Source: World Bank

The September 2002 crisis resulting in civil war in Côte d’Ivoire has had a large social, economic and regional impact. Its effects were felt throughout the West African sub-region stifling transportation and trade, growth and investment, and regional integration. The recent rise of oil output and exports has helped moderate the impact of the crisis in the past two years with a modest recovery starting in 2004-05 with real annual growth averaging approximately 1.8% due to higher cocoa exports and the rise in petroleum producing capacity and output. Inflation is at 2.5% as of the end of December 2006.

The conflict has also halted most structural reforms. Efforts to maintain sound fiscal management took place, but governance and transparency have deteriorated and military and other expenditures have often been financed and executed outside regular fiscal channels. This concerns cocoa/coffee regulatory bodies especially and the management of petroleum revenues, which have assumed an increasing importance as petroleum exports have expanded, taking over the lead from traditional cocoa/coffee exports (World Bank March 2007 Country Brief).

Armed conflict between the government (concentrated in the south) and the rebel Forces Nouvelles (controlling much of the country mostly in the north) has continued for several years. UN peacekeepers patrol a buffer zone in between, maintaining a delicate situation described as ‘No Peace, No War’. Thousands have fled their homes, most taking refuge in government-controlled areas, overwhelming the health and education services available there (Cote d’Ivoire Background, UNICEF). 
Issues facing children in Côte d’Ivoire:

• Côte d’Ivoire’s infant and under-five mortality rates are among the highest in the world, and increasing. Measles, malaria, and respiratory infections are the deadliest threats for children. Acute malnutrition is also on the rise.
• Just 50% of children under the age of one are fully immunized against the major vaccine-preventable diseases. In the north, many vaccination programs have ceased altogether.
• An estimated 7 per cent of the population is HIV-positive.
• A million children, most of them in the north, do not attend school at all.

About 3,000 children are being used as soldiers. Sexual abuse, exploitation and violence against children have become increasingly common.

Source: Cote d’Ivoire Background, UNICEF

Child Labour: Cote d’Ivoire has ratified both ILO Convention 182 [worst forms of child labour] and 138 [minimum age of employment].

Source: Cote d’Ivoire Statistics UNICEF

According to UNICEF, the percentage of children aged 5 to 14 years of age involved in child labour activities at the moment of the survey (1999-2005) is 37%. A child is considered to be involved in child labour activities under the following classification: (a) children 5-11 years of age doing at least one hour of economic activity or at least 28 hours of domestic work during the week preceding the survey, and (b) children 12 to 14 years of age doing at least 14 hours of economic activity or at least 42 hours of economic activity and domestic work combined during the week preceding the survey.
There are more girl child labourers at 38% compared to boy child labourers at 35%. The high number of child marriages increases the tendency for child labourers as these children may not attend school in order to work. The urban child marriages is 24% compared to 43% in rural areas.
According to Child Labor Surveys In the Cocoa Sector of West Africa: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria (July 2002), Cote d’Ivoire accounts for approximately 43% of the world’s cocoa production. In West Africa, children in rural areas have traditionally worked in agriculture as part of the family unit. In Côte d’Ivoire, 87% of the permanent labor used in cocoa farming came from the family. Approximately one-third of school-age children in cocoa producing households have never attended school. Children involved in all cocoa farming tasks were less likely to be enrolled in school (34% school enrollment rate) compared to
those children who did not work (64%) with girls having lower enrollment rates than boys.

According to Global March’s partner reports, Cote d’Ivoire has various government schemes targeted specifically at the worst forms of child labour including child trafficking, child prostitution and pornography, and children in armed conflicts/child soldiers. The latest statistical data available on the number of child labourers places the number at 600,000 with no budgetary allocation for child labour eradication.

Decree No. 2005-2250 of March 14, 2005 determines the list of the worst forms of child labour for minors below 18 years of age. Efforts to synchronize policy and include child labour issues includes a National Plan of Action and an action plan to fight trafficking and child labour. The National Plan of Action made for the implementation of Convention of ILO Conventions 138 and 182 reinforces the legal framework of child protection against all forms of exploitation and the mechanisms to assume responsibility for the trafficking and worst forms of child labour. A National Coordination Committee is in place for the implementation of the conventions as well as a monitoring mechanism by the government for the implementation of the provisions to give effect to this Convention. It is the National Committee for the Fight Against Trafficking and Child Exploitation (CNLTEE). A partnership with civil society is also established.

Source: EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007

Education: According to the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007, in 2004 the net enrollment ratio for primary education was 56%. The primary school net enrollment ratio for males is 62% and for females 50% (2000-2005, Cote d’Ivoire Statistics UNICEF). Females are clearly still at a disadvantage.

Gross primary or secondary school enrolment ratio - The number of children enrolled in a level (primary or secondary), regardless of age, divided by the population of the age group that officially corresponds to the same level.

Net primary school enrolment ratio - The number of children enrolled in primary school who belong to the age group that officially corresponds to primary schooling, divided by the total population of the same age group.

Net primary school attendance - Percentage of children in the age group that officially corresponds to primary schooling who attend primary school. These data come from national household surveys.

Source: Cote d’Ivoire Statistics UNICEF

In Cote d’Ivoire the 2003-04 average aid to education (constant 2003 US$) was US$31.2 million while the aid to education per capita was US$1.80 (EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007). 21% of the central government expenditure (1994-2004) is allocated to education (Cote d’Ivoire Statistics UNICEF). Global March’s partners report the budgetary allocation on education to be 5% of GDP, with 45% of the expenditure for primary education, and 44% specially focused on the girl child’s education.

Source: EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007

Among the countries with the largest numbers of out-of school children in 2004, Cote d’Ivoire ranked 11th. Not much progress has been made since 1999. According to Global March’s partner reports, Cote d’Ivoire’s government programme to enroll and retain out of school children includes the exemption of payment of school fees. The Prime Minister has placed as a government priority the fight against the worst forms of child labour with free education and the liberalization of school decisions by the Chief of State.

Poverty: Socially, the civil war crisis resulted in rising poverty to an estimated 42% to 44%, massive population displacement, rising unemployment, and a worsening composition of public expenditures. Access to and delivery of basic social services deteriorated, especially in the war-affected areas. Achievement of most MDGs is critically off track. Côte d’Ivoire now ranks 164th out of 177 countries in the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI). In addition, HIV/AIDS is endemic, especially in war-affected areas (World Bank March 2007 Country Brief). Based on UNICEF’s Cote d’Ivoire Statistics, 74,000 children ages 0 to 14 are estimated to be living with HIV while 450,000 ages 0 to 17 are orphaned by AIDS (2005). Only 83% of these orphans attend school (1999-2005). These statistics suggest HIV/AIDS to be a push factor for children to work.
With 48.7% of the adult population (ages 15 and above, 2006) as literate, 38.4% of the population lives on less than US$2 per day (1990-2003, EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007) and 15% of population below US$1 a day (1994-2004, Cote d’Ivoire Statistics UNICEF). According to the CIA World Factbook, the unemployment rate is 13% in urban areas (1998).     
Cote d’Ivoire has a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper reflecting child labour. There is policy coherence on the inter-linkages and coordination among the independent efforts of Education For All, Child Labor Elimination and Poverty Alleviation that includes an alphabetization policy, a child orientation action towards education through the distribution of school kits (Global March partner report).

Transnational Issues:
Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: refugees (country of origin): 39,919 (Liberia)

IDPs: 750,000 (2002 coup; most IDPs are in western regions) (2006) 

Source: CIA The World Factbook

Trafficking in Persons: Cote d’Ivoire is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. International trafficking is less prevalent than trafficking within the country. Women and girls are trafficked from northern rebel-controlled areas to southern cities for restaurant labor, domestic servitude, and sexual exploitation. Boys are internally trafficked for agricultural and manual labor. Boys are trafficked from Ghana, Mali and Burkina Faso for forced agricultural labor; from Guinea for forced mining, from Togo for forced construction labor, from Benin for forced carpentry work, and from Ghana and Togo for forced labor in the fishing industry. Ivorian boys were also trafficked to Mali with false promises of jobs as soccer players in Europe. Women and girls are trafficked to and from other West and Central African countries for domestic servitude and forced street vending. Women and girls from Ghana, Nigeria, the People’s Republic of China, Ukraine, the Philippines, and North Africa are trafficked to Cote d’Ivoire for sexual exploitation. Women are also trafficked from and through Cote d’Ivoire to Europe for sexual exploitation.

Refugee and displaced children in Cote d’Ivoire are likely to also be trafficked within the region. Ivorian children are also conscripted into armed forces by rebel and militia groups.

Tier rating: Tier 2 – The Government of Cote d’Ivoire does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. To strengthen its response to trafficking, the government should enact its draft statute against child trafficking, draft and enact a law against trafficking of adults, investigate reports of security forces exploiting women in prostitution, ensure that victims are not arrested or prosecuted, reach out to NGOs and the international community to develop a system of care for adult trafficking victims, and adopt the national action plan to combat trafficking.

Cote d’Ivoire has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.

Source: 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report