Following reports of serious issues in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana’s cocoa supply chains, the EU and the US Labor Department have both announced financial aid to help the two countries.

 The US Department of Labor, in a response to the NORC’s recent report into child labour in cocoa-producing regions of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, has awarded $8m in grants to engage cooperatives to help fight the problem of child labour abuses in the cocoa sector.

 The independent research organisation, affiliated with the University of Chicago, revealed that child labour in the two countries remains a significant problem, in the study which was also co-funded by the Department of Labor. 

Abdullahi Hassan reports.