Towards revitalizing WIND activities to strengthen the fight against child labour

Yamoussoukro, April 3-5, 2024 – The ACCEL Africa II and ENACTE projects of the ILO brought together about twenty participants from the Ministry of Employment and Social Protection (MEPS), the National Rural Development Support Agency (ANADER), the Coffee and Cocoa Council, the General Confederation of Enterprises of Côte d'Ivoire (CGECI), cooperatives, and communities to discuss achievements in the implementation of the WIND approach to combat child labour in the cocoa value chain in Côte d’Ivoire.

WIND is a methodology developed by the International Labour Office that helps improve working and living conditions in rural areas by applying Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) principles. The workshop reviewed interventions conducted between 2021 and 2023 as part of the deployment of the WIND approach to combat child labour and improve working conditions in cocoa-producing communities in Côte d’Ivoire.

In total, 135 community actors benefited from capacity building based on the tools of the WIND approach during the period 2021 to 2023. The various actors involved in the implementation of the tool affirmed that the deployment of WIND has contributed, through the approach that primarily targets improving the working and living conditions of the communities, to overcoming the reluctances that generally surround child labour initiatives. Moreover, achievements such as improved stoves and the cocoa pod breaker have positively and significantly changed the working conditions (less strenuous) and living conditions (reduced health risks) with a decreased risk of child labour.

The sharing of experiences also helped to identify the main difficulties faced by the actors, which limited the deployment of WIND. These mainly include the short duration of implementation and monitoring of activities and the low level of ownership and commitment of some peer trainers despite the support provided through income-generating activities (IGA).

Several lessons learned will serve for the resumption of WIND interventions in Côte d’Ivoire. Concrete improvement avenues were also identified, including the introduction of a general module on OSH and Child Labor during training, the involvement of cooperatives and companies in supply chains in implementing interventions, the implementation of activities for the standardization and dissemination of selected champion innovations (cocoa pod breaker and improved stove, etc)

At the end of the workshop, a WIND action plan (May 2024 to May 2025) was developed. Follow-up meetings will be organized with key actors (ANADER, CCC, and MEPS) to finalize and validate this action plan to begin the effective implementation of the WIND revitalization interventions. The awarding of certificates to trainers and peer trainers trained between 2021 and 2023 concluded the workshop.