This three-year project spearheaded by the Payson Center for International Development examines efforts to establish child labor monitoring and verification systems in West Africa to assess progress made toward meeting obligations under the Harkin- Engel Protocol. The Harkin-Engel Protocol is a voluntary agreement signed in September 2001 by the Chocolate Manufacturers Association (CMA) and the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) and witnessed by the congressional offices of U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.). As part of the contract, the Payson Center also implements representative population surveys and other research activities to study the health effects on children working under exploitative conditions in the cocoa sector and trains government officials in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana to monitor the incidence of work in this sector. The Payson Center prepares annual reports for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the U.S. Congress on progress being made toward implementation of a child-labor-free cocoa certification system, covering at least 50 percent of the cocoa growing areas in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana.