Tag Archives: child labour

Lifestyle

Child labour crisis: UN calls for urgent global action

Maravi Post Reporter

The chief of the International Labour Organization (ILO) reported, “We do have 160 million children in child labour, 79 million of whom are in hazardous work.” Today (13 May) the Informal interactive dialogue on ‘Childhood with dignity: Eliminating child labour in all its forms, including forced recruitment and use of children in armed conflict,’ was held at the UNHQ. Addressing the interactive dialogue Gilbert F. Houngbo, ILO Director-General said, “Roughly 112 million children work in agriculture with young children aged between five and 11, and they are particularly at risk.

Over 7 million children are in domestic labor, too often out of sight and therefore out of mind.” He added, “And let us not forget the tragedy of the use of children, echoing the president of the General Assembly, of children in armed conflict. These are some of the gravest violations of children’s rights.” He also said, “We need to enact integrated strategies that promote all fundamental principles and right at work. Decent Work for parents is key to tackling poverty, and poverty is one of the main drivers of child labor.”

Cristina Isabel Lopes da Silva Monteiro Duarte, UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Advisor on Africa, said, “When we speak of child labour, we are not merely addressing a social issue. We are confronting a development failure: a failure of planning, protection, and policy.” She also said, “Africa has the highest prevalence of child labour globally. Nearly half of all children in child labour worldwide are in Africa, and a disproportionate number of them are girls. This is not just a statistic. It is a warning.”

She stressed, “By 2030, half of all new entrants to the global labour force will come from this continent. With the youngest population on earth, Africa holds immense potential. But this demographic dividend will not pay itself. If neglected, it will become a demographic liability—a ticking time bomb that fuels inequality, instability, and fragility.”

She concluded, “We require bold action, not incremental reform. It means treating child labour not as an unfortunate by-product of poverty, but as a clear indicator of system breakdown and policy failure. Let us name the problem with clarity. Let us face it with courage. And let us act— decisively, and together.”

Source: Africanews

https://video.euronews.com/mp4/ED/14/85/03/03/ED_PYR_1485033_20250514051434.mp4
Regional

Opinion: We can end child labour in Africa. Here’s how

Maravi Post Reporter

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With 92 million girls and boys in child labour — one in five children — Africa is the most-affected region in the world. Eliminating child labour worldwide will not be achieved without a breakthrough here.

This is not justifiable. Children have the right not to work. Children trapped in child labour today are the unskilled labour force of tomorrow. Ending child labour is key to sustainable development. Urgent measures to end child labour should be viewed as an investment for the future.

Is there hope to end this situation? Absolutely Yes! As the ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said “Optimism relies on political will. You don’t have to be a dreamer to be optimistic. You need to have good reasons to be optimistic”. In Africa, we have 92 million reasons to be optimistic about ending child labour.

So, what should be done?

The recently concluded 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour that took place in South Africa reiterated the need to focus on prevention.

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This is particularly true for Africa – a young continent with a fast-growing population. If we don’t act now, we should expect 105 million children will be in child labour in Africa in 2025, which will worsen in the following years.

It is critical to tackle the root causes of child labour in our continent. These include: the lack of access to free quality education; high levels of poverty and vulnerability of households; limited decent work opportunities for parents and young people as well as very high levels of informality and inequalities.

In Africa, four out of five children in child labour live in rural areas and work in agriculture, a sector where workers are often functionally dependent on the unpaid work of children. In addition, Africa is one of the regions most affected by crisis linked to conflict and disasters as well as climate change.

The Durban Call to Action demands for scaled-up action in six key areas to address these root causes, among which are: the need to ensure free quality education, to promote decent jobs for young people and adults and to the need to invest in social protection as a means to reduce poverty and vulnerability.

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This year on the World Day on the Elimination of Child Labour, I would like to focus on the critical importance of social protection to end child labour in Africa.

Exposure to shocks (sudden job loss or illness or injury to family members) increases the chances that a child will work. Social protection reduces vulnerabilities and empowers communities by ensuring that children attend and remain in school, and that parents have the income to sustain their development and education.

A newly published ILO-UNICEF report shows that social protection reduces child labour and facilitates schooling.

There are regions in the World where child labour has been reduced over time. Some countries have been more successful in lowering child poverty and in raising levels of social protection for children and their families.

However, Africa faces a double challenge in comparison to other continents. It is the continent with the highest prevalence and the largest numbers of children in child labour and the lowest social protection coverage. In Africa, 83% of the population has no social protection at all.

Similarly, within Africa: Western, Central and Eastern Africa are the three sub-regions with the largest proportion of children in child labour and also have the lowest social protection coverage.

Universal social protection and the elimination of child labour are both priorities in the regional agenda of the African Union, governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations, the ILO and other development partners.

In Africa, anchored in the 2019 Abidjan Declaration, the ILO aims to accelerate social protection coverage to reach 40% by 2025, especially for informal and rural populations.

We see emerging models of interventions designed to simultaneously contribute to improving social protection coverage and ending child labour. In Côte d’Ivoire, for instance, the ILO supports the National Health Insurance Fund to extend universal health coverage to smallholder farmers working in cocoa.

Through a supply chain approach, the existing sourcing and operational structure of the value chain is used as an alternative distribution channel, thereby increasing access to services and improving client experience.

Cooperatives and their commercial partners have supported the National Health Insurance Fund in organizing awareness raising and enrollment campaigns as well as exploring financing strategies to cover the payment of contributions. The model also focuses on the delivery of quality services by health service providers at the community level, building trust and reducing reluctance.

As a result 1,815 smallholder cocoa farmers have been enrolled in the universal health coverage scheme and have received a social security number. This is just the beginning. The model is now being replicated in other districts of Côte d’Ivoire with the support of several private sector companies.

Moreover, this African good practice is being adapted and replicated in two other African countries, Ghana and Nigeria. Working closely with other development partners, models like this are being scaled up as a crucial part of the implementation of the Africa Regional Social Protection Strategy 2021-2025.

By demonstrating high-level political will and African home-grown, innovative models of interventions, our continent sends a strong message to the world: we are aware of the challenge, we are working on it as a matter of priority and as a region, we are driving the change.

Author: Cynthia Samuel-Olonjuwon, ILO Assistant Director-General, Regional Director for Africa

Source: Africa Feeds

SADC

Children worst hit by recurring Mozambique droughts

Maravi Post Reporter 3 Comments
Kids Starving in
Favourite food in Mozambique

from ARIMANDO DOMINGOS in Maputo, Mozambique
MAPUTO – THE rising food insecurity in Mozambique is heightening the risk of child labour, child trafficking and forced marriage as impoverished families adopt negative stress coping strategies.

Projections of yet another drought reignites past anecdotal evidence suggesting that children were engaging in sexual intercourse from ages as young as 11- or 12-years during drought, with older men engaging with girls aged 11 to 13 as they went about water collection activities.

These are some findings by the Technical Secretariat for Food and Nutrition Security (SETSAN) as children bear the brunt of successive droughts.

Drought continues to negatively impact children’s well-being and their access to education, often leading to student absenteeism, poor concentration in class due to hunger and thirst, and ultimately contributing to a decrease in children’s learning outcomes.

“Shortage of water leads to migration of the most vulnerable rural families and consequently their children drop out of school,” SETSAN stated.

The most severe cases are in the provinces of Gaza, Inhambane and Sofala, where families are already adopting crisis and emergency strategies including selling of productive assets and animals and taking children out of school to perform household chores, including fetching water and begging.

Climatic predictions for the 2018-2019 rainfall season indicate normal to below normal rainfall for the southern and central regions and normal to above normal rainfall for the northern region, according to the National Institute for Meteorology (INAM).

The official El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) forecast has put the El Niño likelihood at least 80 percent until March.

This poses a high risk for the cropping season, especially in already drought-affected southern parts of central regions of Mozambique.

It is feared households in affected areas would likely be forced to plant multiple times after repeated attempts, resulting in crop failures, as well as depletion of household seed stocks.

An estimated 814 700 people are facing the most severe levels of food insecurity and need life-saving assistance during the lean season. Cabo Delgado, Inhambane, Gaza, Sofala and Tete are the most affected provinces.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) stated agricultural production was likely to diminish, particularly in areas where there was a risk of low rainfall and likelihood of increased incidence of pests and diseases.

Successive droughts are a major setback to the Mozambican economy considering the rain-dependent agricultural sector accounts for around 25 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and employs nearly 75 percent of the labour force.

Mozambique’s natural hazards are attributed to its geographical location.

It is downstream of nine international river basins and has a long Indian Ocean coastline with active cyclone activity. Drought occurs primarily in the southern region, with a frequency of seven droughts every ten years.

– CAJ News