Business Handbook on Due Diligence in the Cocoa Sector

Reaching scale and impact to address child labour and forced labour through collaboration

Abstract

This final chapter explores how companies in the cocoa sector can use collaborative initiatives to support their due diligence efforts and drive systemic change across the sector.

Responsible business conduct and collaborative action in the cocoa sector

Collaboration in implementing due diligence

Industry and multi-stakeholder initiatives can support and strengthen a company’s efforts to implement due diligence – whether in developing policies, assessing human rights impacts, or tracking progress at a sectoral level. Such collaboration can pool information on human rights risks and impacts, help increase leverage and scale‑up effective measures. It can also increase sector transparency and enable cost-sharing and savings. However, collaboration does not replace the individual company’s responsibility to conduct due diligence and identify, prevent and address human rights risks and impacts such as child labour and forced labour.

Collaboration to address systemic challenges for human rights in the cocoa sector

Collaborative approaches are a good way to address root causes and systemic issues and can be supported through:

• Engagement with governments: Governments are the key actors to address child labour and forced labour in the cocoa sector. Companies can support government and community efforts by improving supply chain transparency and collaborating on mitigation and remediation efforts. Companies can also engage with regional or national governments to promote laws, policies and measures driving responsible business conduct or the enforcement of laws and regulations.

• Pooling information and developing shared data systems: Collaboration with other companies for example can support the development of credible and accessible sources of data on child labour and forced labour in the cocoa sector and its root causes. Making data transparent by participating in public data repositories can strengthen collective knowledge on the issue to effect broader change.

• Learning from and building on existing initiatives: Collaborating with other businesses, civil society organisations, governments, international organisations and other stakeholders active in fighting child labour and forced labour can avoid duplication and fragmentation of efforts. Companies can for example consider participating in international efforts to promote child and forced labour free supply chains such as the ILO’s Child Labour Platform and Global Business Network on Forced Labour, and ICI. Collaboration can also support co‑ordinating different company efforts on CLMRS and help strengthen and improve effectiveness of national systems (UNICEF, 2022[21]).

• Engaging with children, child rights groups and forced labour experts: Children and their representatives, as well as representatives of victims of forced labour are a separate and important group to improve a company’s own quality of analysis and understanding by filling information gaps and identifying issues that may have been missed by other stakeholders – notably on causes of child labour or forced labour in a given region.

• Collaborating across sectors: Collaborating across different sectors (i.e. beyond the cocoa sector) can scale‑up effective prevention and mitigation measures and ensure that sector-wide efforts to eliminate child labour and forced labour do not drive children to work in other sectors such other agricultural sectors, artisanal mining, the garment/textile sector or the sex trade.

• Using a landscape approach: A landscape approach involve all relevant parties in a given geographic area, such as other companies, civil society organisations, international organisations, national and regional government agencies and multi-stakeholder organisations. They can help address child labour in combination with other related issues such as education, health, water and sanitation and other child protection measures.