By Charles S. Amponsah | Picture credit: Adwoa Anaah Adjei
The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), in collaboration with the Ghana Journalists Association and the Ghana Agricultural and Rural Development Journalists Association (GARDJA), has organised a two-day experience sharing workshop for selected journalists in Kumasi.
Participants were trained on child labour concepts, Ghana’s legal framework, and how to communicate solutions effectively, equipping them to raise awareness and hold stakeholders accountable. The workshop was a follow-up session and part of a series of trainings ICI has organised for journalists in Ghana.
Child and forced labour remain a global crisis. An estimated 138 million children are engaged in child labour, including 54 million performing hazardous work that threatens their health, safety, and development. Sub-Saharan Africa bears the heaviest burden, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all children in child labour—around 87 million.
Approximately 28 million children are in forced labour, according to the latest global estimates from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF, and millions are deprived of education in violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In Ghana’s cocoa-growing regions, children are often exposed to dangerous tasks, such as handling sharp tools, carrying heavy loads, and spraying pesticides, while many are forced into labour against their will.
To address this, Katie Bird, ICI’s Communications Director, said, “No one actor alone can tackle a challenge as complex as child labour.”
In an exclusive interview with the GBC on the sidelines of the workshop, she stressed the critical role of the media in raising awareness and driving accountability, noting:
“The media plays an essential role in making the problem visible, educating the public on the nuances, and ensuring that duty bearers, governments, cocoa companies, and communities, are held responsible.”
By empowering journalists, ICI aims to amplify awareness and ensure that communities and policymakers are informed not only about the scale of the problem but also about practical steps to reduce hazardous child labour in cocoa. This forms part of a broader multi-stakeholder approach.
