Travail des enfants dans les exploitations de cacao en Côte d'Ivoire. Pour une réconciliation entre normes locales et normes internationales autour du « bic », du balai et de la machette

Despite years of mobilization to address the issue of child labour in cocoa growing communities, few progress have been made, particularly in Côte d?Ivoire. Inside communities, sensitized or not, children are still going to the cocoa farms with their parents and relatives. This study demonstrates that child labour is linked with social norms in rural societies. These social norms seem to be in contradiction with the international norms on childhood, labour and social protection. While learning through labour is a central aspect of the child socialization in Ivoirian communities, it also expresses education and training, with the permanent use of the tools of economic (machete), social ("Bic", i.e pen) and cultural (broom) knowledge. Participation to the plantation work, domestic chores, and formal school attendance are adding up to an indivisible whole which allows child to help his family and to insure himself a future. Thus, the international norms and standards appear to be hardly adapted and would need to be contextualized before being implemented at community level.