VZCZCXRO0379
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHAB #0056/01 0241809
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 241809Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY ABIDJAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3933
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 ABIDJAN 000056 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT PASS TO USTR, C.HAMILTON 
DEPARTMENT PASS TO CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATIONS OF REP. ENGEL, 
SEN. HARKIN AND SEN. SANDERS 
DOL FOR ILAB TRASA 
TREASURY FOR D.PETERS 
USAID FOR C.GARRETT, S.SWIFT 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV EAGR ECON EAID ELAB OREP IV
SUBJECT: CODEL ENGEL'S VISIT ON CHILD LABOR IN COCOA DRAWS 
HEAVY ATTENTION; GOVERNMENT OFFERS NEW IDEAS FOR ENHANCING 
AND EXTENDING THE ACCORD 
 
REF: SECSTATE 001010 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Summary.  Representative Engel, Senator Harkin and 
Senator Sanders met with President Gbagbo, Prime Minister 
Soro and key government ministers to discuss the 
implementation of the Harkin Engel Protocol, a key element of 
which is the July 1, 2008 deadline, which aims to put in 
place a child labor monitoring system covering 50 percent of 
Cote d'Ivoire's cocoa growing region.  The delegation also 
held a stakeholders roundtable and a meeting with 
representatives of international cocoa processors, and later 
visited a representative cocoa-growing village to see first 
hand some of the factors contributing to the persistence of 
child labor in cocoa production.  During the meetings with 
the Prime Minister and President, along with the stakeholders 
roundtable, the government presented the general outlines of 
a proposal to extend the Protocol by channeling more of the 
currently independent efforts through the national plan, 
providing more resources by industry, and incorporating more 
liberalization of the cocoa industry so that farmers capture 
more income generated by cocoa exports.  End Summary. 
 
CODEL Engel Meets Prime Minister Soro, Ministers of 
Agriculture, Labor and Family Affairs 
--------- 
¶2.  (SBU)  On January 8, CODEL Engel met with Prime Minister 
Soro and the Ministers of Agriculture, Labor and Family 
Affairs, and discussed the government's actions to date to 
implement the Harkin-Engel Protocol, what steps remain to be 
taken, and the means necessary to achieve objectives with 
which all stakeholders agree.  Prime Minister Soro, having 
just arrived from a taxing journey to Bouake, the country's 
second largest city and zone of recent unrest within his 
"Forces Nouvelles" faction, saluted the will of his 
government and its partners in the international chocolate 
industry to make strides in this important endeavor. 
Touching on the importance of 2008, Soro noted it will be a 
year of elections and a definitive end to the ongoing 
political crisis, as well as the year in which the 
Harkin/Engel Protocol deadline of July 1 will fall.  Soro 
noted cocoa's importance to the national economy, and said 
the country's government cannot hide from the reality that 
child labor in the sector remains a problem.  He pointed to 
governmental efforts, such as distribution of school "kits" 
to encourage school attendance in lieu of working in the 
fields.  Soro stated strongly that Cote d'Ivoire is "not a 
country of slavers," in underscoring his position that while 
child labor lamentably still exists, child slavery is not 
tolerated. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Representative Engel said that the delegation came 
"not to judge," but out of genuine concern and desire to see 
how the Protocol was being implemented on the ground. 
Senator Harkin underscored Engel's statement, saying that 
"together, we can lift children out of abusive situations" 
and that "we are committed to the Protocol."  Senator Harkin 
recalled his own family history in discussing child labor, 
noting his own hard work on his family's farm as a child, but 
drew the distinction between permissible forms of child labor 
and those targeted by ILO 182, which both the U.S. and Cote 
d'Ivoire have signed.  Preempting the question of a boycott 
on Ivorian cocoa, Harkin told the Ivorian government that the 
American people increasingly want to know from where and 
under what conditions products they consume are produced, and 
that they will not tolerate knowing such products are made 
using labor that abuses children.  Harkin asked how quickly 
Cote d'Ivoire would be able to set up a child labor 
monitoring system covering 100 percent of the country's 
cocoa-growing regions after meeting the 50 percent threshold, 
and suggested U.S. consumers would be pleased if that could 
be accomplished in the months that follow July.  Senator 
Sanders, echoing Harkin's words, discussed how globalization 
marches hand in hand with the insistence by consumers on 
knowing the conditions in which products they consume are 
made, and reminded the Prime Minister about the 2007 problems 
with Chinese-origin products and foods.  Sanders said that 
the American people would not accept massive corporate 
profits by cocoa-processing companies at the expense of 
children. 
 
 
ABIDJAN 00000056  002 OF 005 
 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Prime Minister Soro said plainly that children 
should go to school instead of working in cocoa fields.  At 
that point, Minister of Labor Hubert Oulaye, a strong ally of 
the President, touched on the reality that the sector 
comprises over 800,000 small farmers.  The Minister said that 
Cote d'Ivoire has signed accords with neighboring countries 
to strengthen joint efforts to halt cross-border trafficking 
in children to work in cocoa fields, but that unfortunately, 
the practice is still widespread.  Pointing to the 
government's financial commitment, the Minister said it had 
spent USD 6 million on a variety of child labor education, 
remediation and monitoring activities, and needs an 
additional USD 2 million from its partners in the chocolate 
industry.  Focusing on rural development, Oulaye said that 
quasi-governmental cocoa structures have invested over USD 40 
million in clinics, wells and road paving using funds raised 
through special taxes (parafiscal charges on cocoa exports). 
Oulaye mentioned key partners in education, mass 
sensitization and detection efforts, specifically naming the 
International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), the German government's 
development agency (GTZ), the USAID/industry-funded 
Sustainable Tree Crop Initiative (STCP) and the U.S.-based 
NGO International Foundation for Education and Self Help 
(IFESH).  Oulaye assessed the efforts by the government and 
its diverse partners by noting the results of the 
government's pilot child labor monitoring project (the 
results of which were published November 30), but also saying 
that "the path towards a full certification system (as called 
for by the Protocol) isn't entirely clear." 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Congressman Engel said that he and Senator Harkin 
had extended the Protocol deadline from July 1, 2005 to 2008 
in light of the political situation in Cote d'Ivoire.  He 
said that punitive legislation would be a last resort, but 
that progress is being made; industry, for example, is no 
longer hostile to the idea of taking responsibility to help 
improve the child labor situation as it had been initially. 
Pointing to the results from the pilot project, Engel 
expressed concerns related to the high number of children 
involved in one or more of the worst forms of child labor. 
For example, 84 percent are used to carry overly heavy loads. 
 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Minister of Agriculture Amadou Gon Coulibaly 
discussed market forces shaping the cocoa sector, noting that 
the price set by the quasi-governmental Cocoa Marketing Board 
(BCC) is merely indicative, not a fixed set price, and said 
that farmers earn weak incomes on average.  He then suggested 
that a bonus paid to farmers who certify that they don't 
engage in child labor could both boost farmer income and end 
the use of child labor.  Such revenues could be used to 
invest in rural development and infrastructure, according to 
Coulibaly. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Senator Harkin raised the subject of industry 
commitment of financial resources to the effort to combat the 
worst forms of child labor, and recalled that it had pledged 
USD 15 million in 2005 to be spent over three years.  Citing 
figures he brought with him, Harkin said that only USD 2 
million has actually been committed.  Breaking down the 
figures even further, Harkin said that ADM had only committed 
USD 150,000, Cargill USD 150,000, Kraft USD 250,000 and Mars 
USD 460,000.  Industry, according to Harkin, would have to 
increase its level of commitment.  The Prime Minister's 
Special Advisor on Child Labor, Ms. Assouan Acquah, said that 
the government of Cote d'Ivoire was unaware of the figures 
cited by Senator Harkin, and unaware of how industry targets 
its resources in the field.  Senators Sanders and Harkin 
remarked how even the Tulane University study examining the 
Protocol's implementation was unable to determine how those 
funds were being used.  Acquah stated that her 
inter-ministerial committee had received USD 140,000 from 
industry to support its efforts to establish the child labor 
monitoring system, and that industry had separately funded 
international consultants to train the trainers, but that the 
government was unaware of how much had been spent on the 
latter effort.  Similarly, Acquah said that industry and 
international government development agencies (GTZ) fund 
child labor efforts in the field, but do so outside of the 
government's coordination and plan. 
 
ABIDJAN 00000056  003 OF 005 
 
 
 
¶8.  (U)  After the meeting with the Prime Minister, the 
delegation was met with heavy media coverage. (Note: Press 
summaries and newspaper and video clips have been sent to the 
Department, the offices of the Congressional delegation and 
other interested agencies via unclassified email.  Contact 
PAO Sharon White, whitesn@state.gov, for further information. 
 End Note) 
 
Codel Engel Holds Stakeholder Roundtable 
----------- 
¶9.  (U)  Codel Engel held a roundtable with Madame Acquah and 
some of her key staff, international NGOs, GTZ, and several 
representatives from the international chocolate industry on 
the afternoon of January 8.  Drawing on themes expressed by 
the delegation with Prime Minister Soro, Senator Harkin said 
that the effort to meet the July 1 deadline for a child labor 
monitoring system covering 50 percent of the cocoa-growing 
regions was a vital component to giving Cote d'Ivoire a 
"certification report card."  That report card, in turn, 
would enable those interested in eventual eradication of 
abusive child labor to tailor effective remediation efforts. 
Senator Sanders reiterated the point that the American people 
would not tolerate exploitation in the production of 
chocolate. 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  Madame Acquah said that the government's 
monitoring system should be in place by March.  Drawing from 
the theme she explored in the meeting with the Prime 
Minister, she said that the diverse efforts of independent 
NGOs and stakeholders should be coordinated, i.e., work under 
the rubric of the national plan.  Otherwise, she said, their 
efforts would be wasteful.  With an effective national plan 
encompassing efforts by all parties, necessary increases in 
resources could achieve substantial results. 
 
¶11.  (U)  GTZ presented its sensitization campaign elements, 
one of the central pillars of its integrated anti-child labor 
program being rolled out in Cote d'Ivoire's cocoa-growing 
belt.  GTZ is working with the central and departmental 
governments to create a network of village anti-trafficking 
committees, each of which is charged with not only detecting 
cases of child trafficking, but spreading the word in each of 
the many ethnic groups resident in each zone that parents 
should avoid the worst forms of child labor when their 
children accompany them to the fields, and should insist that 
children go to school.  In connection with its child labor 
campaign, GTZ provides local-language content to the 
country's network of rural radio stations to reinforce the 
central message. 
 
¶12.  (U)  ICI's representative reported that its 
sensitization campaign is an essential element of its 
strategy.  ICI begins by helping farmers understand the 
definition of children and child labor according to 
international standards (under 18), which contrasts with 
traditional notions which generally identify children as 14 
and under.  ICI's local NGO partner elaborated on this theme, 
noting that generally young people of 12 and 13 who already 
have children (which is common) are considered adults. 
However, ICI's representative said that with proper 
sensitization, communities begin to motivate themselves and 
adopt strategies (such as building schools, even without 
governmental assistance). 
 
¶13.  (SBU)  Congressman Engel asked industry representatives 
for a review of industry's expenditures to date in support of 
ICI.  ICI's representative said that ICI's expenditures in 
2007 were USD 2 million, of which USD 500,000 was spent in 
Cote d'Ivoire.  USD 250,000 was spent to train NGO partners, 
USD 150,000 on NGO sensitization campaigns, and USD 100,000 
to support a local NGO that specializes in removal of 
trafficked children and their repatriation.  In the past, 
according to ICI, there were considerable capacity and 
absorption problems, as governmental and other structures 
lacked sufficient institutional ability to be able to handle 
more than modest infusions of resources.  Those capacity 
problems are largely solved, and ICI will be able to 
substantially ramp up its activities.  An industry 
representative, responding to the same question from Engel, 
 
ABIDJAN 00000056  004 OF 005 
 
 
echoed ICI in saying a ramp-up in industry resource provision 
is now possible and expected.  He also said that industry 
commits resources to the effort outside of the ICI framework, 
but acknowledged industry needs to be more transparent in its 
engagement.  Senator Harkin asked if industry can better 
coordinate its efforts with those of the government, while 
Senator Sanders remarked that for multi-billion dollar 
companies, the resources committed to date are paltry. 
Industry's representative again acknowledged industry can and 
will do more. 
 
¶14.  (U)  The International Organization of Migration 
representative discussed trafficking and reported that in 
late November 2007 in the western region around Guiglo, 21 
trafficked children from Burkina Faso were intercepted by 
police trained by IOM.  Those children were turned over to 
the proper authorities.  Despite this and other successes, 
IOM said that problems remain.  Specifically, the government 
must do more to provide services to "campements," often 
located far away from established, legally-recognized 
villages and which are home to large populations of 
non-indigenous ethnic groups and their unschooled children. 
 
Codel Meets Privately with Industry 
---------- 
¶15.  (SBU)  The delegation met local representatives from 
Cargill, ADM and Barry Callabout, as well as two 
representatives from the international cocoa industry group 
(GIG) at a small dinner hosted by the Ambassador.  While 
quickly recognizing their companies and the industry as a 
whole can and must do more, industry representatives reported 
that their organizations are already active in individual, 
company-level child-labor sensitizing campaigns with their 
suppliers, but that they cannot, by law, engage in activities 
beyond those, such as monitoring and reinsertion. Industry 
representatives also said that heavy taxation, in addition to 
legal prohibitions on their direct engagement with cocoa 
farmers, results in markedly lower revenues per kilo for 
Ivorian farmers in comparison to their Ghanaian counterparts. 
 
Codel Meets with President Gbagbo 
---------- 
¶16.  (SBU)  The delegation met with President Laurent Gbagbo 
in the evening of January 8.  Senator Harkin told the 
President that the delegation comes in friendship, in an 
effort to help Cote d'Ivoire extract children from slavery 
and abusive labor situations.  Congressman Engel recalled the 
history of the Protocol, and underscored the responsibility 
of the American people and American chocolate industry to 
eradicate abusive child labor.  Senator Sanders remarked that 
the growing consciousness of how and by whom products are 
made will inevitably lead to demands for assurances from the 
major cocoa processors that cocoa is produced using morally 
acceptable labor. 
 
¶17.  (SBU)  President Gbagbo said unequivocally that the 
place for children is in school - not in factories, not on 
the farm, but in school.  He related that his campaign in 
2000 called for free school for all, and that the events of 
2002 interrupted efforts to implement the concept.  With a 
renewed mandate in the upcoming 2008 elections, the President 
said he would fulfill the promise.  In 10 years, he opined, 
all children would be in school, from 6 to 16 or even 18 
years of age.  Turning to cocoa and child farm labor, 
President Gbagbo said the country has to replace the old 
traditions with new ones, ones more related to school, even 
for children intending to take up farming as a profession. 
 
¶18.  (SBU)  Gbagbo proposed signing a new protocol on child 
labor in the cocoa sector, and noted that a draft was being 
prepared by his cabinet and staff.  That protocol would 
extend beyond July 1, 2008, and include elements of greater 
collaboration under the rubric of the national plan as well 
as overall reform in the cocoa sector.  President Gbagbo said 
that Ambassador Charles Koffi and Ambassador Nesbitt could 
work together as intermediaries with Senators and Congressmen 
involved in the issue to negotiate such an accord in the 
coming months. 
 
¶19.  (SBU)  Senator Sanders asked President Gbagbo why cocoa 
 
ABIDJAN 00000056  005 OF 005 
 
 
farmers in Ghana and elsewhere earn more per kilo than do 
Ivorian farmers.  The President said candidly that the system 
put into place during the recent liberalization (which began 
in 1999 and continued through the beginning of his presidency 
in 2000) has not produced good results.  Middlemen, according 
to the President, interfere too much in the relationship 
between international buyers/exporters and farmers, 
depressing the prices the latter receive.  The more liberal 
"English" model seen in Ghana, according to the President, 
emphasizes the independence of co-operatives in negotiating 
prices, all to the benefit of individual farmers. 
Introducing elements of this more liberalized system could be 
part of the new Protocol, according to President Gbagbo. 
Congressman Engel and the rest of the delegation agreed this 
and other aspects of the child labor question could be part 
of the negotiations to be facilitated by the countries 
Ambassadors. 
 
Codel Visits Cocoa Farming Community of Kouamekro 
---------- 
¶20.  (U)  The delegation visited the region of Kouamekro on 
January 9.  Meeting village leaders who represent different 
ethnic groups in the community, the delegation saw first hand 
how the lack of government schools, health care and access to 
potable water affects cocoa-growing communities and 
frustrates efforts to encourage schooling instead of cocoa 
farming among children.  ICI showed its programs in action in 
the village, notably the school it has helped the community 
build, needed as the nearest government school is over 10 km 
away over a poorly maintained dirt road.  (The visit was the 
subject of substantial press attention, and clips have been 
sent to the Department, the offices of the Congressional 
delegation and other interested agencies via unclassified 
email) 
 
¶21.  (SBU)  Comment:  The visit of Codel Engel provided the 
government an opportunity to showcase its efforts to 
implement the Harkin Engel Protocol, as well as make its case 
that it is ready for greater industry engagement, channeled 
through its national plan.  Industry, for its part, indicated 
it can and will provide more assistance, and should be more 
transparent in its operations.  The proposed new Protocol is 
an intriguing concept that encompasses elements of the child 
labor problem as well as the need for overall reform of the 
cocoa sector.  Embassy Abidjan stands ready to facilitate 
continued dialogue on these questions.  End Comment. 
 
Codel Engel has seen and approved this cable. 
AKUETTEH