The article focuses on child labour being used in the Ivory Coast's cocoa industry. Four years ago, U.S. pressure caused most cocoa producers to sign an agreement to develop an industrywide program to prevent children from participating in the most harmful labour in the industry. To date, all that has produced is a pilot program in one region, which the industry says meets the terms of the deal.
The problem is that hardly any funding was provided to actually facilitate the transition:
Some of the $2-million project fund was set aside to build schools and pay school fees, Bredou said. Farmers will have to hire adult manpower in place of their children. But officials say a major injection of aid will be needed to produce real change.
"The basis of this problem is poverty," said Amouan Assouan Acquah, who heads the national monitoring commission overseeing the Oume project. "It will cost money to expand this program, and who will pay for it?"
Surely the obvious answer would be some combination of (a) the U.S. government which decided to negotiate the deal, and/or (b) the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, the industry group which signed onto the deal. Instead, these groups reap the benefit of improved public image in having reached the agreement, but pay essentially no cost...while the Ivory Coast is left to try to fund the social changes necessary for the agreement to work.
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