Implications of Third Party Voluntary Cocoa Certification on Labour and Livelihood Systems in Ghana

The study sets out to understand certification as an innovation and its potential in reorganizing cocoa production systems in Ghana. Third party certification as a key innovation in the cocoa production system of Ghana operates many standards that require a lot of efforts to comply. To reduce high labour cost, farmers were using nnoboa extensively to support each other. Certification has brought new rules and guidelines which are affecting how organisations involved in certification progressed. The level of competency required by standards bodies to operationalise certification is beyond the capacity of individual farmers and the farmer groups as well and therefore would require external support in the medium to long term. The improvement in the childrenʹs school attendance and access to basic school materials are subtle ways of cocoa certification to reduce the worst forms of child labour.