2007 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor - Ghana

Selected Statistics and Indicators on Child Labor1395
Working children, 5-14 years (%), 2000:	24.2
Working boys, 5-14 years (%), 2000:	24.5
Working girls, 5-14 years (%), 2000:	24
Working children by sector, 5-14 years (%), 2000:
– Agriculture	71
– Manufacturing	5.8
– Services	22.6
– Other	0.6
Minimum age for work:	15
Compulsory education age:	14
Free public education:	Yes*
Gross primary enrollment rate (%), 2006:	92
Net primary enrollment rate (%), 2006:	64
School attendance, children 5-14 years (%), 2000:	80
Survival rate to grade 5 (%), 2002:	63
ILO-IPEC participating country:	Yes
* Must pay for miscellaneous school expenses.

Incidence and Nature of Child Labor

In rural areas of Ghana, children work in commercial agriculture,¹³⁹⁶ including on cocoa farms.¹³⁹⁷ Children, including girls, are also engaged in quarrying and small-scale mining activities, including extraction, transportation, and processing.¹³⁹⁸ The fishing industry on Lake Volta employs many children in hazardous work, such as deep sea diving and casting and drawing nets.¹³⁹⁹ Girls work in domestic service for fishermen in the Lake Volta area of Yeji.¹⁴⁰⁰

In urban centers, children work in the informal economy in such activities as transportation, restaurant work, street vending, and petty trading.¹⁴⁰¹ Many girls work as head porters ("kayaye") in urban areas such as Accra, Kumasi, and Takoradi. These girls often live on the streets and are especially vulnerable to being exploited in prostitution.¹⁴⁰² Children in Ghana are also engaged in commercial sexual exploitation, including in the tourist destinations of Elmina and Cape Coast.¹⁴⁰³

According to a 2002 study carried out by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, and Nigeria, the majority of children in the cocoa sector work alongside their families on farms owned by immediate or extended relatives.¹⁴⁰⁴ According to the IITA study, approximately one-third of children who live in cocoa-producing households have never attended school. Children working on cocoa farms are at risk of being involved in hazardous tasks, such as carrying heavy loads, spraying pesticides without protection, using machetes to clear undergrowth, and burning vegetation.¹⁴⁰⁵ In 2007, a pilot study carried out by the Government of Ghana in 6 cocoa-growing districts substantiated many of the findings of the 2002 IITA study.¹⁴⁰⁶

Some children are involved in Trokosi, a religious practice indigenous to the southern Volta region, which involves pledging children to atone for family members' sins by assisting with prayers and the upkeep of religious shrines. During their period of atonement, which can last from a few months to 3 years, Trokosis may live near their shrines of service with members of their extended family.¹⁴⁰⁷ Opinions differ on whether trokosi constitutes forced or ritual servitude, which is banned under the law,¹⁴⁰⁸ but Ghana's Ministry of Manpower, Youth, and Development and the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) have stated that the Trokosi system does represent ritual servitude.¹⁴⁰⁹

Ghana is a source, transit, and destination country for child trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.¹⁴¹⁰ Ghanaian children are trafficked to Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Nigeria, The Gambia, and Equatorial Guinea for labor exploitation.¹⁴¹¹ Children from Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria are trafficked to Ghana for forced labor in domestic service and commercial sexual exploitation.¹⁴¹² Children are also trafficked to Ghana from Burkina Faso.¹⁴¹³

The internal trafficking of children is also a problem. Within Ghana, children are trafficked for forced labor in fishing, agriculture, mining, quarrying, portering, street vending, truck pushing, domestic service, and commercial sexual exploitation.¹⁴¹⁴ The IOM estimates that thousands of children have been trafficked internally to work in the fishing villages surrounding Lake Volta.¹⁴¹⁵ The common cultural practice of "adoption," whereby impoverished parents send their children to live with more affluent relatives and family friends, has contributed to the problem of child trafficking in Ghana.¹⁴¹⁶

Child Labor Laws and Enforcement

Ghanaian law sets the minimum age for employment at 15 years, and at 13 years for light work. Light work is defined as work that is not harmful to the health or development of a child and does not affect the child's attendance or ability to benefit from school.¹⁴¹⁷ The law stipulates that children 15 years and older, or children who have completed basic education, can work as apprentices if the craftsman provides food, training, and a safe and healthy work environment. Children under 18 years may not engage in night work between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. The law prohibits persons under 18 years from engaging in hazardous labor, which includes work in mines or quarries; at sea; in bars, hotels, or places of entertainment; in manufacturing that involves chemicals; in places that operate machinery; or in any job that involves carrying heavy loads.¹⁴¹⁸ Employers who violate any of the above provisions regulating children's employment, with the exception of those related to apprenticeships, are subject to a fine and/or 2 years of imprisonment. Employers who operate in the formal sector must keep a register with the dates of birth or apparent ages of the children they employ; failure to keep this register is punishable by a fine.¹⁴¹⁹

The law prohibits forced or bonded labor.¹⁴²⁰ Ritual servitude is illegal in Ghana and is punishable by 3 years of imprisonment.¹⁴²¹ The law prohibits persons with custody, charge, or care of a child under 16 years from encouraging or causing that child to become involved in prostitution.¹⁴²² It is a misdemeanor to procure females under 21 years, except "known prostitutes," for prostitution.¹⁴²³ Sexual relations with a girl under 14 years is against the law and is punishable by imprisonment of 1 to 10 years.¹⁴²⁴ The law also prohibits forced child prostitution.¹⁴²⁵ Ghanaian law contains specific provisions against trafficking in persons, providing another person for trafficking, and using a trafficked person. Each of these offenses carries a penalty of at least 5 years of imprisonment.¹⁴²⁶ The law mandates that police officers respond to all requests for assistance from trafficking and offer protection to persons who report cases of alleged trafficking, even if such a person is not the victim. The law provides for the rescue, temporary shelter and care, counseling, family tracing, and rehabilitation of victims of trafficking; it also establishes a Human Trafficking Fund to assist victims.¹⁴²⁷ The law also prohibits children from transporting illicit drugs.¹⁴²⁸ The minimum age for military recruitment is 18 years, and there is no conscription.¹⁴²⁹

The Inspectorate of the Ministry of Manpower, Youth, and Employment (MMYE) is responsible for enforcing child labor laws and providing employers with information about child labor laws.¹⁴³⁰ District labor officers and other district officials are responsible for conducting annual workplace inspections and investigating allegations of violations. The Government received four cases of child labor violations in 2007, but made no prosecutions. Inspections were limited mainly to the formal sector, although most working children are found in the informal sector.¹⁴³¹ According to the U.S. Department of State, enforcement of child labor laws in Ghana was inconsistent and ineffective.¹⁴³²

The Ghana Police Service investigated eight cases of child trafficking between January and September of 2007.¹⁴³³ The Government's first conviction under the 2005 Human Trafficking Act was obtained in 2007.¹⁴³⁴ In another case, a father was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for attempting to traffic his son out of the country. An investigation by Interpol is still ongoing in the case of a group of children who were trafficked to Guinea, in which one child died.¹⁴³⁵ In 2007, the Ministry of Women and Children issued a press statement indicating that the Government will be stepping up its efforts to enforce this trafficking law.¹⁴³⁶ The Domestic Violence Victim Support Unit of the police is responsible for enforcing anti-trafficking laws. The Ministry of Manpower, Youth, and Employment's Department of Social Welfare is responsible for providing assistance to trafficking victims.¹⁴³⁷

Ghana was 1 of 24 countries to adopt the Multilateral Cooperation Agreement to Combat Trafficking in Persons and the Joint Plan of Action against Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children in West and Central African Regions.¹⁴³⁸ As part of the Multilateral Cooperation Agreement, the governments agreed to use the child trafficking monitoring system developed by the USDOL-funded ILO-IPEC LUTRENA project; to assist each other in the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of trafficking offenders; and to protect, rehabilitate, and reintegrate trafficking victims.¹⁴³⁹

Current Government Policies and Programs to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor

According to Tulane University, the Governments of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire have taken steps towards implementing agreements under the Harkin-Engel Protocol, by creating task forces and developing national action plans to combat exploitive child labor in the cocoa sector, and commencing child labor surveys in the cocoa sector.¹⁴⁴⁰ (For more information on the Harkin-Engel Protocol, please see the Glossary.) In addition, members of the Governments of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire participate in the International Cocoa Verification Board (ICVB), which was created by Verité, Inc. in December 2007, with funding from the international cocoa industry, in order to strengthen remediation efforts, improve national surveys, and work towards verification. Plans for verification include two phases, the first verifying methodology and data of surveys and the second improving the linkage between information collected and efforts to remediate the worst forms of child labor in the cocoa sector.¹⁴⁴¹

The Government of Ghana included child labor as a problem to be addressed in its Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy for 2006 through 2009 (GPRS II), indicating that priority will be given to special programs to combat the worst forms of child labor, including commercial sexual exploitation and child trafficking.¹⁴⁴² The Government of Ghana, with assistance from ILOIPEC, included child labor concerns in the National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS) that it developed in 2007 as part of GPRS II. The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, a cash transfer program for families, is one component of the NSPS, and it includes child labor as one of the selection criteria for families to receive assistance.¹⁴⁴³ The Government's National Policy Guidelines on Orphans and Other Children Made Vulnerable by HIV/AIDS includes children engaged in the worst forms of child labor and street children as target groups.¹⁴⁴⁴

The Government of Ghana continued to implement its 5-year National Program for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor in the Cocoa Sector (NPECLC), which is a component of the Government of Ghana's National Timebound Program for Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labor. The objective of the national cocoa sector program is to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in cocoa production by 2011 and contribute to the elimination of other worst forms of child labor by 2015.¹⁴⁴⁵ The program will scale-up the child labor monitoring system (CLMS) developed under the USDOL-funded West Africa Cocoa/Commercial Agriculture Program to Combat Hazardous and Exploitative Child Labor (WACAP).¹⁴⁴⁶ The program is funded by the Government, cocoa industry partners, and multilateral and bilateral donors; implementation is overseen by the MMYE.¹⁴⁴⁷ As part of the NPECLC, the MMYE conducted a pilot survey of child labor in cocoa in six cocoa-growing districts of Ghana and released its report in April 2007.¹⁴⁴⁸

In 2007, the Government, under NPECLC, worked to build the capacity of government officials and civil society on the issues of child labor, international laws, and child protection, particularly as they relate to the cocoa sector.¹⁴⁴⁹ District and community-level Child Protection Committees have been established and charged with developing child labor action plans, monitoring children, investigating cases of children engaged in child labor, and assisting in addressing such cases. The MMYE signed MOUs with 11 district assemblies to implement their actions plans for eliminating child labor in 2007. Also, Child Labor Desks have been set up at COCOBOD headquarters and regional offices to monitor the worst forms of child labor in cocoa and, with other partners, to intervene in such cases. In 2007, COCOBOD conducted awareness-raising campaigns in many cocoa-growing areas through weekly radio programs.¹⁴⁵⁰

The Government continued to cooperate with a 3-year project to oversee the efforts of the international cocoa industry and the Governments of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in the cocoa sector, funded by USDOL at USD 4.3 million and implemented by Tulane University in partnership with the West African Health Organization (WAHO). In October 2007, Tulane submitted its first annual report to the U.S. Congress on the status of public and private efforts to implement agreements under the Harkin-Engel Protocol.¹⁴⁵¹

The Government continued to collaborate with ILO-IPEC on a 4-year, USDOL-funded USD 4.75 million Project of Support to the Ghana Timebound Program which establishes timeframes for progress toward the elimination of selected worst forms of child labor in Ghana. The project aims to withdraw 4,700 children and prevent 5,300 children from exploitive labor through the provision of educational services.¹⁴⁵² The Government participated in the second phase of the regional anti-trafficking LUTRENA project through December 2007, implemented by ILO-IPEC in West and Central Africa, with activities in Ghana. The first phase of this project in Ghana was funded by USDOL; the second phase in Ghana was funded by the Danish International Development Agency.¹⁴⁵³ The Government of Ghana also participated in the Community Based Innovations to Combat Child Labor through Education (CIRCLE) global project, funded by USDOL at 8.1 million and USAID at USD 500,000 and implemented by Winrock International and various community-based organizations.¹⁴⁵⁴ The Government collaborated with ILO-IPEC on the implementation of several other child labor and education projects, including a USD 1.53 million regional project funded by Canada to provide skills training to urban youth.¹⁴⁵⁵ USAID, the World Cocoa Foundation, and the international cocoa industry fund the Sustainable Tree Crops Program in Ghana, a public-private partnership implemented by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture that promotes a sustainable cocoa economy through various activities at the community and policy levels.¹⁴⁵⁶

The Government carried out a national campaign to raise awareness on the 2005 Human Trafficking Act, and provided staff and in-kind support to the ILO and UNODC for trainings for law enforcement and other officials on trafficking.¹⁴⁵⁷ The Government continued to collaborate with IOM on the implementation of a trafficking project, funded by the U.S. Department of State and private donors, which works with fishermen, children, and parents to prevent and remove children from exploitive labor in fishing on Lake Volta, and to rehabilitate, return and reintegrate them into their communities.¹⁴⁵⁸ The Government, through the Department of Social Welfare, also provides staff and in-kind support to an IOM shelter in Medina and operates two facilities in Accra for child trafficking victims.¹⁴⁵⁹

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1395 For statistical data not cited here, see the Data Sources and Definitions section. For data on ratifications and ILO-IPEC membership, see the Executive Summary. For minimum age for admission to work, age to which education is compulsory, and free public education, see Government of Ghana, The Children's Act (Act 560), (September 24, 1998); available from http://www.ilo.org/dyon/natlex/docs/WEBTEXT/56216/65194/E98GHA01.htm. See also U.S. Department of State, "Ghana," in Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2007, Washington, DC, March 11, 2008, section 5, 6d; available from http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007. See also UNESCO Institute for Statistics, National Education Systems, [online] [cited December 14, 2007]; available from http://www.uis.unesco.org/statsen/statistics/yearbook/tables/Table3_1.h…. See also Government of Ghana, The 1996 Constitution chapter 5, article 25; available from http://www.parliament.gh/book/export/html/60. See also Government of Ghana, The Education Act, 1961, Act 87, (November 15, 1961), article 21. See also Samuel Asuming-Brempong, Daniel B. Sarpong, Philip Amoo, and Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere, Pilot Labour Survey in Cocoa Production in Ghana – 2006, Ministry of Manpower, Youth, and Employment, Accra, April 2007; available from http://www.cocobod.gh/News_Details.cfm?EmpID=912.

1396 ILO-IPEC, Support for the Implementation of Timebound Measures for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor in Ghana, Project Document, Geneva, September 3, 2004, 2 and 4.

1397 Ministry of Manpower Youth and Employment and the Ghana Cocoa Board, National Programme for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour in the Cocoa Sector 2006-2011, The Republic of Ghana, 2006, v, 9-11, 13. See also ILO-IPEC, West Africa Cocoa/Commercial Agriculture Program to Combat Hazardous and Exploitative Child Labour (WACAP), Project Document, Geneva, September 26, 2002.

1398 ILO-IPEC, Girls in Mining: Research Findings from Ghana, Niger, Peru, and the United Republic of Tanzania, Geneva, 2007, 1-2; available from http://www.ilo.org/ipecinfo/product/viewProduct.do?productId=5304.

1399 Raggie Johansen, "Child Trafficking in Ghana", UNODC eNewsletter, [online], 2006; available from http://www.unodc.org/newsletter/en/perspectives/0601/page002.html. See also Afrol News, "Progress in Freeing Ghanaian Slave Boys", afrol.com, [online], March 5, 2003; available from http://www.afrol.com/News2003/gha008_labour.htm.

1400 U.S. Embassy – Accra, reporting, December 15, 2006, para 6E.

1401 ILO-IPEC, Ghana Timebound Project, Project Document, 2. See also Ghana Statistical Service, Ghana Child Labour Survey, March 2003. See also U.S. Department of State, "Country Reports – 2007: Ghana," section 6d.

1402 ILO-IPEC, Girl Child Labour in Agriculture, Domestic Work and Sexual Exploitation: Rapid Assessments on the Cases of the Philippines, Ghana and Ecuador, Geneva, 2004; available from http://www.ilo.org/iloroot/docstore/ipec/prod/eng/gcl_vol1_2004.pdf. See also ILO Committee of Experts, Direct Request, Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) Ghana (ratification: 2000), [online] 2006 [cited December 14, 2007]; available from http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/english/iloquery.htm. See also U.S. Department of State, "Country Reports – 2007: Ghana," section 5.

1403 ILO-IPEC, Ghana Timebound Project, Project Document, 4. See also The Protection Project, "Ghana," in 2005 Human Rights Report on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, 2005; available from http://www.protectionproject.org.

1404 International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Child Labor in the Cocoa Sector of West Africa: A Synthesis of Findings in Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria, August 2002, 16. See also Samuel Asuming-Brempong, Daniel B. Sarpong, Philip Amoo, and Asenso-Okyere, Pilot Labour Survey in Cocoa Production in Ghana – 2006, 105-106.

1405 International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Summary of Findings from the Child Labor Surveys in the Cocoa Sector of West Africa: Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria, July 2002. See also Samuel Asuming-Brempong, Daniel B. Sarpong, Philip Amoo, and Asenso-Okyere, Pilot Labour Survey in Cocoa Production in Ghana – 2006, 85-109.

1406 Samuel Asuming-Brempong, Daniel B. Sarpong, Philip Amoo, and Asenso-Okyere, Pilot Labour Survey in Cocoa Production in Ghana – 2006, 85-109.

1407 U.S. Department of State, "Country Reports – 2007: Ghana," section 2c.

1408 ILO-IPEC, Ghana Timebound Project, Project Document, 10. See also U.S. Department of State, "Country Reports – 2007: Ghana," section 2c. See also Government of Ghana, Consolidation of Criminal Code, 1960; Act 29, (December 10, 1999).

1409 Ministry of Manpower Youth and Employment and the Ghana Cocoa Board, National Programme for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor in Cocoa, iv, vi, 8.

1410 UNODC, Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns, April 2006; available from http://www.unodc.org/pdf/traffickinginpersons_report_2006ver2.pdf.

1411 U.S. Embassy – Accra, reporting, December 15, 2006, para 6E. See also U.S. Department of State, "Ghana (Tier 2)," in Trafficking in Persons Report-2007, Washington, DC, June 12, 2007; available from http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2007/. See also Integrated Regional Information Networks, "Gambia-Ghana: Sex Slave Children Trafficked by Ghanaian Fishermen", IRINnews.org, [online], February 26, 2004; available from http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=48765. See also Government of Ghana official, Written communication, submitted in response to U.S. Department of Labor Federal Register Notice (November 8, 2007) "Request for Information on Efforts by Certain Countries to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor", December 13, 2007.

1412 U.S. Embassy – Accra, reporting, December 15, 2006, para 6E. See also UNODC, Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns.

1413 Brad Kress, Burkina Faso: Testing the Tradition of Circular Migration, Migration Policy Institute, May 2006, 7; available from http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/print.cfm?ID=399.

1414 U.S. Department of State, "Trafficking in Persons Report – 2007: Ghana."

1415 U.S. Embassy – Accra, reporting, December 15, 2006, para 6E. See also The Protection Project, Human Rights Report 2005: Ghana, online; available from http://www.protectionproject.org.

1416 Johansen, "Child Trafficking in Ghana". See also Integrated Regional Information Networks, "West Africa: Children in Danger: War on Trafficking", IRINnews.org, [online], June 29, 2006; available from http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=59518.

1417 Government of Ghana, The Children's Act, section 89-90.

1418 Ibid., article 98-99, 88, 91.

1419 Ibid., article 93-94. See also Government of Ghana, Labour Act (Act 651), (2003), articles 60-61.

1420 Government of Ghana, Constitution of Ghana. See also Government of Ghana, Labour Act, 2003, articles 116-117. See also Government of Ghana, Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694), (December 5, 2005).

1421 Government of Ghana, Consolidation of Criminal Code, 1960; Act 29.

1422 ILO Committee of Experts, Direct Request, C. 182: Ghana.

1423 Government of Ghana, Penal Code, Act 29, 107(1) and 108(1) (1960); available from http://209.190.246.239/protectionproject/statutes/PDF/GhanaF.pdf [hard copy on file].

1424 ECPAT International CSEC Database, Ghana, accessed December 14, 2007; available from http://www.ecpat.net. See also U.S. Embassy – Accra official, Email communication to USDOL official, August 7, 2007.

1425 Government of Ghana, Human Trafficking Act, 2005. See also Government of Ghana official, Written communication.

1426 Government of Ghana, Human Trafficking Act, 2005, sections 1-4.

1427 Ibid., sections 10, 14-22.

1428 Government of Ghana official, Written communication.

1429 Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, "Ghana," in Child Soldiers Global Report 2004 London, 2004; available from http://www.child-soldiers.org/document_get.php?id=776.

1430 U.S. Department of State, "Country Reports – 2007: Ghana," section 6d.

1431 Ibid.

1432 U.S. Embassy – Accra, reporting, December 15, 2006, para 3B.

1433 Government of Ghana official, Written communication.

1434 U.S. Department of State, "Trafficking in Persons Report – 2007: Ghana."

1435 Government of Ghana official, Written communication.

1436 Integrated Regional Information Networks, "Ghana: Grace Period Over for Buyers and Sellers of Children, Gov't Official Says", IRINnews.org, [online], May 29, 2007; available from http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=72436.

1437 U.S. Department of State, "Country Reports – 2007: Ghana," section 5.

1438 ECOWAS and ECCAS, Multilateral Cooperation Agreement to Combat Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children in West and Central Africa, Abuja, July 6, 2006. See also ILO-IPEC Geneva official, E-mail communication to USDOL official, November 16, 2006.

1439 ECOWAS and ECCAS, Multilateral Cooperation Agreement to Combat Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, in West and Central Africa, Abuja, July 7, 2006. See also ILO-IPEC, Combating the Trafficking of Children for Labor Exploitation in West and Central Africa (LUTRENA), Technical Progress Report, Geneva, September 1, 2007. See also Emmanuel Goujon, African States Sign up to Fight Human Trafficking, Press Release, Agence France Presse, Abuja, July 7, 2006.

1440 Tulane University, First Annual Report: Oversight of Public and Private Initiatives to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor in the Cocoa Sector in Cote d'Ivoire and in Ghana annual report, October 31, 2007, 8-9, 26-28; available from http://childlabor-payson.org/tu_docs.html.

1441 International Verification Board, International Verification Board, [online] n.d. [cited March 19, 2008]; available from http://www.cocoaverification.net/. See also Verite, New International Cocoa Verification Board Formed – Launches Verification of African Cocoa Certification Effort, Press Release, Amherst, January 30, 2008; available from http://www.cocoaverification.net/News.html. See also Verite, International Cocoa Verification Board Issues RFP for Verification of Certification Activities in West African Cocoa Farming, Press Release, Amherst, February 25, 2008; available from http://www.csrwire.com/PressReleasePrint.php?id=11189. See also Verite, Verite Announces Major Step Forward in Improving Labor Conditions in the Cocoa Sector, Press Release, Amherst, December 21, 2007; available from http://www.cocoaverification.net/News.html.

1442 Republic of Ghana National Development Planning Commission, Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II) (2006-2009), Accra, November 2005; available from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPRS1/Resources/GhanaCostingofGPRS…. See also U.S. Embassy – Accra official, E-mail communication to USDOL official, August 15, 2006.

1443 ILO-IPEC, Support for the Implementation of Timebound Measures for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor in Ghana, technical progress report, Geneva, September 2007, 3.

1444 Ghana AIDS Commission, National Policy Guidelines on Orphans and Other Children Made Vulnerable by HIV/AIDS, Republic of Ghana, January 2005, 17-18.

1445 Ministry of Manpower Youth and Employment and the Ghana Cocoa Board, National Programme for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor in Cocoa, iv, vii, 32.

1446 Tulane University, First Annual Report, 33.

1447 Ministry of Manpower Youth and Employment and the Ghana Cocoa Board, National Programme for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor in Cocoa, 31.

1448 Samuel Asuming-Brempong, Daniel B. Sarpong, Philip Amoo, and Asenso-Okyere, Pilot Labour Survey in Cocoa Production in Ghana – 2006, Briefing Document and 85,91,93-94,101,105,107-109.

1449 Government of Ghana official, Written communication.

1450 Ibid.

1451 Tulane University, First Annual Report, 1. See also U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Labor Department Funds Project to Evaluate Effectiveness of Anti-Child Labor Efforts in the Cocoa Industry, Press Release, Washington, DC, October 3, 2006; available from http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/ilab/ILAB20061723.htm. See also U.S. Department of Labor, 2006 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor: Ghana, Washington, DC, September 4, 2007; available from http://www.dol.gov/ilab/programs/ocft/PDF/2006OCFTreport.pdf.

1452 ILO-IPEC, Ghana Timebound Project, Project Document.

1453 ILO-IPEC, Combating the Trafficking of Children for Labor Exploitation in West and Central Africa (LUTRENA) Project Document, Geneva. See also ILO-IPEC, Combating the Trafficking of Children for Labor Exploitation in West and Central Africa (LUTRENA, Phase II, III, IV), Technical Progress Report, Geneva, September 1, 2005. See also ILO-IPEC Geneva official, E-mail communication to USDOL official, December 12, 2007.

1454 U.S. Department of Labor, Community Based Innovations to Combat Child Labor through Education I and II (CIRCLE I and II), Project Summary, 2008. See also Winrock International, Project Fact Sheet: Reducing Child Labor through Education (CIRCLE 1), [online] n.d. [cited March 20, 2008]; available from http://www.winrock.org/fact/facts.asp?CC=5411&bu=.

1455 ILO-IPEC Geneva official, E-mail communication, December 12, 2007.

1456 World Cocoa Foundation, Sustainable Tree Crops Program – Ghana, [online] [cited March 20, 2008]; available from http://www.worldcocoafoundation.org/difference/STCPGhana_Summary.asp.

1457 U.S. Department of State, "Trafficking in Persons Report – 2007: Ghana."

1458 International Organization for Migration – Ghana, What We Do: Counter Trafficking, [online] 2007 [cited April 10, 2007]; available from http://www.iom.int/ghana/countertraffick.html [hard copy on file]. See also International Organization for Migration, "Combating Child Trafficking: Freeing the Fishing Children of Ghana," Newsletter, January 2007; available from http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite… df. See also IOM, Reunification of Trafficked Children in Ghana, [online] 2007 [cited December 8, 2007]; available from http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/pbnAF/cache/offonce?entryId=14102&titleH… ed%20Children%20in%20Ghana.

1459 U.S. Department of State, "Trafficking in Persons Report – 2007: Ghana." See also U.S. Embassy – Accra official, E-mail communication to USDOL official.