Financing responsibly the cocoa supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire: the “leverage” role of the financial sector in eliminating child labour

The International Labour Organization project “Accelerating action for the elimination of child labour in supply chains in Africa” (ACCEL Africa) is looking for an international consultant.

The main objective of the consultancy is to assess the responsibility and legal obligations of financial sector actors in eliminating child labour in the cocoa supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire. The assessment would focus on financing cocoa sourcing transactions at the level of (in)formal exporters, buyers and cooperatives.

The external collaborator’s scope of work will comprise the following tasks

1. Map the financing flows, the financial actors involved from local and international markets, and their business relationships with actors (multinationals and local exporters, buyers, cooperatives) in the cocoa supply chain;
2. Assess the responsibilities and legal obligations of different financial actors in the frame of international and national regulations, UN Guiding Principles of Human Rights, ILO MNE Declaration, OECD Guidelines for Multinationals, and upcoming regulations from their country of origin (like EU), with a strong focus on social risks and child labour;
3. Document current practices applied to assess the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) risks by financial actors involved in the cocoa supply chain, with a strong focus on social risks and child labour;
4. Document support provided by financial actors to their clients (value chain actors and local financial institutions) to comply with international standards, conduct due diligence, and assess their responsibilities in the fight against child labour;
5. Conduct interviews and collect the views of the cocoa supply chain actors on how they use the financial sector and which constraints they currently have. This could be important to think about possible incentives financial actors could provide to make cocoa supply chain actors comply with international standards like child labour
6. Assess the level of influence of different types of financial actors to make their business relationships play a bigger role in the fight against child labour, and identify the most appropriate incentives;
7. Provide recommendations to develop operational tools that can be applied by local financial actors to address child labour risks in their financing flows. Tools will be mainly applied by 8 upfront staff (branch managers, credit officers) who are in close contact with end clients (multinationals and local exporters, buyers, cooperatives or cooperatives’ members)
8. Present findings to Task Force Financial Sector and Child Labour and integrate their feedback to final report

The consultant is expected to produce a report on the basis of literature review, as well as interviews with international and local financial and cocoa supply chain actors, and other key informants as needed.