Key actors involved in the fight against child and forced labour have outlined their plans to curb the menace in three districts where a project is being implemented to monitor commitments by the government and cocoa/mining companies.

The project dubbed, “Tackling Forced and Child Labour in Ghanaian Cocoa and Gold Mining Sectors,” seeks to build the capacity of Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) to train community members to assess the progress of these commitments.

Rainforest Alliance is implementing the project together with International Cocoa Initiative and Solidaridad West Africa with funding support from the Norwegian Government through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD).

The Rights and Responsibilities Initiatives Ghana, Center for Community Livelihood Development, Center for Social Impact Studies, and New Generation Concern are some of the CBOs partnering with Rainforest Alliance in the implementation of the project.

A total of 40 selected communities in four districts including Atwima Mponua, Amenfi West, Atiwa East and Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai are benefiting from the project, also known as “Ye Ne Mmofra No Nti.”

During the first of a series of joint quarterly district dialogues held at Nyinahin, Asankragua and Anyinam, State institutions such as the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Department of Social Welfare and Community Development and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) affirmed their resolve to sensitise community members on child labour.

Representatives from the various local Assemblies also spoke about steps being taken at the community and district levels in collaboration with stakeholders to highlight the effect of child labour on the health, development, and education of affected children.

They promised to hold durbars in selected communities to sensitise parents on their children’s need to stay in school and ensure work assigned to children both at home and on the farm was not beyond their capacity.

Child labour laws, according to them, would be incorporated in Medium Term Development Plans (MTDP) as part of strategies to constantly engage community members on the canker.

The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice also (CHRAJ) took turns speaking about public sensitisation activities they intended to carry out as part of the campaign against child and forced labour in their respective districts.

Some cocoa companies who participated in the various district dialogues also made presentations on programmes aimed at behavioural change in the communities they were working in.

Mr Kwame Osei, the Country Director of Rainforest Alliance, speaking at the district dialogue at Nyinahin in the Atwima Mponua District underlined the need for all stakeholders to get involved in the fight against child and forced labour.

He said if the government, cocoa, and mining companies fulfilled their commitments to fighting the menace, achieving the target of eliminating the worst forms of child labour in cocoa by 2025 would be much easier.

He urged stakeholders to put their shoulders on the wheel in the fight against child labour so as not to deny children in cocoa-growing areas a better future.

Mrs Joyce Poku-Marboah, Senior Project Manager of Rainforest Alliance, who participated in the Amenfi West dialogue said tackling child labour was a shared responsibility which involved all stakeholders.

She said the elimination of child labour was critical to ensuring the human rights and the welfare of people living and working in Ghana’s cocoa-growing and mining communities.