Chocolate's Bittersweet Economy: The of Ivory Coast - Case Study Example

Contents Contents Introduction 2 Literature Review 3 Stakeholders 3 Government 3 Local Suppliers 3 International Importers 4 International Community 4 Ethical Issues 5 Child Labor 6 Low Prices to farmers 6 Role of International Organizations 7 Bonded Labor 8 Suggestions 8 Legislation and its implementation 8 Pro-active role of international organizations 9 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction Ethics play critical role in the overall success and failure of an organization. The increasing set of regulations and a renewed focus on conducting business practices according to ethical standards require firms to behave and perform ethically. What is also however, significant to understand that ethical conduct of business require all stakeholders to perform their roles to the fullest? The relative diversity of stakeholders however, makes it difficult, in practice, to fix the responsibilities and point the overall accountability of the various stakeholders. Within international perspectives wherein trans-national organizations are at work, the situation may become more difficult as not directly controlling the stakes in various countries or rather at various steps of supply chain absolve most of the international organizations from their true responsibilities and accountabilities. This case study discusses some of the issues and concerns at child labor and how different stakeholders including large international importers of cocoa from Ivory Coast. The relative ethical considerations of each stakeholder and how they are contributing towards achieving the intended objectives of reducing or rather abolishing child labor from Cocoa fields is also discussed at great length. Issues discussed in the case study are diversified in nature and focus on multiple issues to provide a comprehensive understanding of the ethical issues surrounding the cocoa trade in Ivory Coast. This paper will therefore focus on replying the three questions asked at the end of the case study and provide a comprehensive analysis and explanation of the issues raised in the questions. Literature Review Stakeholders There are various groups of stakeholders with different degrees of moral obligations to perform. A critical look at the various groups of stakeholders is given below: Government Every government has the responsibility and moral obligation to provide basic necessities including clean water, health, education as well as safety of its citizens. The moral obligations of the government therefore require that it must act in a way which can ensure that every citizen has the access to basic and fundamental necessities. Government is a stakeholder in this case because it has to ensure that the children working in the forms are getting proper education as well as access to health. Further, government is also obliged to act on the international legislations barring child labor into the cocoa fields. It is also obligatory for the government to ensure that the taxes that it collects from the cocoa producers are spent on the development of physical infrastructure as well as other facilities such as building schools so that children can go to school besides a general improvement in the standards of living happens. Local Suppliers Local suppliers serve as the middle men in this whole cycle and they are the entities which basically coordinate with the farmers to purchase the cocoa and supply the same to the international organizations. Moral obligations of the local suppliers therefore include providence of right price according to the international prices prevailing in the market as well as ensuring that the better trade terms are offered to the farmers. International Importers International importers importing most of the cocoa from the country are also another critical group of stakeholders required to ensure that their overall supply chain works ethically. Since sourcing raw materials forms one of the parts of the supply chain it is therefore important that that sourcing of raw materials is done in such a manner that it ensures equal and unbiased transfer of benefits. The moral obligations of the international importers therefore are to force the middle men to ensure that the farmers are not utilizing their children in the farms to pick to cocoa. Further, they need to offer the higher price to the farmers so that the overall standards of life improve and children can be sent to school for education purposes besides improving other conditions. International Community An important ethical aspect of this whole scenario is the fact that international community has not played the role which it should have been. It is important to understand that the international community has the moral obligation of ensuring that the world is consuming those products which are ethically produced. In a globalized world where a lot of social destruction has taken place, it is critical that the consumers in developed world must ensure that the international organizations as well as governments do not exploit the poor farmers and provide goods which are manufactured by exploiting the resources of poor at very low cost. This will ensure that the goods and ethically produced with every stakeholder getting the right share. Ethical Issues There are range of issues that have been discussed in the case study however, to set in proper understanding of the ethical issues, it is important that a comprehensive review of the ethical issues is presented. Deontological ethics often view the actions from the perspectives of the rules and view the actions and their consequences according to their adherence to a generally accepted rule or set of rules. Accordingly, to judge the actions of individuals or group of individuals including organizations, it is important that one must look into the adherence of such actions with the rules. On the other hand, there is another approach to ethics which is called teleological ethics dealing primarily with the consequences of the actions rather than their adherence to the rules or set of rules. Non- adherence to the rules therefore creates situations where ethical issues can arise and have to be dealt with deontological principles of ethics.(White, 1993) Teleological ethics therefore are the essential form of utilitarian ethics dealing with the consequences of the actions. As such the focus is on assessing whether the consequences of the action created greatest good for the greatest number of people or not. If any action can create greatest good for the greatest number of people than such actions can be morally justified and can be considered as ethical. Having discussed the above two approaches to ethics, it is now critical that a comprehensive look into the overall ethical issues Child Labor One of the most important issues raised in the case study is that of the child labor which is considered as unethical as children are supposed to be not working before they reach their working age according to the law. This issue has been raised from the deontological perspective as it deals with the non-adherence with the rules and regulations regarding the child labor. According to international law i.e. Harkin- Engel in this case, child labor is prohibited and as such there is substantial body of rules and regulations- both at international as well as regional level, which specifically prohibits the child labor because of its potential consequences for the society as a whole. However, if we view this issue from the teleological perspectives, child labor issue may be relatively acceptable because it helps a poor society like Ivory Coast to overcome the economic hardships of families by adding more earning hands to the family. Low Prices to farmers Paying low prices to the farmers is another important ethical issue which has been discussed in the case study. The potential reason as to why the children are forced to work in the farms is because of the fact that farmers are not paid well. This issue therefore needs to be viewed from the perspective of the teleological ethics because paying low price is not serving the society as a whole and needs to be corrected at both the government and international level. What is also significant to understand that paying low price, farmers as well as the society as a whole because it creates poverty and thus lack of adequate facilities such as education as well as access to better health facilities? Role of International Organizations There is a growing body of literature which increasingly focuses on the ethical conduct of the international organizations specially with respect to their supply chains. Over the period of time, international organizations have become trans-national in nature and as such they procure raw material from developing countries for processing and subsequent sale in Western countries. What is however, significant to understand that due to price competition, international organizations force their suppliers to offer the raw material at cheapest prices so that the final good can be sold at sustainable price in the international market? However, in doing so, there are certain social issues which creep in into developing countries forcing raw material suppliers to live in relatively difficult conditions. Thus the role of international organizations and their overall ethical responsibilities and actions also need to be viewed from the point of view of the teleological ethics. Though it may seem that offering low priced products to the world at large may seem a very plausible idea however, its consequences seems to be really severe for the economies which are net suppliers of the raw materials. This case study provides numerous examples wherein international organizations failed to perform their moral obligations and probably the major factor behind the child labor in the country. Bonded Labor Another important issue that has been raised in the case study is that of the bonded labor for the immigrants. It is discussed that the immigrants are not only facing violent conditions from the local farmers however, they are also forced to live in certain areas. This is also significant ethical issue for the local government because such practices create strong social issues to be dealt with. The issue of bonded labor of immigrants therefore needs to be viewed from the deontological perspectives because potentially it is a non-compliance with the domestic as well as international rules and regulations. Suggestions In order to overcome the issues described above, it is important that following actions may be taken: Legislation and its implementation Though the case study mentions various legislations done in order to overcome the child labor issue what is however, lacking is the fact there is a general lack of implementation of such regulations. International as well as domestic regulations are in place however; their implementation is a bigger issue. Red tape as well as bribery seems to be a common feature therefore in such scenario, the effective implementation of the rules and regulations seems to be a difficult task. What government needs to do is to create special task forces at regional levels which can oversee the implementation of the rules and regulations for child labor. Further, it is also important that task forces shall be independent and without any political pressure to implement the regulations. Pro-active role of international organizations It is more important that the international organizations must become more proactive in managing the ethical issues related with the child labor in cocoa farms. By forcing the middlemen to offer right price to only those farmers who does not engage their children into child labor, international organizations can actively push forward the implementation of the local as well as international regulations. Further, international organizations can also engage the farmers at the local level by offering them effective education and awareness. By establishing the schools at the local levels, international organizations can effectively allow the children to obtain the free education near to their homes and contribute positively towards the society as a whole. Further, it is also important that international organizations form partnerships with the government rather than dealing directly with the middlemen. In this way, they may negotiate better conditions for the farmers by forcing the government to implement the legislations against child labor. Conclusion Child labor is an important issue which needs to be dealt not only at the domestic level but at the international level also. Ivory Coast and its cocoa farmers is just one example of how child labor is rampant in the less developing countries thus it becomes the responsibility of the transnational organizations to offer better terms to their raw material suppliers so that they can live a decent life and are not forced to live in abject poverty despite the fact that they offer raw materials for products which are sold at high prices in the international markets. References White, T (1993). Business Ethics: A Philosophical Reader. Illustrated. ed. New York: Macmillan. Read More