The choice for increased profits appears to underpin the argument of economic rationale for child labour in Ivory Coast’s cocoa industry. Indeed stakeholders are principally focused on the benefits produced by the practice. However, child labour principally benefits the State and Multinational Corporations (MNCs) trading in Ivory Coast’s cocoa industry. Like other issues examined in this section, the stakeholder must face up the reality that child labour as currently practiced on coca farms has the sole purpose of maximising profits for the principal actors. In such context, the question of fraudulent and persisting collusions between the State and MNCs is raised. 281
280
See Sophie Boukhari, ‘Child labour a lesser evil?’ (1999) 52 The UNESCO Courier 37.
281See Olatunde J Otusanya, ‘The role of multinational companies in tax evasion and tax avoidance: The case
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The Ivory Coast’s approach to the issue has never been clearly understood. However, the ostensible approach of the authorities to cash crop economy based on coffee and cocoa has always been regarded as a success story while the plights of child labourers behind this success remain unknown to the outside world. Berg observes that: ‘In the Ivory Coast, gradualist policies prevailed, involving a limited role for the State in directly productive activities, export orientation, continued reliance on foreign capital and skill. Under these policies, Ivory Coast has enjoyed one of the highest economic growth rates in the world; a rapid rate of monetization of the economy.’282
Indubitably, child labour is a contributing factor to the economic success. However, the determination and the consistency of Ivorian cocoa farmers, of course with the background encouragements from the authorities consistent with its gradualist policies, have helped the country maintain its position as the world leader in cocoa export. Indeed the determination was already present in the population since the colonial epoch. In that respect, Zolberg writes that ‘in the 1950’s, although Ivory Coast had only 13 percent of the federation’s population ( French West Africa), its share of the gross product of French West Africa was 26 percent. Another important indicator of the degree to which the Ivory Coast outdistanced other territories is its share of the total external trade of French West Africa.’283
In a comparative analysis of the potentials of Ghana and Ivory Coast in the cocoa industry, Maclean pertinently observes that: ‘surprisingly, even though farmers in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire have faced quite similar ecological and economic challenges, they have responded differently with divergent crop production strategies. In Ghana, many farmers are abandoning cocoa for tomato farming while in Côte d’Ivoire farmers continue to expand their existing cocoa plantations and establish new ones. The situation in Ghana constitutes a dramatic shift in local-level production, with far-reaching implications for social relations.’284
282
Elliot J Berg, ‘Structural transformation versus gradualism: recent economic development’ in Philip Foster and Aristide R Zolberg (eds) ‘Ghana and the Ivory Coast, Perspective on Modernization’ (The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1971) 228.
283
Aristide R Zolberg, ‘One- party Government in the Ivory Coast’ (Princeton University Press, New Jersey 1969) 158.
284
Lauren M MacLean, ‘Empire of the Young: The Legacies of State Agricultural Policy on Local Capitalism and Social Support Networks in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire’ (2004) 46 Comparative Studies in Society and History 469, 496.
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The political and social unrest experienced in Ivory Coast over the last decade has significantly hampered the economic development of the country. Meanwhile, there has not been a shift in the position as the world leading cocoa producer (see figures below for the most recent reports). This could be explained by over fifty years of a sustained agrarian policy put in place by the Ivorian authorities as well as the considerable amount of work achieved by cocoa farmers to expand the farming zone from the east and the south to the west of the country ( See figure 2.4 below). Chauvaeau and Richards write that ‘At full independence (1960), what was at stake was clearly the expansion of the western agricultural frontier (the plan for the ‘mise en valeur de l’Ouest’) free as much as possible from claims by autochthons over settlers. This was clearly the case in the Oumé region, at the time one of the most important places for new planting.’285
The successive governments in Ivory Coast have privileged the cash crops economy based upon coffee and cocoa agriculture. Obviously, this economic orientation is an economic pattern inherited from French colonial administration. While the French colonial administration in its policy making has privileged the employment of adult labourers from other French colonial territories, Ivory Coast governments have done nothing to regulate employments in the sector. The policies and actions towards coffee and cocoa farming were principally aimed at increasing revenues from the trade.286
285
Jean-Pierre Chauvaeau and Paul Richards, ‘West African Insurgencies in Agrarian Perspective: Côte d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone’ (2008) 8 Compared Journal of Agrarian Change 515, 552.
286
The setting of a national bank for farmers (BNDA), the institution of National award of the best farmer (Coupe Nationale du Progrès), and the cocoa board (CSSPPA) required law and policies to maximise the cocoa production and foreign exchange in Ivory Coast.
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Figure 2.4: Cocoa Production Zones in Ivory Coast
Source: Cabinet du Premier Ministre