Department

The ILO Regional Office for Africa supports 54 countries to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, improve social protection and strengthen dialogue on workrelated issues.

The ILO Centenary Declaration on the Future of Work (2019) highlights the need to advance decent work in the rural economy, calling on the ILO to “promote the transition from the informal to the informal economy formal, while paying particular attention to rural areas.

The Durban Call to Action to Eliminate Child Labour, adopted at the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labor in 2022, calls on the international community to end child labor in agriculture, in particular by “adopting an action plan to eliminate obstacles to the creation, growth and continuation of legal activities of rural workers’ organizations, in order to give agricultural workers a role in economic and social development, in accordance with the ILO Rural Workers’ Organizations Convention, 1975 (No. 141), in law and in practice”.

Indeed, the question of organization and the voice of workers in rural areas is symptomatic of the absence of decent work. Agriculture is the sector where the participation rate of unions, employers’ or farmers’ organizations is the lowest. In West Africa, in the cocoa production chain, the absence of strong producer organizations, capable of providing farmers in Côte d’Ivoire with the necessary counterweight and negotiating power on key decisions that concern them at the national, regional and global levels, is a factor of weakness and vulnerability. In Côte d’Ivoire, there are a significant number of cooperatives in the cocoa sector, but they still face governance and viability challenges.

Many challenges persist: firstly, regulatory and policy frameworks at the national and sectoral level do not always actively contribute to the organization of agricultural producers and workers. Even where conventions have been ratified, there are not always integrated national policies with active measures for the creation, growth and functioning of agricultural producers’ and workers’ organizations. Secondly, producer or agricultural worker organizations, when they exist, are poorly structured and present major weaknesses in their functioning and governance. These weaknesses limit their ability to unite and create trust between the organization and its members. Externally, these weaknesses limit their ability to bring the voices of their members to the attention of interest groups, which reduces the legitimacy of these organizations.

Furthermore, apart from the challenges faced at the national and regional levels, there is a lack of coordination and cooperation at the international level. Individual efforts to tackle decent work deficits limit the ability of workers’ organizations, the private sector and governments to sustain impact.

The Global Accelerator Lab 7Intensifying Action Against Forced and Child Labor (GALAproject, funded by USDOL and implemented by the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (FUNDAMENTALdepartment, will provide support to stakeholders of the Cocoa Platforms in Ivory Coast and Ghana to identify and respond to the capacity building needs of worker organizations and the Ivorian and Ghanaian Platforms for sustainable cocoa farming.

GALAB will support tool development efforts, experience sharing and implement training that will facilitate opportunities to give more voice to the “worker voice”.

A specific effort will be dedicated to connecting worker organizations and cocoa platforms in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana to dialogue frameworks at the international and national levels.

Learning areas

As an intern, you will be exposed to a wide range of areas particularly project management and fundamental principles and rights at work: Freedom of association and collective bargaining, the elimination of child labor and forced labor, freedom from discrimination and safety and health at work.

You will gain experience working with specialists involved in the following tasks: Freedom of association and collective bargaining, Fundamental principles and rights at work, development cooperation projects, sustainable cocoa.

Under the direction of the Technical Manager for Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining and in close coordination with the Senior National Coordinator of the ENACTE project on behalf of the ILO, you will accomplish the following tasks:
• Support the planning and implementation of activities carried out as part of support for the Cocoa Platform in Côte d’Ivoire and at the regional level
• Contribute to the production of activity reports related to the implementation of support activities for worker organizations and cocoa platforms;
• Contribute to the preparation of meetings and dialogues, including internal ILO meetings, country level events, as well as experience sharing processes between organizations from different countries and the different ILO projects involved ;
• Contribute to the monitoring of activities implemented as part of support for worker organizations and cocoa platforms.

Interns should expect to devote 10% to 20% of their time to administrative tasks.

Required profile

Education

• The candidate must have followed one or more of the following training courses: Project management, Law, Sociology, Industrial Relations, International development, labour economics, Organization management
• The candidate must be enrolled in the final year of a higher education program (Masteor have completed such a program less than one year ago.

Experience

All relevant professional experience in project management and knowledge of fundamental principles and rights at work, sustainable and inclusive development, cocoa sustainability, project evaluation and monitoring tools.

Languages

Fluency in French, with a professional level of written and spoken English are required.

Competencies

• • Ability to adapt to an international, multicultural and multilingual environment
  • Good communication skills
  • Ability to plan, prioritize and complete tasks within assigned deadlines
  • Willingness to acquire new knowledge and skills and openness to constructive criticism
  • Ability to work in a team
  • Demonstrate gendersensitive and nondiscriminatory behavior and attitudes.

Additional requirements

• Experience in the field of implementing project activities related to the issues of sustainable cocoa farming or fundamental principles and rights at work would be an asset.