Whereas: Hazardous child labor on cocoa farms, which includes using machetes and harmful pesticides, meets the International Labor Organization’s definition of the “worst forms of child labor.”1 International agreements have repeatedly failed to eradicate hazardous child labor from cocoa supply chains.2
Cocoa farming remains plagued by child labor.2 The Department of Labor estimates that 1.56 million children engage in hazardous work on cocoa farms in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, where 60 percent of cocoa is produced.3 Despite Mondelēz’s Cocoa Life program, established to stamp out child labor, and monetary commitments,4 child labor on cocoa farms in Ghana rose by 10 percent since 2009, amounting to 55 percent.5 Furthermore, 95 percent of cocoa farming children in West Africa are “involved in hazardous child labor.”6
Mondelēz acknowledges “cocoa farmers and their communities are still facing big challenges.”7 While Mondelēz states it’s “on track” to achieve its goal of Child Labor Monitoring & Remediation Systems covering 100 percent of Cocoa Life communities in West Africa by 2025, it currently reports 74 percent coverage.8 Even if Mondelēz reaches this goal by 2025, that does not guarantee its cocoa will be child labor-free.
Poverty is a root cause of child labor.9 When workers are not paid a living wage, they struggle to afford child care, school, and are often forced to send their children to work in order to make a survivable income.10 Therefore, without a commitment to pay all workers a living wage, Mondelēz cannot effectively eliminate child labor from its supply chain.
Failure to adhere to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8.7, calling for the elimination of all child labor by 2025,11 exposes Mondelēz and its investors to significant financial, legal, and reputational risks. This is evidenced by a 2023 lawsuit alleging Mondelēz profits from “brutal conditions” of “child labor on plantations where they source their cocoa.”12
Mondelēz remains absent from Slave Free Chocolate’s list of companies using ethically grown cocoa,13 and “would not guarantee that any of their products were free of child labor” per The Washington Post.14
Mondelēz states, “No amount of child labor in the cocoa supply chain should be acceptable.”15 Shareholders agree, and require the requested report to assure management fulfills its fiduciary duty to protect Mondelēz and its investors from adverse risks associated with continued use of child labor within its cocoa supply chain.