Reducing and preventing child labour in agriculture for a brighter future in Malawi
Awareness campaign encourages communities to prioritize child education
Child labour hampers children’s education, and quite often has adverse effects on their health, safety and morals.
However, not all tasks performed by children are considered child labour. Some activities may help children acquire important livelihood skills and contribute to their survival and food security. But much of the work children do in agriculture is not age-appropriate, is likely to be hazardous or interferes with children’s education.
Globally, 98 million boys and girls between 5 and 17 years are identified as child labourers in agriculture.
In Malawi, as well as in other countries, child labour is deep rooted and pervasive, especially in the agriculture sector. In 2015 FAO, with the financial aid from the Kingdom of the Netherlands, supported the efforts of the Government of Malawi to live up to its commitments to reduce child labour practices in agriculture through a nationwide communication campaign.
Working for a brighter future
Various behavioural communication and information materials were developed and widely disseminated amongst the rural population in the country. The campaign aimed at highlighting the role of child labour in the vicious cycle of poverty and to stimulate debate on how it is possible to reduce child labour despite harsh rural poverty.
Thanks to a strong partnership, the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM) - an agricultural producer organization that has been sensitive towards child labour prevention over the years - committed to increase the effort against child labour in agriculture by producing and broadcasting a dozen radio programmes on national media channels.
Radio listeners, most of them from rural communities, were given the opportunity to submit their questions and views on how to reduce children’s involvement in heavy and hazardous tasks and how to get children into school.
In addition, NASFAM dedicated its 2015 thematic calendar to the topic "child labour in agriculture", with messages, throughout the agricultural year, dedicated to small-farmers. The 6,000 NASFAM clubs throughout the country received at least one copy of the calendar.
In parallel, the Department of Agricultural Extension Services within the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development (MoAIWD) included child labour-related messages into their extension materials.
These messages provide key recommendations to eliminate children's harmful involvement in agricultural tasks. They take into account the typical tasks girls and boys are traditionally associated to, such as girls carrying heavy loads (water, wood collection) and walking very long distances, or boys being involved in diving and fishing from canoe, or herding animals. They clarify that these activities are detrimental to the children only if they are hazardous or in particular circumstances – for instance such activities are performed for long periods and thus hinder children from attending school. About 23,000 leaflets and posters have been designed, printed and widely disseminated.
Furthermore, the MoAIWD boosted the efforts against child labour by producing a 15-minute video documentary on child labour in agriculture. The video documentary was screened in the targeted remote villages where child labour is rampant, thanks to the communication team of extension workers who travelled in a mobile van.
The tours targeted agricultural sectors such as tea, coffee, fisheries and cattle-herding, among others. The tour dates were announced in advance through local radio channels.
Pledges made against child labour
More than 10,000 rural women, men and youth viewed the documentary and debated it afterwards. Several reactions from viewers have been documented. A woman form the Mzimba district, said: "I have seen many children being overworked, walking barefoot, and in poor health. I am very sad for this".
In Salima, a young man stated: "This video has just shown what the parents of this community are doing: sending their children to the rice fields instead of sending them to schools."
Representatives from the villages where the video was screened, namely Karonga, Mzimba, Mchinji, Thyolo, Mangochi, Machinga and Salima districts, have since pledged to raise the issue of child labour in the local council meetings and to adopt local by-laws as a deterrent for the use of children in tasks that are unsuitable to their age.
The Agricultural Extension department of MoAIWD has planned to translate the video documentary in other local languages apart from Chichewa – which is the country’s lingua franca - to increase its outreach.
Child labour is both driven by and contributing topoverty: parents need their children to help them ensure their subsistence. But depriving children from education and a healthy development perpetuates a cycle of poverty for the children involved, their families and communities. Therefore, it undermines efforts to reach sustainable food security and to end hunger.
In order to break this cycle and get a sustainable impact, efforts to lift rural households in Malawi out of poverty must be strengthened.
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