Macquarie Business School Professor John Dumay: Fighting child slavery with chocolate Easter egg initiative

A Sydney academic is leading a fight against child slavery in the African cocoa industry by pressuring chocolate manufacturers to step up their practices. See what can be done to help this Easter.

Shoppers heading out to stash up on Easter eggs this week can play their part in helping to end child slavery, thanks to an initiative spearheaded by a Sydney academic.

Macquarie Business School professor John Dumay is the lead collaborator with the charity ‘Be Slavery Free’, which is working to expose and eradicate child slavery in the chocolate industry.

Up to 75 per cent of the world’s cocoa comes from West Africa and the livelihoods of millions of producers depend on it.

However, children have been harvesting cocoa for at least two decades and a recent report by the US Department of Labor revealed more than 1.5 million children were working to produce cocoa in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana in 2018-19.

A Sydney academic is spearheading the effort to eradicate child slavery this Easter.

Speaking to NewsLocal, Mr Dumay said his passion to make a difference was sparked in 2016 when he read an article on Nestlé's work helping women in West Africa earn a wage.

He was soon put in touch with a charity ‘Be Slavery Free’, which is seeking to eliminate modern day slavery in the chocolate industry.

“Children as young as five years old are being denied an education,” Mr Dumay said. “In addition, 24 per cent of children working in cocoa production are being exposed to agrochemicals - with potentially devastating impacts on their development.

“The idea of creating joy for children with Easter egg hunts and decorated eggs off the trauma and suffering of other children is abhorrent to many.

“We often think slavery has been abolished because we are no longer allowed to possess a person, but so many people — including children — are still being enslaved through forced labour.”

In his spare time, Professor John Dumay (pictured) also helps run a popular brewery.

Mr Dumay’s passion for eradicating slavery has led him to create the 2022 Chocolate Scorecard.

The academic surveyed chocolate manufacturers and constructed a league table with 38 of the world’s top chocolate companies to create the scorecard.

Companies receive a coloured bunny reflecting their overall progress across several areas, such as whether they use child labour and sustainable farming practices.

The list on the scorecard includes household names like Mars, Lindt, Nestlé, Mondelez (Cadbury), Ferrero and Hershey’s. Green eggs are awarded to companies pursuing best practices.

Mr Dumay says the mission of the scorecard is to ‘fame and shame’.

But according to Mr Dumay the chocolate scorecard is not about shaming particular companies.

“We are not out to shame people — instead, we call it ‘shame and fame’,” he said.

“We give credit where credit is due because we want companies to achieve the green egg (awarded for best practices).”

Mr Dumay said he was most proud of the impact this scorecard is having on companies’ desire to pursue more ethical practices and eradicate child slavery in West Africa.

“Thirty-two out of the 38 top chocolate companies reached out to us before we published this scorecard,” Mr Dumay said.

“(These companies) are genuinely trying to make improvements and I think this is a really good example of how academics, NGOs and companies can all work together.”