Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

This member contributed to:

    • Question 1: Food security and nutrition policies: example of a policy improving lives of cocoa producers in Ghana and reducing child labour”

      World Vision Ghana together with Mondelez International through the Cocoa life programme are implementing activities as efforts in eliminating child labor through nutrition programming. The project approach in eliminating child labor is in line with the Ghana strategy which is Ghana Child Labour Monitoring System(GCLMS). It focuses on 3 areas: Prevention, Monitoring and Remediation with key emphasis on addressing the root causes of child labor. This is done through a holistic and community-centric approach such as improving farmer livelihoods. Through Food Security and Nutrition interventions under the prevention strategy, the root cause of child labor such as poverty is addressed by increasing household incomes, empowering women economically, reducing Malnutrition etc.

      Strategies/Interventions

      Our approach to using food security and nutrition activities to tackle child labor within the cocoa landscape together with stakeholders over the years has taken the form of activities such as:

      Sensitize communities and hold food demonstration sessions on micronutrient rich foods

      This activity was implemented with the aim of introducing smallholder farmers and caregivers especially women (nursing mothers) to micronutrient rich foods rich in iron, calcium, potassium, vitamin C, and other nutrients to boost immune system and provide energy for children and adults that prevents stunted growth as an effect of child labor. In partnership with district health directorates, community members especially women who are mostly responsible for in-home management were taken through how locally produced food crops, vegetables, spices, herbs, legumes, fish etc. could be used to prepare healthy less expensive meals. Demonstration on preparation of fortified corn porridge for toddlers with local ingredients like palm oil, eggs, shea butter, ground nut paste, etc. In total 1238 people, 865 women, 373 men with about 500 Children benefitted from the training in five (5) districts.

      Training of community members on modern farming techniques and setting up Demonstration farms.

      This activity was implemented with the aim of equipping smallholder cocoa farmers with practical skills in modern ways of producing other food crops such as plantain, vegetables etc. to serve as additional source of income when sold and also improve household nutrition. Smallholder Cocoa farmers especially women were first sensitized on the need to venture into other food crops production in addition to the cocoa farming to raise additional income when sold and to secure food for their homes to improve in their nutrition. In partnership with the District Agricultural Development Unit field demonstration farms were established by taking the small holder farmers through on hand practicals in modern farming techniques such as plantain sucker multiplication. Women groups were also taken through establishment of backyard vegetable farms to support families. In total 10 Demonstration farms has been established in 2 districts with 851 smallholder farmers involved 363 Females, 488 Males.

      With established demo farms smallholder farmers especially, women are able to raise additional income from the sales of the harvested crops to support the educational needs of their children and also increased household nutritional needs.

      Sensitization and establishment of Communities Self-Initiated School Feeding Programs

      The team has over the years encouraged communities to implement a community self-initiated school feeding program using available locally grown foodstuffs as a measure to improve school enrollment and retention. It was established that pupils absent themselves from school to scavenge for food because they go hungry when in school since parents couldn’t give money nor cook for them since food is mostly prepared in the farms. An initiative where parents agreed to provide foodstuffs from their farms to be prepared by organized women groups trained in preparation of nutritious meals from locally available food crops for the children. Three communities Kotosaa, Nsoyameye and Danyame started the initiative and saw results of increased enrolment and retention over a period of one year. Some communities received support from the district assemblies, benevolent persons etc. through donations in cash and foodstuffs.

      To sustain the activity, school authorities are engaged with the District Agricultural Development Unit to support in establishment of school gardens. Some communities also had the initiative declining or quitting due to lack of support however records show improved enrolment during the implementation stages and this reduced the number of children engaged in farm activities especially during school periods.

      The school enrollment increased from 60 to 75 in Kotosaa, 53 to 63 in Nsonyameye, and 82 to 99 in Danyame.

      • Facilitating Engagements between crop farmers and extension workers.

      The motive of this activity is to enhance farmers access to food crops and animal husbandry extension through Ministry of Food and Agriculture. With this strategy we establish an engagement between small holder farmers and hard to reach Agricultural Extension Officers. With limited number of Extension officers, most farmers hardly get technical support from these experts to improve on their production to secure food.1532 people with 42% women in 35 communities in 5 districts reached.

      • Train mobilized groups on developing business models such as value addition, postharvest loss management and local opportunities (i.e. additional livelihood options)

      This activity was implemented with the aim of equipping smallholder farmers with knowledge in post- harvest management to reduce food losses. Mobilized groups especially women groups were taking through value addition of locally produced crops such as grains, cereals and tubers. In partnership with the District Agricultural Development Unit’s, the Women in Agricultural Development (WIAD) officer and crops officer took small holder farmers through the measures to implement in reducing post-harvest loss in the food value chain to improve food security. Smallholder farmers were then introduced to the use of improved storage bags for cereals and grains. This has helped to make food available even in the minor seasons for households to prepare a nutritious meal for their families especially children. Furthermore, smallholder farmers especially women groups were trained in adding value to locally produce crops to make it more marketable and reduce post-harvest losses in the bumper seasons. With value added to cassava to fortified gari, plantain and cocoyam into chips and grains and cereals into Winnie mix (porridge flour), crops which would have gone waste in bumper seasons/harvest is generating additional income to the households especially women and nutritious meals readily available in the homes especially for the children.

      In total 585 small holder farmers, 310 women, 275 men were trained in 5 districts. Five (5) women groups into production now.

      Stakeholders and Their Role

      All these food security and nutrition activities held to help eliminate child labour are not done in isolation but with stakeholders to ensure that the program is sustainable and could be independently done when the program is no more in the districts. This is done by building the capacity of the communities as well as public authorities to support them play their part in protecting children. In executing food security and Nutrition activities in eliminating child labor some key stakeholders partnered and the roles they played are,

      • Communities: Partnering and accepting to adopt all strategies in improving food security and nutrition in eliminating child labor by the program.

      • Ministry of Food and Agriculture: Provision of skilled personnel such as Crop officers, WIAD officer, Agric Extension Agents, etc. in developing training manuals and facilitating training sections for community members.

      • Ghana Health Service: Provision of skilled personnel such as Nutritionist, health promotions officer, nurses etc in facilitating training sections on Micro nutrients rich foods.

      • Ghana Education Service: Providing support in the catering of children during school hours.

      • COCOBOD: Provision of skilled personnel such as, Cocoa Extension Agents, etc. in developing training manuals and facilitating training sections for small holder farmers.

      Question 2:  How World Vision is Supporting Family farming through producer savings for transformation groups and training these groups on child protection under Cocoa-Life Project in Ghana:

      World Vision has been implementing Cocoa Life Project in Ghana. The project integrated ending child labour objectives and financial inclusion to increase income of cocoa producers, particularly women. Kate has been one pf the beneficiaries, a cocoa farmer in the Sekyere East district. She is a single mother of five. She has been taking care of the children alone since her left with sales of her farm produce-cocoa and food crops- and, loans from the loan sharks in the community. Her children have been assisting her in the farm as she did not have money to hire labour for every farm activity. Their roles have been weeding, picking pods, planting, watering, breaking pods and carrying farm produce home. Loss of income to hire labor becomes the driving force exposing children to the risk of child labor.

      In collaboration with the department of social welfare and the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), World Vision Ghana educated all the communities on child labour issues. As part of the project, Community child protection committees (CCPC) were formed, trained and supported with materials (books, identification) to monitor child protection issues. Referral lines were established to enable reportage and mediation. The role of the committee is to ensure children attend school and not work on the farms. Children were also educated on child labor issues Child Rights Clubs in response to the findings during the community engagement that the children engage in labour without the consent of their guardians.

      As a practical solution to reduce exposure of children to child labor resulting from lack of income, World Vision organized community based and managed savings for transformation groups to give farmers financial insurance (savings and loans).These groups have provided funds to farmers to hire labour for agronomical practices which hitherto would have been done by their children. In addition, community enterprise groups were formed, trained and equipped to produce products with available raw materials for sale thus increasing household income. Cassava processing, soap making and baking were the enterprises established. Furthermore, Mondelez International provided farmer groups with premium on the sales of the cocoa beans that was distributed to farmers to purchase farm inputs and meet basic household needs. To ensure children stay in school, bicycles were distributed to children in hard to reach communities to commute to school.

      Household income have been increased as a result on the additional livelihood interventions. Smallholder farmers are able to hire labour for their farming activities thus children are retained in schools. The CCPCs in the communities have enacted by-laws to monitor and refer offender to the district child protection committees for further action. School attendance and retention by children in the hard to reach communities have increased as the commuting time and stress have been drastically reduced by the use of the bicycles received from the project. Moreover, parents are able to provide the school needs of the children even during cocoa off-season with savings and loans from the savings for transformation groups (S4T). Therefore the children do not have any excuse to be absent from school. Farmers and their children now understand the negative impact of child labour in their lives as a result have increased interest in the education and training for life.

      Question 5: Public-Private Investment in The Cocoa Sector In Ghana Towards Elimination Of Child Labour And Forced Labour: The Role Of Mondelez International Cocoa Life And World Vision Ghana

      The sustainable development goal 8.7 mirrors the urgency and necessity of actions for eradicating child labour in all of it forms to ensure children are protected to enjoy life in all its fullness. In Ghana, fishing and farming sectors are highly reckoned to be child labour hot spots, with about 21.8 per cent of children affected (National Plan of Action Phase II, 2017). Within the farming sector, cocoa farming in particular with its unique characteristics require diverse stakeholders to act intentionally to deal with child labour by tackling root causes. Among stakeholders in the public sphere, district level institutions usually rely heavily on District Assembly Common Fund and Internally Generated Funds. With the former usually disbursed in arrears and the later insufficient in rural districts where most cocoa farming families reside, major public institutional investment in child protection and child labour specific activities are limited.

      Against this backdrop, the Social Welfare Department and Rural Enterprise Programme through the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty and rural enterprise development initiatives support most vulnerable cocoa growing families with direct cash transfers to cushion most vulnerable families with some skills training. The actual strength of public departments that has been harnessed by the Cocoa Life Programme in the course of child labour eradication is their technical skill and mandate for protecting children as enshrined in the laws of Ghana. Through partnership and support by World Vision in running planned sensitization campaigns at the community levels, cocoa growing families especially children are aware of their rights and responsibilities, which safeguard them from child labour and other forms of exploitation and rights denial.

      In the private space, the partnership between World Vision Ghana and Mondelez International Cocoa Life has been very sensitive in the following ways to ensure child labour is ended in all programme beneficiary communities as outlined herein.

      Improving Cocoa Farm Yield and Income through Access to Cocoa Extension Services

      Cocoa farming in rural communities’ dependence on manual labour is due to poverty which pulls all family members regardless of their age to contribute towards their families’ survival. In ancient times, cocoa farming parents had many children often with the intent of having more hands to support family cocoa business, employing limited knowledge of good agricultural practices coupled with lack of resources needed to apply improved practices to improve their business. Consequently, yield per hectare of cocoa is low, affecting cocoa family incomes. Though the idea is not wholly negative when considered in the lens of family business continuity, the time at which children worked on these farms and its resultant child right deprivations makes it worrisome. In essence, child labour within cocoa growing communities is not tied to third party hiring of services as occur in sectors but within family businesses to ensure family survival. The Cocoa Life Programme therefore recognizes poverty as major root cause of child labour as children must not be in the position to work to survive and thus invests heavily in poverty reduction within cocoa growing communities

      The programme ensure cocoa farmers in beneficiary communities are mobilized at the community and district levels to form cooperatives with support from World Vision Ghana and Department of Cooperatives. These cooperatives are then exposed to good agricultural practices which improve cocoa yields and increase cocoa family incomes. Cocoa Extension Agents have been specially recruited in collaboration with COCOBOD as part of the project to provide extension services to farmers in all project beneficiary communities, enhancing their productivity with trainings.

      As at 2019 175,017 farmers including farmers within the five project districts where World Vision Ghana operates benefited from direct coaching and farm development plans through trainings on good agronomic practices with 391 nurseries and 689 demonstration farms established in 589 Cocoa Life beneficiary communities. Additionally, 10,809,555 improved seedlings were distributed to farmers in these communities. All these actions are aimed at improving farm yields and incomes of cocoa growing families to ensure they escape poverty and hire appropriate labour to free children from working to ensure family survival.

      As a coordinating implementing partner on the Cocoa Life Programme, World Vision Ghana facilitates periodic meetings in five project districts in Ashanti (Sekyere East and Ahafo Ano North Districts), Western (Bia West and Juaboso District) and Central Regions (Awutu Senya District) of Ghana through an established information sharing platform for implementing partner field agents including Cocoa Extension Agents, Department Of Cooperatives Officers, District Cocoa Farmers’ Union and other partners. This oversight coordination enhances existing partnerships to consistently improve programming through information sharing on progress of implementation, successes, discussions of challenges and ways of mitigating these challenges. The field coordinating teams also support farmers through sensitizations which aid cocoa farmers’ adoption of new farming methods introduced to them through these trainings.

      Improving Household Incomes from Sources Other Than Cocoa through Relevant and Accessible Community- Based Training

      Cocoa farmers in Ghana depend heavily on seasonal income from cocoa farming, making farmers vulnerable during shocks during off-peak seasons and weather failure. Due to this over reliance on cocoa farming income, most cocoa growing family members especially youth and women are unskilled and thus unable to contribute meaningfully to family income from other sources other than cocoa. This lack and how it makes cocoa farmers vulnerable is addressed by the Cocoa Life Programming design, with massive investments in relevant community-based small and medium scale enterprise skills and provision of start-up kits to support production to increase family income from other sources.

      As a partner to this key initiative, World Vision Ghana facilitates this skills training component through community based needs assessments and market tailored trainings to ensure easy access and skill relevance in partnership with Rural Enterprise Programme Units/Business Advisory Centres, targeting women and youth (of legal working age). Initiated business operators are supported with financial literacy and business management trainings to ensure business are sustained.

      As at 2019 the Cocoa Life programme had facilitated involvement of 18,234 cocoa community dwellers in several additional livelihood enterprises (i.e gari processing, soap production and confectionery products) with 72,498 and 52, 904 community members trained on financial literacy and business management in Cocoa Life Districts in Ghana. World Vision Ghana facilitates these trainings in six project district in Ghana with technical support from Aboadi Rural Agricultural Technology and Transfer Centre and National Board for Small Scale Industries.

      Enhancing Cocoa farmers Access to Microfinance to Increase Resilience of Cocoa Farming Families

      World Vision Ghana with support from Mondelez International Cocoa Life further facilitates cocoa growing communities’ access to microfinance products through the Savings for Transformation Groups which helps farmers to save parts of their income against off-peak cocoa seasons, with savings kits. This microfinance component of the Cocoa Life Programme also helps cocoa farmers to save up and build assets necessary to escape poverty and invest in the education of their children to high levels to enable them have descent jobs. As at 2019, the Cocoa Life Programme had established 1,967 functional savings groups with 121,167 cocoa community dwellers participating in 589 cocoa life communities in Ghana. Over 300 of these savings groups have been linked successful to formal microfinance institutions to access bigger loans to expand their businesses of which they are able to hire labour for their work on the farm. World Vision Ghana facilitates this initiative in 161 communities in six districts in three regions of Ghana. The meetings are used to discuss child labour and child marriage preventions.

      Improving Community Access to Infrastructure which mitigates Child Labour In Cocoa Growing Communities

      The Cocoa Life Programme also robustly facilitates total community development to sustainably free families from infrastructural limitations which foster child labour and forced labour practices. Naturally, cocoa growing communities in Ghana are in the remote areas, challenged with unavailability of necessary social amenities and services like roads, schools and health services. The lack of education infrastructure in particular aids child labour through deprivation of children’s right to quality education. In instances where schools are available, the distance covered by children in cocoa growing communities to attend these schools impact negatively on their health and makes schooling unattractive. Poor road networks also make transportation of goods to market centres an avenue for child labour practice.

      In ensuring access to community infrastructure and social services World Vision through the Cocoa Life Programme Unit had supported 450 communities in 12 Districts, to develop and activate community action plans, ensuring the participation of erstwhile marginalized groups like women, youth and children. As at 2019, 3,205 projects had been initiated and completed while 1,599 projects are on-going in cocoa growing communities in Ghana. World Vision Ghana’s District project coordinating units facilitated the mobilization and training of communities in six districts within three cohorts of the Cocoa Life Programme, enhancing cocoa farming communities’ advocacy knowledge and skills through its Citizen Voice and Action Project Model. This model essentially drives communities to engage duty bearers for provision of non existing social services and improvement of existing low quality services and infrastructure.

      World Vision Ghana also supports communities by bridging the disconnection between cocoa growing communities and district-level duty-bearers in cocoa growing districts through an established annual communities and District Assembly engagement forum. This has improved District Assemblies infrastructural and social services improvement in Cocoa Life communities, leading to gradual removal of major community barriers which predispose families to engage in child labour. Private institutions and cocoa growing communities have also initiated and partially/fully funded projects which address community pressing educational infrastructural needs and access to safe potable drinking water. Access to education infrastructure in particular has replaced farms in the lives of children in cocoa growing communities with mechanized water points also reducing times spent on household chores for children (especially girls) before attending school.

      Additionally, World Vision and World Bicycle Relief directly supports children who access education from distant communities through the Bicycle for Educational Empowerment Project in collaboration with Mondelez International. This initiative provided children in remote communities with bicycles to support and motivate them to access education with support from Mondelez International.

       Facilitating Cocoa Farmers’ Access and Adoption of Appropriate Technologies To End Dependence On Manual Family Labour

      In addition to increasing household incomes for cocoa farming families to pay for appropriate labour to work on the farm, the Cocoa Life programme strategically evaluates the cocoa production value chain to ascertain areas where appropriate technologies can be used to reduce manual work and thereby eliminate child labour along activities in the cocoa value chain.

      Mechanized Slashers and tricycles used by Cocoa Farmers to manage weeds and transport beans

      This alternative ultimately breaks reliance on children within the value chain replacing manual activity with farm mechanization. These technologies also help to protect children from harmful chemicals and hazardous work which are harmful to their health. The Mondelez International Cocoa Life Unit has invested heavily in these appropriate technology supplying mobilized farmer cooperatives at community and district levels with environmentally friendly motorized pruners, slashers and tricycles to support farm management and transportation of cocoa beans from the farm to the house for drying.

      World Vision Ghana supports farmers through district project coordinating teams to ensure adoption of these technologies with modalities for proper usage, management and maintenance of these technologies to ensure they sustainably eliminate child labour.

      Raising Awareness among Cocoa Growing Families and Communities on the effects of Child Labour and Importance of Education

      More directly, Mondelez International in partnership with World Vision Ghana and other child-focused organizations like Child Rights International and Right To Play have consistently raised awareness among cocoa community dwellers, reaching 270, 863 in 2019 in 656 communities with community child protection structures established to sustain preventive awareness creation messages. Child labour monitoring and remediation systems are also in place to manage cases of child labour and forced child labour.Community Child Protection Committees have been ensuring that every child in their communities attends school and undertake referrals to the District Child Protection Committees if any child labour/abuse is identified.