TQM

Overview of the Assignment

There is a surprising association between chocolate and child labor in the Cote d'Ivoire. Young boys whose ages range from 12 to 16 have been sold into slave labor and are forced to work in cocoa farms in order to harvest the beans, from which chocolate is made, under inhumane conditions and extreme abuse. This West African country is the leading exporter of cocoa beans to the world market. Thus, the existence of slave labor is relevant to the entire international economic community. Through trade relations, many actors are inevitably implicated in this problem, whether it is the Ivorian government, the farmers, the American or European chocolate manufacturers, or consumers who unknowingly buy chocolate. Discussions have arisen regarding how to respond to the problem. Issues mentioned include causes of slave labor relating to the economic system and to the country's dependence on an unstable export crop. There are also debates concerning the appropriate response from the chocolate industry, government officials, and consumers concerning whether there should be boycotting, establishment of government legislation to put "made by slaves" labels on products, or whether some type of international cooperation is needed to ensure improved working conditions. The complexity of the problem makes finding an effective solution a challenging task

CRITICALLY DISCUSS THE SYSTEMATIC, CORPORATE, AND INDIVIDUAL ETHICAL ISSUES RAISE BY THIS CASE

Slavery and the Link to Chocolate

Slave traders are trafficking boys ranging from the age of 12 to 16 from their home countries and are selling them to cocoa farmers in Cote d'Ivoire. They work on small farms across the country, harvesting the cocoa beans day and night, under inhumane conditions. Most of the boys come from neighboring Mali, where agents hang around bus stations looking for children that are alone or are begging for food. They lure the kids to travel to Cote d'Ivoire with them, and then the traffickers sell the children to farmers in need of cheap labor (Raghavan, "Lured...").

The horrendous conditions under which children must toil on the cocoa farms of the Cote d'Ivoire are even more jarring when the facts are juxtaposed with the idea that much of this cocoa will ultimately end up producing something that most people associate with happiness and pleasure: chocolate. The connection serves to illustrate that the existence of misery in one part of the world and joy in another part are no longer divorced as nations are connected together in a globalized web of trade. Thus, the pleasure that people from various nations around the world are deriving from these chocolate confections could possibly be at the expense of child slaves in Africa. The problem of child slavery then is not simply a faraway abstraction with no immediate implications for anybody else except those who are directly affected, but rather it is an issue that everybody around the world should be concerned about and demand action to eradicate.

Although news of child labor abuse in Cote d'Ivoire has only recently garnered public attention, these situations did not arise suddenly. Many interlocking factors have contributed to both creating and perpetuating conditions that have led to this form of modern slavery. In order to better understand the situation, this case study will explore the different aspects of Ivorian child labor and the cocoa trade. The case study will begin by providing an overall review of the problem. Afterwards, the case will examine some of the causes and effects of the situation, as well as efforts developed as a response to the abuse.

Causes

While the complexity of such a grave situation as bonded labor prevents the simple categorization of the definite causes of the problem, there are some push and pull factors that many experts consider to be at least partly responsible for creating conditions ripe for slavery on cocoa farms.

Pull Factors.

Historical and continuing dependence: Cote d'Ivoire has historically been reliant on exports, whether it was coffee, timber, or cocoa as the country focused on an outward-oriented pattern of development. Cocoa first appeared in Cote d'Ivoire in 1880 on a plantation. Initially only the Europeans owned cocoa plantations there until World War I. As cocoa prices increased on the world market during this period, Africans themselves began to grow cocoa. However, initially after independence, coffee was the leading export good for Cote d'Ivoire. By the latter part of the 1970's though, cocoa supplanted coffee as the major commodity when a cocoa boom occurred as the government encouraged cultivation by offering various price incentives (Gbetiboao and Delgado, 115, 121, 125). This emphasis on cocoa production has been entrenched in the economy to the extent that many farmers are dependent on cocoa for their livelihood.

At present, a substantial one-third of the Ivorian economy is based on cocoa exports, which has meant continued dependence on the world market prices for cocoa. This has not boded well for the country since cocoa is considered one of the most unstable commodities in terms of fluctuating market prices (Gbetiboao and Delgado p. 141). The profitability of cocoa depends on world prices that farmers' cannot control and also on natural conditions that affect cocoa yields, such as droughts (Grootaert, p. 24). For instance, since 1996 the price for a pound of cocoa beans has dropped from sixty-four cents to fifty-one cents. Consequently this negatively affects the farmers as they get less profits, so then they look for ways to cut costs by using cheap labor, driving them to even resort to use slave labor (Child Labor Coalition).

Push Factors.

Poverty: Although some children come from Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Togo, most of the trafficked children come from Mali. Since Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world with a GDP of $850 per capita (CIA Factbook), people travel to Cote d'Ivoire to find jobs. Of the estimated 15,000 child slaves, the majority are from Mali (Save the Children Canada). With so few opportunities in their own countries, people often travel elsewhere in search of jobs, like the Malians do. If people are able to secure work, then they could send money back home to help their families for daily subsistence. Therefore, families allow their children to go away with people who turn out to be slave traders (Save the Children Canada). Most of the West African countries have extremely high levels of poverty, ranging from 40% to 72% (Salah, pp. 4-5). Consequently families need the contribution of their children's earnings