 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Copy Right Reserved WPD 2009 Contact
| Around the World, the rural poor suffer from hunger and disease |
| World Cocoa Foundation Partnership Meeting October 24-25, 2007 Washington, DC World Partners for Development attended the World Cocoa Foundation Partnership Meeting in Washington, DC, USA to learn efforts to empower rural farmers with the Ghana Cocoa Certification program. The certification process was established as part of the “Protocol” agreement and with the leadership of U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Representative Eliot Engel (D-NY). It is a transparent and credible process that reports on the incidence of the worst forms of child labor and forced labor in a country’s cocoa sector, and on progress in reducing their incidence. To improve labor practices on cocoa farms, the Government of Ghana, the chocolate/cocoa industry and other stakeholders are undertaking a number of programs. Industry efforts focus on the following four key areas: 1. Ensuring that cocoa is grown responsibly, and that children are not harmed in the process of helping out on the family farm; 2. Improving the economic return from cocoa for smallholder farmers growing this important crop; 3. Strengthening farming communities by addressing such needs as access to quality education; 4. Supporting efforts to protect and enhance the environment in which cocoa farmers grow their crops. Some speakers for the program theme, Sustainable Cocoa Farming, Building Tomorrow's Best Practices Today, include: Dr. Sarah E. Moten of USAID; Isaac Osei, Ghana Cocoa Board; Dr. Rene' Kossa, Ministry of Agriculture Republic of Coted'Ivoire. |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
World Partners for Development
