The commitment of the first lady Dominique Ouattara appreciated in the United States

It is an honor, and not the least, the efforts of the First Lady Dominique Ouattara in the fight against child labor were welcomed on Thursday June 6, 2013 at the 23rd World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) partnership meeting in Washington, Actors and partners involved in cocoa farming. The President of the National Oversight Committee (CNS) was absent for reasons of timetable and was represented at the meeting, attended by more than 100 participants, by Mrs. Yao Patricia Sylvie, Executive Secretary of the National Oversight Committee also Chief of Staff to the First Lady of Cote d’Ivoire.

The aim of the WCF partnership meetings is to unite private sector and public sector efforts for the sustainability of the global cocoa economy. It was therefore at this important meeting between the various actors and partners in the cocoa sector that Mrs. Yao Patricia Sylvie was invited during the panel discussion on "Reforming the cocoa sector in Côte d'Ivoire" To present the various reforms and actions of the First Lady in the fight against the worst forms of child labor. A presentation that was well appreciated by US actors working in the cocoa sector. Thus, Mrs. Yao Patricia Sylvie at the outset recalled that child labor in the cocoa farming has exposed Côte d'Ivoire on the international scene as a country using working children. She stressed that this issue is a priority for the Government, which is taking steps to eliminate it. She then presented the new institutional arrangements put in place by President Alassane Ouattara to remedy the problem. These include the creation of the National Oversight Committee (CNS), chaired by the First Lady and the Inter-ministerial Committee (CIM), chaired by the Minister of State, Minister for Employment, Social Affairs and Training, Mr. Dosso Moussa.

The representative of Mrs. Dominique Ouattara highlighted in her presentation the national remediation strategy by outlining the main lines of the 2012-2014 National Action Plan to Combat Trafficking, Exploitation and Labor Developed under the leadership of the First Lady. She then presented to the participants the actions of Mrs. Dominique Ouattara in the fight against trafficking and the worst forms of child labor.
In addition, the representative of Mrs. Dominique Ouattara explained before an attentive audience, the activities carried out in 2012 and those to be carried out during the year 2013. She mentioned among other activities carried out in 2012, the seminar with The prefectural body in Yamoussoukro which made it possible to sensitize and involve all the prefectural body of Côte d'Ivoire in the fight against child labor in their administrative district; The major national campaign to raise awareness by posting, press  and radio-television, in French and in several local languages ​​to reach the largest number of populations; The capacity-building seminar for journalists and media professionals to better relay information to the population; The signing of a joint declaration initiated by Mrs. Dominique Ouattara with her counterpart the First Lady of Mali, to fight against cross-border child trafficking.

The Executive Secretary of the CNS announced that in 2013, the First Lady Dominique Ouattara will organize a major awareness-raising campaign and exchange meeting with some 500 coffee-cocoa producers in July, to involve them more in the fight against the phenomenon. She also announced the meetings that Mrs. Dominique Ouattara will have with the First Lady of Ghana, Mrs. Lordina Mahama and those of the sub-region to provide concerted responses to the phenomenon of cross-border trafficking of children.

Mrs. Yao Patricia Sylvie then pointed out that the efforts made by Mrs. Dominique Ouattara have enabled significant progress, notably the reclassification of Côte d'Ivoire from category 2 under surveillance to category 2 in the 2012 report of US Department of State. She also stressed that the government has supported these efforts by investing more than US $ 6 million. Mrs. Yao Patricia Sylvie invited partners to support the efforts undertaken by Côte d'Ivoire through the implementation of projects aimed at the elimination of the worst forms of child labor. She also called them to present their projects to the CNS for validation in order to ensure their compliance with the national action plan before implementation.

Mrs. Massandjé Touré-Litsé was invited to make a presentation on the reform of the cocoa sector. In her presentation, she presented the challenges of the coffee-cocoa sector and the achievements made by means of the reform in the sector. Mrs. Touré-Litsé said that the Ivorian government intends to continue its efforts to improve the quality of cocoa in Côte d'Ivoire and to provide producers with at least 60% of the reference CIF price. The presentations by Mrs. Yao Patricia Sylvie and Mrs. Massandjé Touré-Litsé were followed with great interest by more than 100 participants and the WCF leadership, including Mr. Bill Guyton, and in the presence of representatives of the Government of Ghana and Nigeria, who expressed their congratulations to them through loud acclamations. The Ivorian delegation was composed of the members of the National Oversight Committee of Actions for Fight against Trafficking, Exploitation and Child Labor (CNS), the Cocoa Coffee Council, the Inter-Professional Research and the Agricultural Advisory Fund (FIRCA). The delegation was led by HE Mr. Daouda Diabaté, Ambassador of Côte d'Ivoire to the United States of America.