The First Lady of Côte d'Ivoire had a meeting with US Senators Ron Wyden and Sherrod Brown on Tuesday, September 17, 2019. These representatives of the American Congress are the authors of the letter sent to the Department of Homeland Security of the United States of America to invite it to place an embargo on Ivorian cocoa. Below is his speech to the American senators Honorable senators, First of all, thank you for receiving us, because I know that your schedule is full. I would like to introduce the delegation accompanying me, namely: Minister Patrick ACHI, Secretary General of the Presidency; Mr. Mamadou HAIDARA, Ambassador of Côte d'Ivoire to the United States; Mrs. Patricia Sylvie YAO, Chief of Staff of the First Lady, Executive Secretary of the CNS; Mrs. Tessy WINKELMAN, Consultant to the CNS in charge of the fight against child labour; And Mr. Tod PRESTONE, Senior Vice President of GPG. We read with great interest the letter you sent to the Ministry of Security concerning child labor in cocoa farming and we have come today to discuss this issue with you. Honorable Senators, Child labor is a concern that particularly affects us. Being myself very committed to the protection and well-being of children for more than twenty years with my Foundation, Children Of Africa, which deals with children in health, education and social matters. This is why my husband, President Alassane OUATTARA, upon his accession to the Presidency in 2011, recognized the phenomenon and entrusted me with the task of combating child labor in our country. The President of the Republic immediately tackled the issue of child labor head-on, creating two committees: The Interministerial Committee, which brings together 13 Ministries and is chaired by the Minister of Labour, as well as the National Monitoring Committee, which I chair and which brings together: the ILO; UNICEF; cooperatives and cocoa manufacturers as well as national and international NGOs working in the field of child protection. From the beginning, I first wanted to understand the phenomenon. Who are these working children? Where are they ? Where do they come from ? Are they going to school? I wanted to know the extent of the phenomenon, supporting figures. USDOL studies have shown that 85% of children working in cocoa farming go to school, live with their parents and accompany them to the plantations outside school hours. The remaining 15% do not go to school and are children at risk. Honorable Senators, Regarding forced labour, all studies such as those of Vérité and the Walk Free Foundation estimate the number of child victims of forced labor in cocoa farming at 0.17%. A very low figure, but nonetheless intolerable because nothing justifies making children work. Honorable senators; This is why, since 2012, we have implemented National Action Plans. The first two have been fully executed. The third action plan 2019-2021, has just been adopted with a budget of 127 million US dollars, to tackle, in a holistic approach, the root causes of this phenomenon. I would now like to list the main actions that we have taken based on these plans. – To prevent the phenomenon, we carried out vast communication campaigns throughout the country because the most important thing was to change mentalities and make the farmers understand that child labor is completely prohibited. – We explained that children who accompany their parents to the field after school must not carry out dangerous work such as the use of machetes or pesticides. – We have also organized seminars and trained more than 70,000 actors in the remediation chain: prefects, magistrates; social workers; the journalists ; the police men ; the constables; and last but not least the cooperatives of cocoa producers. In 2011, we noticed that there were very few schools near the plantations. To remedy this shortcoming, the State of Côte d'Ivoire and its partners have invested heavily in the construction of schools and school canteens which allow parents to leave their children all day at school because they receive balanced meals. Thus, 30,000 classrooms in rural areas in cocoa growing areas have been built. All these actions have enabled the Government to make school compulsory in Côte d'Ivoire in 2016, for all children aged 6 to 16. What did not exist before Thanks to this measure, the school enrollment rate of living children in cocoa production areas increased from 59% in 2008 to 90% in 2019. Poverty is recognized as the main cause of child labor and I am personally fighting to fight against women's poverty thanks to a micro credit that I initiated with the help of the President of the Republic and which has enabled more than 200,000 women to become independent and improve the living conditions of their families. As you know, Côte d'Ivoire being the economic locomotive of French-speaking West Africa with 40% of the GDP of the French-speaking sub-region, it attracts many populations from neighboring countries. To strengthen the fight against child labor, I organized in 2017, the conference of the First Ladies of West Africa and the Sahel on the fight against cross-border trafficking and child labor with the participation of 14 countries of West Africa and the Sahel. In the field of child protection, my Children Of Africa Foundation has built three reception centers in the interior of the country, to collect and take care of child victims of exploitation. Among the most important actions in the field of repression that have been carried out, Côte d'Ivoire has adopted laws and decrees to repress trafficking, exploitation and child labor. Which didn't exist before. These laws strictly prohibit child labor in all its forms and provide for firm prison sentences for traffickers and all their intermediaries. Thanks to these laws, to date, more than 220 traffickers have been sentenced to prison terms of 15 to 20 years. Honorable senators; All our efforts have been recognized by the United States Government, which, through the State Department, has repeatedly congratulated us for all these actions and has classified Côte d'Ivoire among the countries that are making significant efforts to eliminate the child labor. This, consecutively since 2012. In addition, since May 2019, Côte d'Ivoire has been recognized by the ILO as a Pioneer Country under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8.7 on the elimination of child labor. children. This is why your correspondence addressed to the Ministry of Security, suggesting the embargo of Ivorian cocoa, is of great concern to us. This measure, if it were to be applied, would be a disaster for the thousands of small cocoa producers and their families who live in already difficult conditions and who represent at least 6 million people who live directly from cocoa farming. In addition, Côte d'Ivoire, which is a haven of peace and an economic oasis for the populations of neighboring countries fleeing terrorism and poverty in their countries, risks being in turn prey to these dangers. An embargo, far from curbing child labour, would ruin all the efforts already made. This is why, gentlemen Senators, we ask you to help us fight the phenomenon and to encourage us in this fight. We hope to count with the collaboration of the United States, to together overcome child labor in cocoa plantations in Côte d'Ivoire. To this end, moreover, I would like to inform you that we had a very constructive meeting this morning with Mrs. Brenda SMITH, responsible for international affairs at American customs, and her team to discuss this issue and prepare for their visit next December to Abidjan. During this meeting, we agreed to set up the foundations of a partnership between our two structures to help us eliminate child labor in cocoa farming. Thank you. Child labor in cocoa farming: Customs from the USA and Côte d'Ivoire will cooperate at all restful. Public meetings, B to B, hearings, everything goes. At the end of the morning of this Tuesday, September 17, 2019, the Ivorian delegation had an important working session with American customs in one of the conference rooms of the Four Seasons. In a brief presentation, the President of the CNS explained figures in support of Côte d'Ivoire's commitments in the fight against child labor. Figures and facts that did not leave indifferent Mrs. Brenda Smith, Head of International Affairs of US Customs and her delegation of eight executives. She said she was impressed by the work accomplished by the National Committee for Monitoring Actions to Combat Trafficking, Exploitation and Child Labor and congratulated Mrs. Ouattara for her personal commitment. For his part, the Secretary General of the Ivorian Presidency, Minister Achi Patrick reiterated the government's determination to carry out this fight and to secure the classified forests. In a good atmosphere, the Presidency of the CNS and the Head of International Affairs of US Customs laid the foundations for collaboration between Côte d'Ivoire and US Customs. As a first sign of the good intentions of both sides, a delegation from American customs will be on an inspection mission next December in Abidjan. The Ivorian economic capital will not be an exception because US customs intends to send missions to all cocoa producing countries. Meetings with political and administrative personalities and civil society will continue until the end of the mission, that is to say on 20 September.