Child Labor
Child labor in cocoa farming is a widespread and complex issue that is deeply rooted in poverty, lack of awareness, a shortage of adult labor and missing educational facilities in cocoa villages. Children’s vulnerability puts them under increased risk of exploitation for labor. Lindt & Sprüngli strongly condemns all forms of child labor and tackling child labor has a priority for us. We are fully engaged in working to sontinously enhance the effectiveness of our system in order to adress the risk in our cocoa supply chain and beyond.
With our cocoa sustainability program, the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program, we aim to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farming households and their communities and thereby reduce the risk of child labor. In 2022, 67% of cocoa bean equivalents were sourced through sustainability programs, including 100% of cocoa beans. We maintain our commitment and continue working hard to constantly improve our cocoa supply chain and the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program. Lindt & Sprüngli cocoa suppliers who are implementing the Farming Program are expected to effectively protect children's rights along the supply chain. Through the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program, our partners on the ground implement specific measures striving to prevent, monitor, and remediate child labor in at-risk countries (also called Child Labor Monitoring & Remediation System CLMRS). These measures include training and awareness-raising, identifying prohibited child labor, and various measures for prevention and remediation of child labor, such as investments in community infrastructure like building of schools or water boreholes, setting up Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLAs), or promoting income diversification activities. Our target is that 100% of cocoa from child labor risk countries will be sourced from farming households covered ba a CLMRS.
We developed our own CLMRS guidance in 2021: the Community Child Protection System (CCPS) describes our prevention, monitoring and remediation approach to child labor in more detail. In 2022, we implemented our approach for the first time in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Other countries of origin will follow step by step.
Child labor is a persistant and complex challange that requires intense, continous, and collaborative efforts from all stakeholders active in the cocoa sector. To strengthen our collective action on child labor prevention, we joined the Child Learning and Education Facility (CLEF), a partnership between the Ivorian government, cocoa and chocolate industry companies, and philanthropic partners aiming to tackle the root causes of child labor and improve the quality of education through a systemic approach in Côte d’Ivoire. Joining CLEF includes a financial commitment to invest 1.25 million CHF into the initiative.
