NPECLC

A Partners’ Forum made up of various institutions and organizations that play various roles in eliminating worst forms of child labour in the cocoa sector has been established. The Forum convenes three times each year to discuss activities and lessons learned, and also make decisions and plans to improve efforts towards achieving the national goal. Each partner organization submits a quarterly report to the NPECLC Secretariat using a basic format.
Organizations that have taken part in the Partners’ Forum include the following:

1. Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD)
2. Participatory Development Associates (PDA)/Yɛn Daakye Project (YDK)
3. Future Resources Development (FURDEV)
4. Sustainable Tree Crop Program (STCP)
5. International Foundation for Education and Self Help (IFESH)
6. General Agriculture Workers Union (GAWU)
7. Child Labour Unit (CLU)
8. Winrock Ghana
9. Employment Information Bureau (EIB)
10. Barry Callebaut
11. Cargill Limited
12. Ghana Education Service (Basic Education Division)

Some partners at the Partners’ Forum in December 2007, discussing the Certification process.		Child Rights International is an NGO Partner of the NPECLC. One of its activities is formation of Child Rights Clubs in schools, to educate and remind children about their rights, and give them civic education. The children above are members of the Child Rights Club formed at Adankrono in the Kwaebibirem District.		Winrock Ghana, a partner of the NPECLC, is implementing child labour elimination programmes in the Sefwi Wiawso District. As a result of their advocacy efforts, the land in the photograph above was donated by the Chief of Suiano for cultivation of an experimental cocoa nursery. Adult community members were captured clearing the land.
The Yɛn Daakye Project (YDK) of the International Cocoa Initiative is represented on the Partners’ Forum by Participatory Development Initiative (PDA), implementing agency of the YDK Project. Community members in Asarekrom, Adansi South District, were captured in the photograph above during a Community Action Planning (CAP) meeting. CAP meetings are designed to involve representatives of all categories of community members – women, men, children, the aged and the disabled.		District Assemblies are key implementing partners of the NPECLC. They develop and implement district-specific action plans for eliminating WFCL. In the districts, there are also District Child Protection Committees, which are chaired in most districts by the District Chief Executive (DCE). Above, the DCE of Kwaebibirem, Hon. Nana Boakye Yiadom (left), and that of Asante Akyem North, Hon. George Frimpong (middle), are shown addressing audiences in their districts on their efforts to eliminate worst forms of child labour; other DCEs and their District Coordinating Directors are shown on the right signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the MMYE to implement their district action plans to eliminate worst forms of child labour in cocoa.