Nestlé joined the Child Learning and Education Facility (CLEF) coalition to boost quality education in rural cocoa communities in Côte d’Ivoire. The CLEF coalition is a collaborative financing facility and the first public-private partnership which is focused on scaling investments for better education in Côte d’Ivoire. Members of this colation include the Ivorian government, UBS Optimus Foundation, ten other cocoa, and chocolate companies and also the Jacobs Foundation, who has been promoting the initiative.
Access to better education is a vital tool to promote children’s rights and fighting child labor. The Jacobs Foundation is working with both public and private organizations to develop a sustainable ecosystem that will guarantee education for all children. Over the past years, Nestlé has also worked with the Jacobs Foundation to set up bridging classes and vocational training for younger people through the program called Transforming Education in Cocoa Communities (TRECC). This collaboration with the Nestlé Cocoa Plan helps children to (re-)integrate into the public-school system and encourage them to keep up with their peers.
Alexander von Maillot, Global Head confectionery and ice cream Strategic Business Unit at Nestlé, stated that the company is pleased to contribute to the CLEF initiative to improve the quality of education in Côte d’Ivoire. Alexander von Maillot also added that this was a continuance on the work the company has been doing with the Jacobs Foundation under their TRECC program. Since 2012, Nestlé has contributed to improving access to education in the rural cocoa areas in Côte d’Ivoire. As part of the Nestlé Cocoa Plan. The company has built or refurbished 49 schools in the cocoa-growing communities. CLEF complements their broader actions to tackle child labor through the roll-out of the ‘Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System. It also helps address some of the root causes of child labor.
By 2030, CLEF aims to provide quality education for 5 million children and affect the behavior of 10 million parents. To achieve this objective, CLEF will bring active learning to up to 10,000 primary schools in cocoa-growing areas and beyond, and construct 2,500 classrooms and other education infrastructures such as bridge classes, community schools, school canteens, and pre-school classrooms.
