Child labor and access to education

Tackling child labor risks is a critical part of a just transition to a fairer and more equitable food system.

We are driven by the fundamental principle that all children deserve the chance to learn and grow in a safe and healthy environment, without having to undertake work that is dangerous in any way or that interferes with education.

Our innovative income accelerator program was established to tackle child labor risk in cocoa farming households by helping to improve the livelihoods of cocoa-farming families. In 2024, the program continued to encourage school enrolment (88% of children in school), uptake of good agricultural practices (GAPs) (70% adoption of high-quality pruning) and agroforestry (71% number of farms with shade trees), and substantially improved the resilience and the well-being of cocoa farming households in areas like financial inclusion through Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) (+105% amount saved through VSLA), food security and women’s empowerment (+18% women empowered index). Read more in the Progress Report Summary, June 2025 (pdf, 800Kb).

Our progress

Setting standards across our supply chains

Nestlé was the first company to set up a Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) in the cocoa sector in Côte d’Ivoire. This system identifies at-risk children within cocoa and farming communities, provides remediation and monitors their situation to avoid them becoming involved in child labor. Community liaisons - who come from the local communities themselves - identify practical ways we can help. For instance, we build and renovate schools and have partnered with the Jacobs Foundation to provide special classes that help children catch up on missed schooling. We also help parents secure birth certificates to register their children at school.

This system operates in our cocoa supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. We extended to our Ivorian coffee supply chain in 2023. 

Our key achievements

• In 2022, we launched our income accelerator program aiming to help cocoa-farming families close the living income gap, one of the root causes of child labor risks
• In 2023, we developed our Nescafé Plan 2030 (pdf, 125 Kb) strategy which incorporates close work with farmers to improve livelihoods in communities through income diversification, human rights and child protection. Read our latest progress report (pdf, 14Mb)
• By the end of 2025, 96.2% of the volume of cocoa was covered by a Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) or other dedicated due diligence systems, with mass balance included. For more details on our progress via CLMRS, including for cocoa in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, read our Non-Financial Statement 2025 (pdf, 12Mb)
• We have reviewed our Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA) audit protocols to address child labor risks in the United States, which is a widely recognized ethical audit methodology that assesses an organization's labor standards, health and safety, environmental practices, and business ethics within its supply chain
• As of 2025, we rolled out our 'Train the Trainer' program for child labor risk awareness, training our priority markets as identified in our action plan on child labor and access to education  

Addressing the root causes of child labor

Nestlé uses its resources and influence to tackle the root causes of rural poverty and improve the livelihoods of cocoa-farming families as a further means of tackling child labor. We do this by supporting living incomes, empowering women and encouraging farmers to diversify and create additional income streams, for example by cultivating other crops. These moves help to improve livelihoods and seek to ensure farmers and their families don’t feel the need to send their children to work to shore up household income. Read more on our efforts in living incomes.

Our income accelerator program has entered the 'scale-up' phase, reaching 30 000 cocoa-farming families in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. The program rewards families with cash incentives for keeping their children in school and adopting good agricultural practices, planting forest and fruit trees and diversifying incomes. The program aims to reach 160 0000 cocoa-growing families globally by 2030. Read more about our income accelerator program.

Nestlé’s monitoring and remediation system is helping to address child labor risks

We rely on hundreds of community liaisons who regularly meet tens of thousands of families within cocoa-growing communities. These liaisons - who all come from cocoa-growing communities themselves - understand the issues farmers and their families face. They counsel families on the dangers of child labor and monitor children through repeat visits, observing activity in communities and visiting farms. They also advise Nestlé on what measures are best suited to their community or to alleviate rural poverty and increase access to education.

Investing in strategic partnerships

Given the scale and complexity of human rights challenges around the world, including child labor risks, we believe in collaboration and partnerships to create positive impact at scale. Nestlé has invested in relationships with various organizations to share learnings and cultivate common approaches. Organizations we work with on child labor include the International Cocoa Initiative and the International Labour Organization's Child Labour Platform. 

Catching up on missed classes

We know that there is a direct correlation between better education and lower levels of child labor risk, so Nestlé prioritizes access to school as the core way to address this risk. We have partnered with the Jacobs Foundation to create over a hundred 'bridging' classes that help children who have missed school due to work. These special classes deliver two years' worth of the national curriculum in small classes in just nine months.

Empowering young coffee growers

In Honduras, Nescafé has launched a training program to strengthen the skills and leadership of young coffee farmers. Working with Swiss contact and the CoHonducafé Foundation, local teams on the ground have reached 5 000 'Jóvenes Caficultores' (young coffee growers). The program also includes leadership development for agroforestry students.