0%
100.0%
Kwasusu
10
9
17
36
27.8%
25.0%
47.2%
100.0%
Aboboyaa
15
9
10
34
44.1%
26.5%
29.4%
100.0%
Total
100
93
106
299
33.4%
31.1%
35.5%
100.0%
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The reasons for absenteeism from school were categorized into sickness, financial constraint, cocoa
farming and others and have been tabulated in Table 5.
Table 5. Reasons for missing school
Community
Reason for Missing School
Total
Sickness
Financial
Constraint
Cocoa
Farming
other
Dwease
20
12
1
1
34
58.8%
35.3%
2.9%
2.9%
100.0%
New Agogo
7
3
5
2
17
41.2%
17.6%
29.4%
11.8%
100.0%
Kwasusu
12
3
1
2
18
66.7%
16.7%
5.6%
11.1%
100.0%
Aboboyaa
3
7
8
0
18
16.7%
38.9%
44.4%
.0%
100.0%
Total
42
25
15
5
87
48.3%
28.7%
17.2%
5.7%
100.0%
From Table 5, only 3% of the children who absented themselves from school in Dwease, where there was
a functional CCLM, was due to cocoa farming (providing labour). This compares to 29.4%, 6% and 44% of the
children who absented themselves from school in the non-CCLM intervention communities to work in the
cocoa farms. It was noted, however that the large number of children in Dwease who absented themselves
from school attributed it to sickness (59%) and financial constraints (35%) This was relatively high
compared to the non-CCLM communities.
5.4.1. Children’s involvement in child work and hazardous activities
The Ghana hazardous child labour activity framework2 (HAF, 2008) defines what constitutes child work (non
hazardous) and hazardous work in cocoa production processes. Using HAF standard in assessing the
activities of the students most of them were found to be involved in child work. Parents and even children
indicated that that is the only available way cocoa farming skills could be transferred to the children. Table
6a below presents the various non-hazardous activities and the number of children involved in it from the
various communities. It can be seen from the table that almost all the children partake in activities that are
2Helping in cooking and serving food; assisting in taking care of babies and toddlers on the farm; running errands on the farm; filling
nursery bags with black soil; watering seedlings at the nursery; assisting in planting seedlings; uprooting weeds around young cocoa
plants; fetching water for spraying and leaving the farm before spraying commences; gathering plucked cocoa pods; carting loads not
exceeding 30% of the person’s body weight over a 2-mile distance or less; breaking cocoa pods with a mallet or hitting; it on the
ground; plucking pods within the reach of the hand; weeding with age-appropriate cutlass; scooping and removal of beans from
broken pods (HAF 2008)
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non-hazardous. However child work activities are predominant among the children where the CCLM
intervention had taken place. Whilst all the children from 8-11 years in Agogo were involved in picking
harvested pods from under cocoa trees in the company of adults, 80 percent, 60 percent and 88.3 percent of
the children from 8-11 years in Kwasusu, Aboboyaa and Dwease were involved in the same activity
respectively. In Dwease almost all the children are involved in gathering of cocoa pods, assisting in planting
of cocoa. Or plucking within hand reached pods. The results suggest that most of the children in communities
without CCLM intervention are involved in hazardous and non – hazardous activities whilst children in the
CCLM intervention community are mostly involved in child work activities which the HAF allows. In addition
to age, respondents also mentioned the physical maturity of children as additional criteria for assigning work.
Table 6a. Children in various communities involved in non-hazardous child labour activities (Child Work)
in cocoa
Age
Non-Hazardous Activity
New
Agogo
Kwasusu
Aboboyaa
Dwease
Number of Children interviewed
15
10
15
60
8-11
Helping in cooking and serving food
13(86.7)
5 (50.0)
5 (33.3)
15 (25.0)
Running farm errands
-
6 (60.0)
5(33.3)
-
Picking harvested pods fromunder
cocoa
trees in the company of adults
15
(100.0)
8 (80.0)
9(60.0)
53 (88.3)
Uprooting weeds around young
cocoa plants
12(80.0)
5 (50.0)
-
-
Number of Children interviewed
15
9
9
60
12-14
Filling of Nursery bags with black soil
7 (46.7)
9 (100)
5 (33.3)
24 (40.0)
Gathering of cocoa pods
15(100.0)
9 (100.0)
9(100.0)
55 (91.7)
Scooping and removal of beans
15(100.0)
5 (55.6)
9 (100.0)
-
Carting minor loads
15(100.0)
9 (100.0)
9(100.0)
-
Watering of Seedlings at the nursery
-
5 (55.6)
7 (77.8)
26 (43.3)
Number of Children interviewed
20
17
10
59
15-17
Assisting in planting cocoa
14 (70.0)
17 (100.0)
9 (90.0)
59
(100.0)
Weeding/brushing undergrowths
with age -appropriate cutlass (Sua-ado
or small cutlass)
-
-
3 (30.0)
10(16.7)
Plucking within hand-reach pods
-
7 (41.2)
59 (98.3)
Breaking cocoa pods with breaking
mallet or hitting on the ground
14 (70.0)
17 (100.0)
6 (60.0)
19 (31.7)
Carting load not exceeding 30%
bodyweight for more than 2miles(3
Km)
20 (100)
13 (76.5)
8 (80.0)
45 (75.0)
NB: Figures in parenthesis are percentages
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However some of the children involved in hazardous activities such as weeding with machetes or long
cutlass, climbing trees higher than three metres to cut mistletoe, working with agrochemicals, present or
working within the vicinity during spraying of pesticide, using harvesting hook to harvest cocoa and breaking
of cocoa pods with knife (Table 6b). At Dwease where there was an intervention and the existence of the
CCLM, the involvement of children in the hazardous activities was not as pronounced as in the non-CCLM
communities. For example, whilst the use of long cutlasses for weeding (15%) and the breaking of pods with
pod knifes (42%) among the children in Dwease are comparably high, the other HAF indicators are relatively
low in the CCLM community than the non-CCLM communities.
Table 6b. Children in various communities involved in hazardous child labour activities in cocoa
Hazardous Activity
New Agogo
Kwasusu
Aboboyaa
Dwease
Overall
Using machetes/long cutlass
for weeding
19 (38.0)
13 (33.3)
5 (14.7)
4 (15.4)
42 (23.7)
Climbing trees higher than 3metres
(9 feet’s) to cut mistletoe with cutlass
3 (6.0)
2 (5.1)
3 (8.8)
0
8 (4.5)
Working with Agrochemicals i.e.
Purchasing, transport, storage, use
(mixing, loading and spraying/
applying), washing of containers and
spraying machine and disposal.
7 (14.0)
0
1 (2.9)
1 (3.8)
10 (5.6)
Present or working in the vicinity
of farm during pesticide spraying
or re-enter a sprayed farm in less
than 12 hours
19 (38.0)
0
0
0
19 (10.7)
Harvesting overhead cocoa pods with
harvesting hook
10 (20.0)
5 (12.8)
6 (17.6)
2 (7.7)
24 (13.6)
Gathering of pods
40 (80.0)
30 (76.9)
31 (91.2)
0
122 (68.9)
Carting of cocoa into boxes
43 (86.0)
29(74.4)
32 (94.1)
0
125 (70.6)
Breaking cocoa pods with
breaking knife
12 (24.0)
5 (12.8)
16 (47.1)
11(42.3)
44 (24.9)
Total
50 (100)
39 (100)
34 (100)
26 (100)
149 (100)
NB: Figures in parenthesis are percentages
A child at Dwease was identified to be involved in most of cocoa activities and when asked why he was
involved, this is what the 15 year old Christian had to say:
My father works alone so I have to help him. I go along with him to the farm to help harvest and
take part in other activities. I willingly do these activities to help my father however I do not miss
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school. I do not see helping my father as impediment to my schooling. For instance last term, I
was the 4th out of 26 students and with the two tests taken l had 85% in the first test and 75% in
the second test I do this work voluntarily without any pay so that my father would see that I’m a
good boy.
When Christian’s register was investigated he had missed school only 3days out of the 7 weeks. His teacher
however commented that Christian is an average student who sometimes contributed in class. This is an
exceptional case since none of the other children could combine effectively school and work. The children
mentioned that they do that as a way of contributing their quota to the welfare of the family and more
importantly be accepted as a responsible growing child.
5.4.2. Impact of CCLM on Children’s Academic Performance
On the impact of the intervention on school academic performance, the study compared Dwease school
performance at the Junior High School to New Agogo. The findings from the Junior High School records show
that more pupils were presented for the final examination in the child labour monitoring community
(Dwease) than in New Agogo where there was no CCLM (Figure 7) and better results were achieved at
Dwease than at New Agogo (Figure 7).
Figure 7. Results and Number of students presented for the Junior high school examination
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6. Discussions
6.1. Structure of the CCLMS in Dwease
There was an extensive use of existing and new structures such as the chieftaincy institution and the CCPC
with the chief providing strong leadership that allows the community to take responsibility for their actions.
Coordination between the groups has been smooth as a result of the actors understanding their roles thus
giving credence to the assertion that actors perform very well when they know their roles and how their
roles relate or feed into each other (Seddon et al. 2008). This validates one of the key pillars of implementing
CCLM – that it should be anchored in existing local and district structures. The structure that enables
cooperation in the Dwease community as illustrated in Figure 1 is working together and ensuring cordial
relationship the parties involved. While the CCPC was responsible for raising awareness, registration of
children and monitoring child labour issues, the CP handled cases uncovered by the CCPC where financial or
other circumstances are threats to child’s rights. The intervention has also brought the District Assembly
closer to the community than before and attends to both technical and material needs of the community. For
instance, the District Assembly printed the examination papers free of charge for the schools in the
community which relieved the parents from paying term examination fee and enhanced children school
attendance. The advent of the CCLM has “strengthened and offered opportunity for institutions to prove their
worth in handling children affairs as well as filling the gap in terms of institutional performance” (Municipal
Coordinating Director). The inability of the system to check children situations in the farms could partly be
solved if children are empowered through sensitization on their rights and responsibilities to the extent that
they can demand those rights from their parents and guardians and report any abuses to the CCPC and their
teachers without fear of victimization.
6.2. Individuals involved in CCLMS
The enthusiasm of the various factors involved in the community child labour monitoring system even
without monetary compensation was as a result of their proper understanding of the issues, the effects of
hazardous labour on the child, community and the nation as a whole as well as the willingness to protect
children. According to respondents, child surveillance system was not very difficult to implement because it
was similar to the communal system where a child does not belong to the parents alone but an asset to the
entire community (MMYE, 2008). It was found that it was essential to have at least one highly respected
person who is committed to the implementation process to be a local leader. This confirms Gutierrez, Hilborn
& Defeo (2011) assertion that legitimate community volunteers and leaders when guided by collective
interest and not self interest could influence community compliance of standards, enforce by-laws and
resolve conflicts which otherwise could have negative effect on children. Nevertheless reliance on volunteers
such as CCPCs adds complexity to the maintenance of these social partnerships and capital since they choose
how and when they contribute and for what purpose (Billet et al., 2007). They are therefore disposed to
enervation which may characterize a high turnover of participants and might need replacement and/or
renewal more frequently (ibid). Adequate compensation for their time as well as continuous processes of
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building and sustaining trust, genuine engagement and progress that reflect personal or local concerns are
required to sustain and engage the ‘volunteer participants’ (ibid). The process whereby the community
members were given the chance to select their leaders through durbar was a good strategy to get them to
cooperate. This confirms literature that community interventions are more successful if they feel part and
own the process (Reed 2008) but it is realized through the commitment of its leaders.
6.3. Children involvement in cocoa work
All the children interviewed have ever participated in cocoa work. However task distributions were
developmentally determined and tasks considered appropriate for children are based on their body and
psychosomatic maturity and not only on the age of the child. This brings to focus the fact that age cannot be
used as sole criteria for assessing children involvement in work but should include physical, psychological
and emotional maturity of the child. Again the desire of child to be seen as a ‘good child’ by the parents and
guardians also influence the support they give to parents even at the expense of their education. Child labour
could be said to be family and culturally embedded and any intervention which is oblivious of this fact is
bound to suffer. The desire of children to support family business is also indication that cocoa farming will
for a long time to come continue to be small holder family business.
6.4. Emerging coping mechanism
The main cocoa activities that engage the children when they skip school were gathering of beans and carting
wet beans from the farm to the village. These two activities usually performed by children are time bound.
After fermenting the cocoa for 6-7 days, it needs to be dried immediately to avoid loss of beans through over
fermentation and mould leading to low quality of beans. The risk of losing beans and high cost of labour were
the main reasons why the children are compelled by their parents to skip school in favor of farm. This
confirms the researches in various literatures that poverty level impact the way in which households deal
with shocks and the extent to which investment in children are sacrificed as a risk coping mechanism (Gorsh
et al, 2008). Thus dealing with the labour constraint will not only bring high productivity and reduce labour
cost; it will also minimize the withdrawal of children from school by parents to assist them on their farms.
One source of labour that was underutilised was the “nnoboa” (group labour support or cooperative) system.
The nnoboa system which formed about 5% of sources of labour according to this study has been practised in
Ghana for centuries. According to Teal, Zeitlin and Maama (2004) the practice of nnoboa has been dwindling
over the years. The key factors identified by this study and confirmed by Teal et al (2004) are loss of trust,
lack of management of nnoboa groups, lack of resources to maintain the groups and lack of technical support
from appropriate institutions. The reconstruction of nnoboa system by dealing with these obstacles to
address labour short falls will have a positive impact on cocoa labour issues that affect both children and
farmers. The CCLM intervention concentrated on the social aspect only without tackling the economic
improvement of parents may cause imbalance in the system.
Since cocoa farming involves a lot of labour in its production most of the farmers are adopting strategies
to deal with the shortage of labour that arise from not using children in cocoa farming. It was observed that
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because of the intervention of the child labour monitoring system at Dwease, most of the farmers have
resorted to seeking the services of by day labourers to do the farm work which increased labour cost. Most
school going children were rather sent to farm on weekends to help with work that were not det rimental to
their health.. In the event of not being able to hire labour or have access to “nnoboa” service, farmers have
resorted to persuading the children to skip school to help them especially in gathering of pods and/ or in
carting wet fermented beans for drying.
7. Conclusion
This paper sought to understand how CCLM operates and its potential to mobilize or generate social capital
to deal with worst forms of child labour as well as ascertain the emerging household labour re-arrangement
to facilitate a more sustainable change in cocoa production systems. The results indicate that the CCLM as a
voluntary social auditing system is working in the community where members hold themselves accountable
for the welfare of children. The process has mobilized and empowered the community to continuously solve
the problems confronting the community and children in a timely manner. CCLM is embedded in community
structures and has established local partnerships and alliances that have fostered ownership, sustainability
and brought positive changes.
The members of the CCPC, the CP and even the chieftaincy institutions are premised on the social capital
agency of individuals, their interests and their energies are influenced by social pressure that regulate,
coordinate and exert pressure on farmers and parents to change their attitudes towards the use of children
in cocoa farms and offer general protection. The main limitation of the CCLM is that due to the peasant and
numerous small holder nature of farmers scattered around, it is extremely difficult to check the extent of
children’ involvement from farm site. This challenge can be remedied if the children are empowered through
sensitization on their rights and responsibilities to the extent that they can demand these rights from their
parents and guardians and report any abuses to the CCPC and their teachers without fear of victimization.
The Ghana HAF has provided a clear framework for children participation in cocoa farming which takes
into consideration the socio-cultural situation in cocoa growing communities. This is essential and provides
the opportunity for continuous impartation of cocoa farming skills to children in the absence of available
formal training. This means that the socio-cultural and socio-economic considerations are critical and can
boost the confidence of local people to accept change in the interest of all. All the children interviewed have
ever participated in cocoa activity. However task distributions were developmentally determined and tasks
considered appropriate for children were based on their body and psychosomatic maturity and not only on
the age of the child. This brings to focus the fact that age cannot be used as sole criteria for assessing children
involvement in work but should include physical, psychological and emotional maturity of the child. Again
the desire of a child to be seen as a ‘good child’ by parents and guardians also influence the support they give
to parents even at the expense of their education. Child labour could be said to be family and culturally
embedded and any intervention which is oblivious of this fact is bound to suffer. The desire of children to
support family business is also indication that cocoa farming will for a long time to come continue to be small
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holder family business. This is critical for children involvement in cocoa work and those children should not
only be targeted for separation from work but should be offered appropriate avenue to nurture their skills
through cultural-legally acceptable framework that provides for their involvement and eliminate the worst
forms of child labour.
The seasonality of cocoa production also exerts pressure on farmers to perform certain tasks at stipulated
periods in the process in order to achieve maximum yield. As a coping strategy, children still have to skip
school to support parents. The risk of losing beans and high cost of labour were the main reasons why
parents occasionally withdraw their children from school. The time bound nature of drying wet fermented
cocoa beans causes parents to withdraw children from school to perform that service unless alternative
labour arrangement is found. This confirms the researches in various literatures that poverty level impacts
the way in which households deal with shocks and the extent to which investment in children are sacrificed
as a risk coping mechanism. Encouragement and improvement of nnoboa system are recommended to boost
labour availability. This will have positive impact on cocoa labour issues that affect both children and farmers.
It will enhance income and productivity of farmers and thereby reduce children involvement in hazardous
child labour by attacking its structural determinants.
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