Combatting Child Labour

Facebook-f Twitter Youtube

the first lady, dominique ouattara, president of the national oversight committee for fight against trafficking, exploitation and child labour (cns) presided over the opening ceremony of a reflection workshop on the actions to be taken to meet new challenges related to the sustainable elimination of the worst forms of child labour. the ceremony took place, thursday, april 11, 2019, in the office of the first lady in the presence of mr. abinan kouakou pascal, minister of employment and social protection and president of the interministerial committee for fight against trafficking, exploitation and child labor (cim); ms. bakayoko ly ramata, minister of women, family and children and vice president of the cim, mr. yves brahima koné, director general of the coffee-cocoa council, as well as representatives of the indusries and representatives of the united nations system.

the third national plan of action (npa), which runs from 2019 to 2021, aims to take into account new challenges to better address child labour issue in côte d’ivoire. this is the main idea behind the workshop that was held from wednesday 10 to friday 12 april 2019 by the national oversight committee (cns).

according to mrs. dominique ouattara, president of cns, there is still much to be done to overcome child labour. “(…) despite the considerable progress made in recent years, through the implementation of the 2012-2014 and 2015-2017 national action plans, it is clear that there is still much to be done to eliminate this phenomenon in our country, “she said. “in spite of the efforts made by the government and its partners, some children are still forced to work in our country. others are involved into cross-border trafficking ” she added.

for mrs. dominique ouattara, the challenges are many. she therefore recommended to  take into account cocoa traceability in the supply chain, deforestation and illegal cocoa cultivation in parks, reserves and classified forests. she thinks  it is important to include these new challenges into the new plan in order to better address the problem. “it is therefore necessary to elaborate a new national plan of action that leverages and reinforces  the actions that have already been initiated. i believe that this third national plan will be able to meet the challenges our country has been facing. she ended.

mr. abinan kouakou pascal, minister of employment and social protection, also president of cim presented the social program (ps-gouv) set up by the government to strengthen social action. also, according to the president of cim, despite efforts and progress made, our country continues to be in the spotlight in terms  of ethical cocoa production and child labour. for these reasons, he welcomed the holding of the workshop to provide an appropriate response by taking new challenges into consideration.

mrs. yao patricia sylvie, cns executive secretary reviewed the first two national action plan. she also spoke briefly about  the axes of intervention of the new plan. according to her, this plan will include issues such as cocoa traceability, access for children and poor people to basic services and the protection of classified forests by fighting against illegal occupation.

mr. tim mc coy, vice president of the world cocoa foundation, ms. sophie léonrad, deputy representative of unicef, ms. sophie cnnidi, ilo representative, in turn reiterated the commitment of their organization towards the eradication of child labour. note that the new national action plan 2019-2021 will be officially presented on may 23rd.

Scroll to Top