Embassy Newscentre
Embassy News
Visit of the U.S. Congressional delegation to Côte d’Ivoire
Today, January 9, a U.S. Congressional delegation, consisting of U.S. Representative Eliot Engel, and Senators Thomas Harkin and Bernard Sanders concluded a two-day trip to Cote d'Ivoire to see first hand how stakeholders are implementing the Harkin-Engel Protocol. During the visit, the delegation had the opportunity to visit a typical cocoa-producing community (Kouamekro, near Tiassalé and Divo in the Sud-Bandama Department) and engage in a dialogue with cocoa producing families and assess the assistance given to the village by the ICI, the International Cocoa Initiative, a foundation created under the protocol.
The delegation underscored the importance the American people place on ensuring that the chocolate eaten by the world's children is not produced by using abusive child labor. The delegation saw first hand some of the challenges cocoa-growing communities face, such as inadequate access to schools and health facilities and weak prices paid to farmers for their cocoa, and communicated these concerns and their link to the persistence of the worst forms of child labor in cocoa production to the country's senior leadership, including President Gbagbo and Prime Minister Soro.
The delegation also appreciated the progress made on the ground by all stakeholders (government, industry and NGOs.) The delegation met with cocoa industry representatives and leaders of non-governmental organizations involved in the effort to eliminate the worst forms of child labor, and heard their commitment to continue progress as the deadline for implementation of the protocol is July 1, 2008.
The trip was extremely useful to the delegation because it allowed the members to obtain a greater understanding of the situation on the ground. The delegation looks forward to further cooperation with all stakeholders in Cote d’Ivoire on the implementation of the Harkin-Engel Protocol to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in the cocoa sector.
