Question:
Does the company have a Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) in place that covers 100% of their cocoa sources, is assessed by a third party and references ongoing commitments to improve/expand?
Answer:
"Our approach to eradicating child labor is based on child-centered systems
strengthening and applying data driven risk analysis capabilities under the
overarching framework of human rights due diligence, which closely follows the OECD
Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct . A child-centered approach starts at the
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local level, engaging with children, parents, families and community members to
create empowered communities to help their own development and make lasting
change for the future. This approach relies on a framework of collaborative action from
all stakeholders. It includes developing community action plans, building the capacity
of local authorities to better support families, and stepping up local and regional
advocacy to increase farmer empowerment. In 2020/21, we continued our work with
Child Protection Committees (CPCs) in cocoa farming communities in Ghana,
Cameroon and Indonesia. This program brings together a partnership of district and
local-level government agencies, social welfare specialists, community planners,
teachers, and local religious leaders, with the purpose of preventing child labor and
protecting child rights. Since these groups are composed of trusted community members, they are in a unique position to engage with families. Our
community-based approach focuses on training CPC members to identify and support
children at risk of being engaged in child labor and to support remediation and referral
processes in collaboration with local public authorities." pp. 4-5
"To help us identify
and address child labor in our cocoa supply chain, we continued in 2020/21 to
implement child labor monitoring and remediation systems based on the industry
practice as developed by the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) . To undertake
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monitoring and remediation, we work on the ground in cocoa origin countries, visiting
households and communities to identify children at risk of child labor." p. 5
In addition, we are continuing to implement our monitoring and remediation systems
which cover 237 farmer groups, including 220,878 farmers in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and
Cameroon. The percentage of the farmer groups we directly source from with whom
we undertake child labor monitoring and remediation activities is 61%." p. 6
Does not disclose goal of working towards 100%