About 30% of the population of Ghana consists in persons aged less than 15 years, according to the Ghana National Population Census (2000). With this high proportion of children making up the population, meeting their needs forms a major part of national planning and action, with the goal of developing an efficient human resource cohort for the future. Their basic needs include education, health care, protection from all forms of hazard, and role modeling.
There are several laws that provide for the development and protection of children. Notable among these laws are The Children’s Act of Ghana (Act 560, 1998), Domestic Violence Act (Act 732, 2006) and Human Trafficking Act (Act 694, 2005). The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) ensures that all residents in Ghana, including children, obtain healthcare at any time that such care is needed. Education in Ghana is compulsory for all children aged less than 15, in accordance with the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (F-CUBE) Policy. The Children’s Act provides for the protection of children from general harm and hazard, while the Domestic Violence Act protects children from harm within the domestic setting. 
The National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS), which was launched in 2007, ensures that the basic needs of the poorest of the Ghanaian population are provided by the state, while lifting them from the state of extreme poverty onto a path of development. Children are considered a very important part of the population that benefits from national social protection interventions, considering that parental poverty leads automatically to child poverty.
A key intervention in social protection is elimination of child labour. The Ghana Child Labour Survey (2005) reveals that 57% of children engaged in Ghana work in the agricultural sector, which includes cocoa farming. The National Plan of Action on Elimination of Child Labour has been drafted to provide a clear direction towards elimination of all forms of child labour. The Government of Ghana created the National Programme for the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour in Cocoa (NPECLC) as one of the prototype interventions to deal with child labour in Ghana.
The NPECLC
The NPECLC is a programme instituted by the Government of Ghana to deal with the problem of worst forms of child labour in Ghana’s cocoa sector. The programme is being implemented under the auspices of the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment. The NPECLC was created in August 2006 in response to agitations in foreign countries about the use of child slave labour in the production of cocoa in West Africa.
In 2001, there were strong agitations on the international media front, especially in the USA and the UK about child exploitation in the cocoa industry in Ivory Coast and, by association and proximity, Ghana. There were threats by some consumers to boycott chocolates as a result of child labour. The governments of these countries also threatened to discontinue purchasing cocoa from West Africa. This was a matter of grave concern to the Republic of Ghana, considering that cocoa contributes over 30% of Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product.
In 2001, the Protocol for the Growing and Processing of Cocoa Beans and their Derivative Products in a Manner that complies with ILO Convention 182 Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour was developed by the cocoa industry. It was a voluntary protocol, signed by Mr. William Guyton, President of the World Cocoa Foundation, and Mr. Larry Graham, President of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association. The protocol was witnessed by nine persons, including Congressman Eliot Engel of New York, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, Senator Herbert Kohl of Wisconsin, Ambassador Youssoufou Bamba of the Ivory Coast, and Frans Roselaers, Director of ILO/IPEC. The protocol is commonly referred to as the Harkin-Engel Protocol.
The Harkin-Engel Protocol requires cocoa producing countries to develop a certification system towards elimination of worst forms of child labour in the cocoa sector. the countries are also required to present a certification report to show the effort that the country is putting into eliminating worst forms of child labour in cocoa production. The initial deadline for submission of the certification report was July 1, 2005. The deadline was reviewed to July 1, 2008.
The NPECLC is therefore leading national efforts to meet the contents of the Harkin-Engel Protocol to save Ghana’s economy which relies heavily on cocoa exports. Though prompted by the Harkin-Engel Protocol, this is a national programme, implemented and monitored by the Government of Ghana and supported by organizations including Ghana Cocoa Board, World Cocoa Foundation, UNICEF, the Danish Embassy and International Cocoa Initiative. The NPECLC fits within the framework of the National Plan of Action for Elimination of Child Labour. Lessons from the NPECLC will be applied to other sectors of the economy to completely eliminate worst forms of child labour in Ghana.
