Author: Michael

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The Harkin-Engel Protocol – Part 1

The most important component of the 2001 Harkin-Engel protocol was the requirement that the industry develop “credible, mutually acceptable, voluntary, industry-wide standards of public certification, consistent with applicable federal law, that cocoa beans and their derivative products have been grown and/or processed without any of the worst forms of child labor” by July 2005.

As we know, that deadline came and went without such a standard in place. The extension of the deadline until 2008 modified the original requirement and required the certification scheme to cover only 50% of the cocoa growing areas of Ghana and the Côte d’Ivoire while maintaining 100% coverage as the ultimate goal. Continue reading “The Harkin-Engel Protocol – Part 1”

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Cellphones and Economic Development

Ghana, like most countries in the global South, has a large and vibrant “informal sector,” that is, a sector where people–often for lack of formal employment–buy and sell thinks to make a living. Walking down Barnes Road towards the ocean, and then cutting over to Kwame Nkrumah Ave via Kimbu Road, the sidewalks get more and more crowded by traders until there is barely a foot-wide path left to pass. The wares offered for sale include everything one might need in daily life. Smoked and fresh fish, vegetables of all sorts, poultry (slaughtered and alive), rice and oil dominate, but there the whole array of your usual grocery store is for sale. With one exception: I would venture that the single item being offered most frequently was pre-paid air time for mobile phones. Continue reading “Cellphones and Economic Development”