Millennium Child Support Group

SUSTAINABILITY

SUSTAINABILITY

What is project sustainability?
A project is called sustainable when a continued utilization of its results can be assured after the completion of the project
Child labour in cocoa remains a significant challenge despite extensive efforts to tackle it over the past two decades. While we have made great strides in understanding how to successfully reduce child labour and in implementing activities that have real impact, support currently reaches only a fraction of those in need.
Millennium Child Support Group believe that true sector-wide change will only be possible if we reach 100% coverage of all at-risk children with effective and sustainable systems that prevent and remediate child labour and forced labour.

Estimates suggest that around one in three children living in cocoa-growing areas of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire (which account for more than 65% of global cocoa production) is involved in child labour. This number is of grave concern and all actors in the cocoa sector have a shared responsibility to help vulnerable children access their basic rights. We also know that forced labour is a risk faced by the cocoa sector (albeit at a different, more localized and limited scale) and there are increasing calls on the sector to address it.

Millennium Child Support Group focus on tackling both of these critical issues to help cocoa-growing communities thrive within a dignified, sustainable and responsibly-managed cocoa supply chain.
HIGHLIGHT OF THREE-3 STRATEGY PLAN 
Within our new strategy we highlight three pillars that must be in place if we are to reach all children and adults at risk of child labour and forced labour in the cocoa-growing communities in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.

RESPONSIBLE SUPPLY CHAINS. This means implementing systems and services that responsibly and transparently prevent and remediate child labour and forced labour across the entire cocoa supply chain.
SUPPORTIVE ENABLING ENVIRONMENT. This means national and international policies that inspire, motivate and obligate progress, from due diligence legislation in cocoa consuming countries, to policies that continue to advance access to quality education and social protection in cocoa-producing countries.
COORDINATED APPROACHES. This means that all the many actors who have a critical role to play in helping cocoa-growing communities to thrive, including the cocoa and chocolate industry, civil society, governments and donors, must all work together within a coherent and coordinated system to maximise impact.
Vision to reality – Millennium Child Support Group as a catalyst
Between now and 2025, we aim to positively impact the lives of 1.7 million children living in cocoa-growing areas. We will achieve 25% of the full supply chain coverage required through direct, collaborative action with our members and partners. Millennium Child Support Group influencing efforts will push for the remaining 75% of the full coverage goal, to be committed to and delivered by every member of the  Millennium Child Support Group. To make this a reality, we will focus our energy in three areas:
INNOVATION AND LEARNING: Millennium Child Support Group will continue to trial and evaluate new ways of tackling child and forced labour and will conduct research on root causes, effective policies and promising.

2. TECHNICAL ADVOCACY: Millennium Child Support Group will promote the knowledge and learning it generates, engaging in the development of policies and standards, supporting all stakeholders to align their actions for a more coordinated approach and mobilizing resources to unlock investments required for the scale up of effective solutions.

3. CAPACITY AND SYSTEMS STRENGTHENING: Millennium Child Support Group will provide time-limited operational support to its members and partners to set-up child labour and forced labour prevention and remediation mechanisms that can eventually be sustained without Millennium Child Support Group Support, strengthening national, corporate, civil society and community systems and helping them work together.
TO STOP CHILD LABOUR, FIRST ADDRESS POVERTY

Despite strenuous efforts by governments and companies, child labour remains a persistent problem in supply chains across the world. The two biggest concerns are children doing work that endangers them and for which they are too young. According to the International Labour Organization, there are 73 million children globally in hazardous work, and about 79 million working underage.
The Need for a More Transformative Approach
Millennium Child Support Group in collaborations with Governments, industry, civil society and cocoa-growing communities need a more transformative approach that will scale up programs, recruit more allies and organizations to the cause and accelerate initiatives that fight poverty.
The scaling up will expand existing government and company programs, such as Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation, to make an impact more rapidly. These programs covered about 20% of households in 2019.

Millennium Child Support Group aims to provide 100% coverage by 2025.
The new transformative approach is assembling a public-private partnership with a range of allies to tackle child labour. This will include governments, industry, local communities and development partners such as the U.S., European governments, UNICEF, the International Labour Organization, the International Cocoa Initiative and the World Bank and civil society organizations.
Tackling Poverty Is Key
Millennium Child Support Group looks for new partnership to have a larger range of actions that reflect the complexity and scale of the problem and targets its root causes. Building on the strong national action plans of the governments, the partnership will seek to expand investment in several critical areas, such as achieving an adequate standard of living for cocoa farmers, expanded access to quality education and increased support for child development (including health, nutrition and water and sanitation).
Scaling up existing actions, building broader alliances and planning on a broader range of actions depends on recognizing that child labour is heavily associated with poverty. Only by taking this more direct and comprehensive approach we can ensure today’s generation of children reach their full potential and have a chance at the bright future they deserve.
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