Plan to end African child slavery

United States chocolate makers and African cocoa growers have agreed a plan to end child slavery in the production of West African cocoa.

The move, agreed with members of the United States Congress, provides for the development of industry-wide labour standards and independent monitoring. Senator Tom Harkin said it would be the first time that people who use cocoa and chocolate products world-wide knew that they were produced without the worst form of child labour. As many as 15,000 children from some of the world's poorest countries are thought to work on plantations across Ivory Coast, which produces forty per cent of the world's cocoa.

The anti-slavery plan will also organise a foundation to pay for the programme and set deadlines for its completion.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service