CHILDREN WORKING ON COCOA FARMS IS DEVELOPMENT

UNCLAS ACCRA 000574 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB EAGR PHUM SOCI XA XY IV GH SUBJECT: CHILDREN WORKING ON COCOA FARMS IS DEVELOPMENT ISSUE, NOT JUST LABOR ISSUE ¶1. (U) SUMMARY: Removing children as workers on Ghanaian cocoa farms encompasses a number of social and economic issues more far ranging than simply that of child labor. While few would disagree with the premise of improving access to basic education, encouraging children to attend school rather than work on a family farm exposes a myriad of social concerns ranging from poor quality education to the dangers of walking to school on country roads. While NGOs funded by the cocoa industry promote sending children to school rather than to work, the GOG needs to address additional societal issues if the NGOs' efforts are to be sustainable. END SUMMARY ¶2. (U) Over a recent two day period, Poloff and DRL/ILSCR officer toured three cocoa villages in western Ghana accompanied by the program manager of the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) and representatives of local NGO implementing partners. The officers found that the NGOs have been successful in encouraging parents to send their children to school rather than to work on farms, but in each of the three villages, the children face additional difficulties when attending school. ¶3. (U) One village had a school within easy walking distance, but the others had no collocated school. Children of all ages walk four kilometers one way to attend class. They are forced to walk on dirt roads that are dangerous either from heavy trucks that ply the route or rivers that flood low lying areas during the rainy season. ¶4. (U) The lack of qualified teachers in rural schools and of material resources results in gaps in pupils' learning. Teachers often must travel by public transportation for an hour before beginning the long walk from the main highway to the school. ¶5. (U) Only one of the three villages visited had electricity, but one had six solar powered communal lights located around the edge of the village. When asked about the solar lighting, one village elder quickly dismissed the project as inadequate because the lights were not in individual homes and were, therefore, of little use to the students for studying after dark in their own homes. ¶6. (U) The common refrain in all three villages was, "What are you going to do for us?" Each village was a model for reducing child labor on cocoa farms, but village elders all wanted to know what the USG could do to improve their living standards now that the children were attending school. The answer to the elders' question should not come from the USG or the cocoa industry; the GOG needs to address the question in a comprehensive manner. ¶7. (U) The education system needs investment of human and material resources, transportation infrastructure needs basic improvements, and the electricity grid should be extended to rural areas. These tangential issues have now been highlighted following marked success in reducing the number of children working on cocoa farms. ¶8. (U) COMMENT: Unless the GOG provides clear, tangible evidence of improvement in the lives of villagers following the decision to educate their children, some families are likely to opt to keep their children working at home rather than to send them to school, negating the positive advances made in reducing child labor on cocoa farms. END COMMENT TEITELBAUM