LifeSmarts honors FBLA student leaders in Anaheim – National Consumers League

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July 18, 2017

Contact: Cindy Hoang, National Consumers League, (202) 207-2832, cindyh@nclnet.org

George C. Marshall High School students recognized with top honors in LifeSmarts competition at FBLA National Leadership Conference in Anaheim

Washington, DC—Earlier this month, students from George C. Marshall High School in Falls Church, VA, competing at the 2017 Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) National Leadership Conference, took home cash prizes for winning first place in the FBLA LifeSmarts competitive event, June 29–July 2, in Anaheim, California. More than 14,000 of America’s best and brightest high school students from across the country gathered in Anaheim for the annual leadership conference, hosted by FBLA, at which top future business students compete in 65 events.

LifeSmarts is an educational and scholarship program run by the National Consumers League (NCL), the nation’s oldest consumer advocacy organization. LifeSmarts competitively tests high school students’ knowledge of consumer awareness, with subjects including personal finance, health and safety, consumer rights and responsibilities, technology, and the environment. The free program is available in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and in partnership with student leadership programs FBLA, as well as the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA.) 

Sixteen FBLA LifeSmarts teams competed over the course of two days, accumulating points through buzzer matches, a team competition, and individual written assessments. The top eight teams advanced to the second day of competition and competed in a knock-out bracket. The team from George C. Marshall High School beat a team from Lynbrook High School in San Jose, California, in the final match.

Students attended the FBLA conference to enhance their business skills, expand their networks, and participate in business-related competitive events, including the LifeSmarts competition.

LifeSmarts honors in Anaheim

Students from George C. Marshall High School, Falls Church, Virginia, coached by FBLA Adviser Rebekah Glasbrenner, took home first place in the LifeSmarts competition. The team is made up of students Ethan Epstein and Sam Hassett, both recent graduates.

Other winners included:

  • Lynbrook High School from San Jose, California (2nd place)
  • Nickerson High School from Nickerson, Kansas (3rd place)
  • Pensacola High School from Pensacola, Florida (4th place)

“We are so proud of all the LifeSmarts competitors. Throughout competition they exemplified the strength of the LifeSmarts and FBLA partnership, showcasing team spirit, good sportsmanship, leadership, and a breadth of knowledge in financial literacy and consumer rights,” said Lisa Hertzberg, LifeSmarts program director.

The LifeSmarts competition is part of a comprehensive, national, competitive events program sponsored by FBLA-PBL, in partnership with NCL, which recognizes and rewards excellence in a broad range of business and career-related areas. For many students, the competitive events are the capstone activity of their academic careers. In addition to competitions, students immersed themselves in interactive workshops, visited an information-packed exhibit hall, and heard from motivational speakers on a broad range of business topics.

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About LifeSmarts and the National Consumers League

LifeSmarts is a program of the National Consumers League. State coordinators run the programs on a volunteer basis. For more information, visit: LifeSmarts.org, email lifesmarts@nclnet.org.

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit nclnet.org.

About FBLA-PBL, Inc.

Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda, Inc., the premier student business organization, is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) education association with a quarter million members and advisers in over 6,500 active middle school, high school, and college chapters worldwide. Its mission is to bring business and education together in a positive working relationship through innovative leadership and career development programs. The association is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC For more information, visit fbla-pbl.org.

NCL statement before FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee – National Consumers League

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July 13, 2017

Statement of Sally Greenberg, Executive Director
National Consumers League

FDA-2017-N-2732
Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee; Notice of Meeting; Establishment of a Public Docket; Request for Comments 
Open Public Hearing Re: Consideration of Mylan’s biosimilar to Genentech Inc.’s HERCEPTIN (trastuzumab) 

The National Consumers League (NCL) appreciates the opportunity to testify today in support of biosimilars. My name is Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of NCL. Since our founding in 1899, NCL has long been concerned with ensuring the safety, effectiveness, and appropriate use of both prescription and OTC drugs, and medication adherence, which we have helped to advance through our Script Your Future Campaign. 

In addition to being a champion for safe and effective medicines, NCL is committed to ensuring that consumers have access to quality medicines that are also affordable. NCL is a strong supporter of biosimilars, and testified last October in support of the reauthorization of the Biosimilar User Fee Act (BsUFA). We recognize that the entry of biosimilars into the U.S. market presents an opportunity to broaden patient access to life-saving biologic treatments while bolstering competition, reducing costs, and realizing better health outcomes.

Biologics are a manifestation of revolutionary advancements in the development of therapies for patients with debilitating and deadly diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and various forms of cancer. Unfortunately, the price for these complex therapies is often prohibitive for the vulnerable patients who need them the most – with some costing upward of several hundred thousand dollars per year. Biosimilars provide a less expensive alternative to their reference products, offering the same potency and therapeutic benefits at a fraction of the price. Similar to the dynamic relationship of generic and brand name drugs, the presence of biosimilars will not only encourage patient choice, but also boost market competition and drive down costs.

The biosimilar being considered today would be an alternative to the biologic medicine trastuzumab, which treats HER2-positive breast cancer and gastric cancer. HER2+ breast cancer is a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer that affects 1 in 5 women with the disease. In 2017 alone, it is estimated that over 300,000 people will be diagnosed with breast cancer and over 40,000 women will die as a result of this terrible disease. Fortunately, biologic therapies have transformed the way in which we treat breast cancer, with many patients experiencing decreased odds of recurrence, increased odds of survival, and an improved quality of life.

NCL supports FDA’s science-based review of Mylan’s and other new biosimilar applications so that patients can have expanded and affordable access to the safe and effective biologic medicines they need. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.

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About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

National Consumers League opposes Department of Education rollbacks – National Consumers League

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July 13, 2017

Media contact: NCL Communications, Cindy Hoang, cindyh@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

The National Consumers League (NCL), the nation’s pioneering consumer advocacy organization, filed comments with the Department of Education (DOE) yesterday strongly opposing the dismantling of two pro-consumer Obama-era rules that are intended to prevent predatory practices at for-profit colleges. The first being the “gainful employment regulations,” finalized in October 2014, and the second, “borrower defense to repayment and college accountability regulations,” which was finalized in November 2016. 

“For years, predatory for-profit colleges have defrauded students and families while profiting from federal aid. Multiple investigations have revealed that federal taxpayers are subsidizing schools and programs that consistently leave students and veterans with loans they cannot repay and credentials they cannot use. These schools have offered low-quality, high-priced programs, shortchanged students in their support service offerings, and often misrepresented their abysmal graduation and job-placement rates,” said NCL’s Executive Director Sally Greenberg. “We are asking the Department of Education to reconsider this position and protect the interests of students who have often been treated abysmally by for profit institutions.”  

Read NCL’s full comments to the Department of Education here. 

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About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

National Consumers League condemns Senator Cotton’s efforts to roll back long overdue consumer protections – National Consumers League

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July 12, 2017

Media contact: NCL Communications, Cindy Hoang, cindyh@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

The following statement is attributable to Sally Greenberg, NCL executive director:

“After years of careful study and a mandate from Congress, the CFPB rolled out a long overdue rule to protect consumers from forced arbitration. The CFPB’s new rule will guarantee consumers’ rights to join together in a class action. Unfortunately, it took Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and corporate lobbyists less than a day to begin working to undermine this important consumer protection by introducing a Congressional Review Act resolution designed to overturn the rule.

It’s no wonder that corporate lobbyists are so worried about being barred from practicing forced arbitration. Many companies have snuck these provisions into their contracts to protect themselves from being sued for illegal behavior, making them effectively above the rule of law. These odious rip off clauses not only protect corporate wrongdoing, they actually encourage bad practices, because companies know that no matter how badly they act, they face few or no legal consequences. We saw companies hide behind these clauses when Wells Fargo committed identity fraud against their customers, and when Kay Jewelers and Fox News were found to be sexually harassing their employees. While they may try to overturn this long overdue consumer protection, they must not succeed. NCL is committed to protecting consumers from these ‘rip off clauses,’ ensuring that all consumers have access to the justice system, and that corporations are not allowed to abuse their customers and employees with impunity.”

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About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

Forced marriage still a reality in the U.S. – National Consumers League

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Female Genital MutiliationI learned recently about something I had naively thought was not an America problem: that forced marriage of girls as young as 10 or 11 years old to much older men is happening in the United States. The National Consumers League (NCL) works to protect children from child labor and child marriage. 

The connection between early marriage and child labor is that girls get sold to husbands who use and often abuse them as domestics; the girls are expected to cook, clean, wash clothes, fetch water, and bear and care for children.

Internationally, we support such movements as “Girls Not Brides,” which fights the scourge of child marriage in Africa and around the globe. However, recently Nicolas Kristof in the New York Times highlighted the plight of a young American girl, Sherry Johnson, who was raped at nine years old, became pregnant in Florida as part of an evangelical community, and was forced to marry at the age of 11 her 20-year-old rapist.

Even before she married, Johnson gave birth to a daughter at the age of 10. Unchained At Last is an American advocacy group that tracks child marriage. It was founded by advocate Fraidy Reiss, who gave a recent interview to National Public Radio, herself grew up in the Ultra Orthodox Jewish community under laws that require consent from husbands before a woman can divorce. Her group estimates that over a decade, 250,000 girls as young as 10 have been forced to marry in the US. Twenty-seven states don’t enforce a minimum age for child marriage.

I was astonished to learn of the plight of these girls. Just like in less developed countries, girls are sold to older men as brides at 10- and 11-years-old in some part of the United States. Many of them become pregnant long before it’s safe for them to bear children. Because so many states have no minimum age for marriage, girls in aren’t protected if their parents force them to marry or sell them to an older man. Leaders of the movement to get states to require girls to be 18 before they are allowed to marry say it’s far more difficult than they predicted to get these laws passed across all 50 states.

In June, Texas—the state with the nation’s second highest child-marriage rate—banned the practice, prohibiting marriage to individuals under 18 unless they are 16 or 17 AND are an emancipated minor (and therefore considered to be adults). Between 2000 and 2014, nearly 40,000 minors were married in Texas, including girls as young as 12.

“Girls who marry before age 19 are 50 percent more likely to drop out of high school than their peers and four times less likely to finish college,” noted reporter Christina Cauterucci, who has written about the child marriage epidemic. “They experience higher rates of psychiatric disorders and face rates of intimate-partner violence nearly three times higher than the U.S. average.”

The National Consumers League supports a ban on marriage for people under 18 unless they are emancipated minors. This broad based policy would eliminate many forced marriages involving children while protecting them from the risks to their mental, physical and emotional well-being associated with early marriage.

Female genital mutilation still an atrocious crime in the U.S. – National Consumers League

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SG_HEADSHOT.jpgFemale genital mutilation, which is practiced widely in Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, and India, turns out to be in evidence here in the U.S. as well. This tragic fact is not known by many people. Apparently, in some parts of the U.S. where immigrants from those parts of the world reside, U.S. trained doctors have attempted to perform surgeries on young girls. The World Health Organization (WHO) regards female genital cutting as a violation of human rights. The practice involves cutting of female genitalia and often results in infections and lifelong suffering. 

In the past year in Michigan, two doctors from a small Shiite Muslim sect were believed to have arranged cutting of up to 100 girls, according to prosecutors.

The girls are young, some even around 6-years-old. An American journalist who was herself cut at a young age in the U.S., Tasneen Raja, has decided to write about this terrible practice and along with other American women have started a movement to blow the doors open and condemn what has apparently been happening even in the U.S. for years, but has been shrouded in secrecy.

In 1996, female genital mutilation was banned in the United State. And in 2013, traveling to another country for cutting became illegal. Michigan has begun petitions to terminate custodial rights of the parents who have allowed their daughters to undergo this mutilation. The doctors themselves are either under house arrest or behind bars. One of the doctors received her medical degree at Johns Hopkins. 

Nazia Mirza of Texas, herself a young victim, is one of the leaders of the movement. She explained in the New York Times article cited above that the justification for the practice is to curb sexual promiscuity or preserve tradition. She was told she needed to do this in order to get married. It’s shocking that American trained doctors are still engaging in this criminal, misogynist, and violent practice against girls. NCL has long championed the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls. These cases grab our attention and give us cause to renew our call that laws against such barbaric practices be enforced and violators punished to the full extent of the law.  

National Consumers League celebrates CFPB’s final rule to guarantee consumers their day in court – National Consumers League

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July 11, 2017

Media contact: NCL Communications, Cindy Hoang, cindyh@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC— After five years of careful study, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today issued its final rule to greatly restrict the use of forced arbitration clauses in consumer contracts. The National Consumers League (NCL) applauds the CFPB’s efforts to restore consumers’ right to challenge financial fraud in court, and the agency’s realization of its congressional mandate under the Dodd-Frank Act to rein in this practice.

The following statement is attributable to Sally Greenberg, NCL executive director:

“Forced arbitration is a tactic employed by corporate America to deprive consumers of their day in court when companies engage in misconduct. These ‘ripoff clauses’ are always buried in the fine print of contracts and have the effect of curtailing consumers’ legal rights and forcing them into closed arbitration sessions bought and paid for by company interests. Since the arbitrators rely on industry for business, arbitrators too often side against harmed consumers and in favor of their corporate clients–in fact, 93 percent of the time. Under the new rules, companies will not have free rein to use these odious clauses, which NCL believes gives a green light for toxic corporate behavior. The CFPB’s rule will help restore the rights of consumers to join class-action lawsuits and bring transparency to the opaque process of arbitration. NCL is proud to stand with more than 280 consumer, civil rights, labor, and community groups to support the CFPB’s arbitration rule. Today’s action is an important step forward in the fight to empower consumers in the financial marketplace.”

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About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

Senate Republicans try their hand at nixing the Affordable Care Act – National Consumers League

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j_johnson92.jpgWill Republicans’ third attempt to get rid of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) finally be a charm? Well, those in the Senate are doing everything they can to see to it. Following weeks of closed door wheeling and dealing, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (BCRA) has emerged from the Senate as the latest piece of proposed legislation to repeal and replace the ACA. Despite its name, there’s not much about this bill that’s “better”—at least not for the bulk of Americans. 

The BCRA is nothing short of a broken promise to the American people to (1) improve upon the shortcomings of the House legislation, and (2) ensure affordable healthcare for all.  On the contrary, this bill proposes to slash Medicaid funding even deeper than the House bill, defund Planned Parenthood, phase out the Essential Health Benefits that guarantee that every plan offers comprehensive health coverage, significantly weaken consumer health protections, and ultimately kick 22 million Americans off their health insurance. Special interests and tax cuts for the wealthy are prioritized above quality, affordable coverage, and our country’s most vulnerable populations are left with even narrower access to the care they need. Furthermore, this terrible policy is accompanied by even worse politics.

Like so much in our current political environment, the process of this bill, from start to finish, is unprecedented. Whereas passage of the ACA was preceded by nearly 15 months of debate, public hearings, and consideration of dozens of Republican amendments, the BRCA was crafted by an exclusive committee of 13 Republican lawmakers in virtual secrecy without input from the public or even the wider Senate. To add insult to injury, Senate Republicans led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have done everything they can to rush this legislation through Congress without adequate review, originally aiming to bring the bill to the floor mere days after releasing the text to the public. A bill of this magnitude—one that affects millions of Americans and represents an overhaul to one-sixth of the American economy—should not be a pawn in a partisan political game, but rather deserves the utmost transparency and rigorous evaluation. After all, it was Mitch McConnell himself, who in 2009 said, “Fast-tracking a major legislative overhaul such as healthcare reform…without the benefit of a full and transparent debate does a disservice to the American people.” Senator McConnell, I couldn’t agree with you more.

Nonetheless, there is a break in the clouds—Senator McConnell was forced to postpone voting on the BRCA as the GOP could not coalesce around the legislation before the July 4 Congressional recess. Like the House, many Republicans in the Senate are having a hard time reconciling this healthcare overhaul—some believing the bill goes too far, and others thinking the bill doesn’t go far enough. Many moderate senators, particularly those in Medicaid expansion states and states suffering from the opioid epidemic, are facing immense pressure and scrutiny from health advocates and constituents alike, and increasing visibility around the staggering consequences of the BCRA, compounded by the release of a dismal Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score have certainly made the job of selling this bill to the American public significantly harder.

Though the July 4 recess has temporarily sent our senators home, far away from Capitol Hill, it is important to note that just because we may not be hearing anything, does not mean nothing is happening. Senate Republicans have a few more tricks up their sleeve in the form of federal dollars that might entice senators who are on the fence about the bill to get on board. One of the ideas being touted to make the bill more palatable is the addition of a $45 billion opioid addiction treatment fund to support states suffering from the opioid crisis. However, given the massive cuts to insurance coverage that the BCRA proposes, this funding would still prove to be inadequate as people won’t be able to access treatment that they can’t pay for. While it is uncertain whether moderate Republican senators will see this funding as an adequate remedy to their concerns, another way forward might even be repealing the ACA without a replacement. Despite its unpopularity with the American people, President Trump recently called on the GOP senators to repeal the ACA immediately if they cannot agree on a replacement soon. However, such a risky political move may be a gamble Senate Republicans aren’t willing to take.

So while we wait to see what’s next, what can YOU do?

The best thing you can do is continue to engage your senators. Call them. Email them. Tweet them. SEIU’s Healthcare Security Hotline (866-426-2631) will connect you with a Republican Member of Congress based on your zip code. Let them know that passing a bill that causes millions of Americans to lose health insurance or pay more money for less care is not only reckless, but unacceptable. In this critical stretch, it is more important now than ever to take a stand. Never forget that the power to effect change is always with the American people and your voice matters. It is you— the patients, consumers, Americans—that we at the National Consumers League fight for and we will continue to stand with you in these efforts to protect our care. 

Coding Bootcamp Claims: The truth behind the numbers – National Consumers League

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They promise valuable skills, new careers, and higher salaries. They offer convenient and flexible schedules. But at the end of the day, for-profit schools are just businesses…and it’s all too easy for clever marketing to come between prospective students and realistic expectations.

A string of high-profile school closures has plagued the for-profit education sector for the past several years, including the 35,000-student ITT Educational Services, and all 28 campuses run by Corinthian Colleges. Unfortunately, a string of incidents suggest that some coding bootcamps may be following the same pattern. Though there have been some promising developments in the area of educator accountability, for the most part, graduation rates and job placement statistics remain uneven, confusing, and sometimes downright misleading.

Lack of transparency

At first glance, most coding schools boast impressive numbers. The outcomes page of the average bootcamp usually features impressive names and numbers, spanning world-class companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Amazon, Capital One, and Paypal. Bootcamps often post sky-high job placement and graduation rates hovering above 90 percent.

Unfortunately, what are most impressive aren’t the statistics themselves—but the creative and sometimes diversionary formula used to create them. Few schools are audited by third-party organizations—a critical step to proving an institution’s credibility—and a 2016 survey by the International Business Times found that of 11 major coding bootcamps investigated, only one had its results verified by a third-party auditor. The survey criticized these schools for making little effort to substantiate what claims they made, such as by failing to disclose student completion rates, job placement rates, or both. These concerns were echoed in a 2016 assessment by the San Francisco Chronicle, which found serious discrepancies in the 2015 numbers for several schools.

One problem in particular—selection bias—has been found to be a serious problem with bootcamp claims. Without the presence of a third-party auditor, schools can choose to exclude groups of students at will, especially those who enroll without US residency and citizenship (but who pay the same rates as their American peers). Stretching the criteria for “personal emergency” is another tactic used to hide the graduates who are unable to find jobs.

In 2015, ten bootcamps sent a letter to then-President Obama, promising that they would commit and adhere to clearer standards in coding education. Among their commitments were disaggregating information—by ethnicity, religion, gender, and veteran status—breaking down how long it took various numbers of students to find jobs, and determining an accurate average salary among graduates.

Two years later, the first such initiative—which focuses on setting standards and defining responsible reporting—is now here. Seventeen schools have joined forces to form the Council on Integrity in Results Reporting (CIRR). Members include well-known schools, but it’s worth noting that the newly founded group does not include many other well-known bootcamps.

Still, the *CIRR methodology is a big step forward, mainly because it emphasizes clear communication (results must be compiled in a single, clear report), stringent standards, and regular auditing. CIRR’s *reporting requirements address in detail the statistical problems that have long plagued bootcamps. Notably, graduate job placement numbers must be broken down into categories like full-time, part-time, internship, apprenticeship, and entrepreneur.

Only time will tell whether the CIRR is as effective as it aims to be, but it is without a doubt a step in the right direction. In the absence of effective government intervention (the California-based Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education being a notable exception) the only consumer protection in the coding bootcamp industry comes from what is essentially a self-regulating industry group. And the CIRR, well-intentioned as it may seem, is not explicitly set up to assist consumers, even those enrolled in its member institutions. Instead, its main goal is to set standards for subscribing bootcamps—and in the process, boost these schools’ public image.

Though CIRR is a good start, the scope of its oversight is limited and its motivations are perhaps not entirely neutral. Until coding bootcamps are thoroughly regulated and vetted like traditional institutions of higher education, coding bootcamps may continue to have a suspect reputation in the minds of many prospective students.

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings.

For the love of chocolate…On World Chocolate Day, we look at the human cost behind chocolate – National Consumers League

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chocolateday.pnghere’s no doubt that humans love chocolate. Globally, we consume $80 to $100 billion worth of it a year. Despite its popularity and the joy it gives us, there is a dark side to chocolate: cocoa, its main ingredient, is often produced by child labor. The US Department of Labor (USDOL) identifies this as the case in six countries: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

In two of those countries, the Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria, USDOL notes there is forced labor on cocoa plantations. There is also evidence that thousands of children have been trafficked to work on cocoa plantations from neighboring countries Mali, Burkina Faso, and Togo.

Exploitation in chocolate’s supply chain became hotly discussed in 2000 and 2001 when media reports about wide-spread child labor in the West Africa nations of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, where the majority of cocoa was being produced, were published.

Congressional leaders were alarmed about the reports. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) introduced legislation that would require child-labor free chocolate to be recognized with a label. The measure passed the US House of Representatives but it didn’t take long for everyone to realize that wanting child-labor free cocoa and delivering on that promise were two very different things. The nature of cocoa farming made it a very difficult crop to remove child labor from cocoa production. The region features hundreds of thousands of small cocoa farms operating in jungle-like topography. The region is lacking much infrastructure, including thousands of schools that would be needed to educate all the children working in cocoa.

In Congress, the chocolate companies hired two former majority leaders to lobby against the labelling requirement. A different course was needed. Rep. Engel and Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) worked to establish an innovative multi-stakeholder initiative to begin efforts to reduce child labor.

The so-called “Harkin-Engel Protocol” launched in September 2001 brought together eight of the largest chocolate companies, the government of the Côte d’Ivoire, the International Labour Organization’s International Programme to Eliminate Child Labour, the International Cocoa Organization, Free the Slaves, The Child Labor Coalition and the National Consumers League. Other signatories included Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), Harkin, and Engel. The agreement committed industry to work with NGOs and the West African governments to remedy abusive forms of child labor.

Unfortunately, despite the passage of nearly 16 years, child labor persists in West Africa’s cocoa plantations. A survey conducted by Tulane University researchers commissioned by the US Department of Labor released in 2015 found that although more children were going to school—a very good thing—there had been a 48 percent increase in the number of children in child labor in the Côte d’Ivoire from four years prior and only a little progress in reducing child labor had taken place in Ghana.

When you looked at both countries together, more than two million children were performing hazardous work in cocoa, including cutting down trees, burning fields, applying toxic chemicals, carrying heavy loads, and using machetes. Tulane found that the number of children exposed to hazardous chemicals had increased by 44 percent from four years earlier.

Researchers also noted that older children and young adults had been migrating away from cocoa-growing areas, leaving behind a very young and very old workforce.

Any way you slice your chocolate bar, much work remains to be done. While in Ghana researchers found that 96 percent of children attended school, in Côte d’Ivoire three in every 10 children in cocoa producing areas did not attend school.

The Framework for Action of the Harkin-Engel Protocol requires that 1.5 million children be removed from hazardous cocoa work by 2020. Unfortunately, sharply falling cocoa prices this year have not helped farmers earn sustainable livings in West Africa—one of the keys to reducing child labor.

The 2015 Tulane report suggests that new approaches to reducing child labor in the cocoa sector are needed and the current approaches are not working well enough. During the coming year, the Child Labor Coalition hopes to explore new ideas with the chocolate industry that may help alleviate this crisis.

In the meantime, consumers can express their concern about the situation to their favorite chocolate companies and try to identify the companies that go to lengths to work directly with farmers or cooperatives to improve farmers’ incomes. Divine Chocolate is one such company—farmers own the biggest share of the company. Divine is small but growing, and its innovative structure could be replicated by other companies.

We envision a day when consumers will have readily available child-labor-free chocolate to consume, so that they might enjoy delicious treats free from very negative human costs—child labor, child slavery, and child trafficking—associated with it. It’s certainly a goal worth working toward.