Driving action on child labour with a grant to ActionAid
20 March 2026
Support from the CIPS Foundation is helping to make a positive impact on the lives and education of children as young as five who are caught up in Ghana’s cocoa industry
The CIPS Foundation is funding ActionAid on an initiative that will address the problem of child labour in two cocoa-producing areas of Ghana. The project aims to help the Ghanaian government enforce its National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights and deliver a 20% reduction in child labour in cocoa-growing areas.
The effects of child labour are severe. Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, which collectively produce nearly 60% of the world’s cocoa, have recently been at the centre of global campaigns against child labour. A study undertaken in 2020 by the University of Chicago, found that approximately 1.56 million children were involved in child labour in the cocoa -growing regions of these two countries.
In Ghana, the prevalence of child labour among children aged 5–17 in cocoa-growing areas was over 55%, with many children combining school attendance with intensive labour on family farms. Key drivers of child labour include poverty, limited access to quality education, weak social protection systems, and a lack of accountability by corporate actors along the cocoa value chain.
As well as affecting children’s education, there are also significant implications for the children’s health and wellbeing. They use sharp tools with no training, carry heavy loads and use aggressive agrochemicals with long-term health effects.
A new national initiative
- This makes the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights (NAP-BHR) an important initiative. It was launched in July 2025 and covers a number of key areas that directly affect child labour.
- Existing laws are to be amended to make sure that businesses are compliant with human rights standards
- Companies will be obliged to perform human rights checks on other companies, subcontractors and suppliers
- A renewed focus on promoting children’s rights as well as safe working conditions
- An accountability mechanism will be set up that provides justice for victims of business-related human rights abuses, with companies held responsible
Translating policy into action
This year long project takes place inthe Bono and Ahafo regions of Ghana. These regions have a particularly severe incidence of child labour and are where ActionAid can create a targeted impact. There are several, targeted provisions.
- It will reactivate and train 16 Community Based Anti-Violent Teams. These are community-based groups who identify and report child labour cases. They are a key part of the child protection system.
- Child rights and protection awareness campaigns will target 2,400 community members including parents, leaders and farmers. Using the radio will extend the reach of this to 60,000 people.
- Child labour prevention and responsible sourcing training will be delivered to 320 cocoa farmers and 16 cooperatives.
- School-based child protection clubs will reach 2,880 students and make them feel able to speak out.
- Four district child protection committees and social welfare departments will be given help to improve their referral systems.
Outreach with a message
This means that the CIPS-funded outreach to community and religious leaders will become even more important over the coming months. And it will be backed with the promotion of ways to reduce economic reliance on child labour by finding alternative sources of income.
There will be awareness-raising with six media outlets as well as sessions to be held with international cocoa companies that can put pressure on officials and companies to act. With a multi-stakeholder coalition on business and human rights monitoring the implementation of NAP-BHR and a national forum, CIPS Foundation funding is helping ActionAid to drive positive change.
Each method of promotion will be backed by a system of monitoring that pays careful attention to its effectiveness. More importantly, it is hoped that renewed focus on the brutality of child labour will bring about a cocoa sector that is, in the words, of ActionAid, ‘just inclusive and rights-focused'.
We look forward to seeing the impact that this initiative has on the lives of young Ghanaians and its contribution to embedding ethics in the heart of procurement.
"This partnership with CIPS Foundation comes at a critical moment, enabling ActionAid to turn Ghanaian national commitments on business and human rights into real protection for children in cocoa-growing communities, strengthening local child protection systems and ensuring that progress toward a child-labour-free cocoa sector happens now, when it is needed most."
John Nkaw, Country Director, ActionAid Ghana
"Child labour is hugely damaging. It prevents young people from realising their true potential Action Aid are taking targeted action against it in an area of Ghana where this problem has become particularly pressing. Community initiatives, national initiatives and media campaigns will help to slowly challenge the attitudes behind it and transform futures.”
Ben Farrell, CEO of CIPS
