Verité Update: Volume 3

February Update Heading

Did you know?

  • The issue of child labor has plagued the chocolate industry for nearly a decade.
  • Verité authored the Road Map that is guiding government and industry towards the elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor and Forced Adult Labor as defined by the United Nations.
  • Verité is helping to eliminate abusive child labor practices in cocoa farming in West Africa.

The Problem. Most of the world's cocoa originates in the West African countries of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, where production is spread across as many as two million family farms. For over seven years, since the signing of the Harkin-Engel Protocol, stakeholders from industry, government, and civil society have had conflicting views on how to effectively address instances of the Worst Forms of Child Labor and Forced Adult Labor as called for by the protocol. No issue caused more conflict than the question of how to verify the government surveys that served to assess the conditions on the farms.

Verité's Solution. Verité was selected by the global cocoa industry to create a robust and independent verification process. We are known for our solutions-driven, multi-stakeholder approach to complicated human rights problems. The process we designed, known as the Road Map, has brought NGOs, governments, and industry together for the first time to build a common agenda for change. Guiding our work is the vision that independently verified data will strengthen the efforts to address child and forced labor. Verité's Road Map established an innovative verification mechanism to ensure that data accurately reflects conditions on the ground.

Verité brought together diverse stakeholders in an unprecedented program to establish a common platform for problem solving, resulting in the development of the multi-stakeholder International Cocoa Verification Board. These efforts have led to greater cooperation among industry, international civil society, and the governments of Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and the United States. Last month the first independent verification report was released. The report will inform a wide range of stakeholders in the strategic alignment of their development goals.