The International Cocoa Initiative recently hosted a webinar onpublic–private collaboration to address child labor in the cocoa sector.
The panel featured:
- Benjamin Silué (Ministry of Labour & Social Protection, Côte d’Ivoire)
- Paul Koffi Agenor (ILO / ACCEL Africa)
- Sabina Vigani (CLEF coalition)
Panelists shared first-hand experiences of cross-sector collaboration, highlighting that while such partnerships are challenging to establish, they are essential to tackling complex issues such as child labor and limited access to quality education.
Speaking on behalf of the CLEF coalition, which brings together the Government of Côte d’Ivoire and 16 cocoa and chocolate companies, Sabina Vigani explained how collaboration among CLEF partners has evolved beyond pooling funds. For example, several companies now share data from their child labor monitoring and remediation systems with the Ministry of National Education. This approach enables more precise targeting of communities where CLEF establishes bridging classes—accelerated learning programs that help out-of-school children transition into formal schooling. She emphasized that genuine multistakeholder partnerships require both a significant mindset shift – from short-term project to long-term patient effort – and openness to different institutional cultures.
If you would like to watch the video in EN, please click on the following link https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/mcZascRbSplb7lj4itIdm4lChcVv27Eci-PgwbIDcPhBuVSJIKdGNOOGLkjsXO_E. naSG2pAWFNpMeZ3r and enter the password G=076xi*
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CLEF is a commitment to:
- Get more children into school.
- Make sure children learn at school.
- Achieve impact at scale; we want to make a difference in the lives of more than 4 million children by 2027.
CLEF funds school infrastructure and childcare facilities, supports teacher training in evidence-based pedagogical techniques, promotes behavior change so parents engage in their children’s education and apply good parenting practices to boost early childhood development, and tests a cutting-edge school nutrition program.
CLEF welcomes new partners: contact us to learn more about the initiative and to get involved.
