Updating the FAO-ILO guidance to help curb child labour in fisheries and aquaculture

Rome, 25 September 2024. FAO and ILO organized a two-day workshop to update their Guidance on addressing child labour in fisheries and aquaculture, a key, comprehensive document designed to provide policymakers, fisher organizations, sectoral institutions, and the private sector with recommendations and practical solutions to combat child labour in the sector.

The workshop brought together international experts and stakeholders from the labour, fisheries, and aquaculture sectors in response to the ILO Sectoral Meeting's call to update the 2021 FAO-ILO guidance on child labour. The initiative aimed to deepen understanding and build capacity to address the issue and was fully aligned with the Durban Call to Action, signed by thousands of delegates at the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour in May 2022.

Seventy percent of all children engaged in child labour are active in agriculture and its sub-sectors. In fisheries and aquaculture, boys and girls engage in all types of activities, from catching fish to repairing nets or processing fish, often in a way that is incompatible with school attendance and hazardous to their health.

Despite the concerns, aquatic food production plays an important role in food security and nutrition, securing employment and the livelihoods of millions of people, especially in low-income countries. To make fish and other aquatic sourced food production truly sustainable, it is necessary to step up efforts to eliminate child labour, protect young workers against the worst forms of child labour – including hazardous work and forced labour – and invest in a healthy, well educated work force for the future.

During the workshop, Benjamin Davis, Director of the FAO Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division, reaffirmed FAO's commitment to eliminating child labour across agricultural sub-sectors. He highlighted the focus of the Organization on leveraging its technical expertise, supporting policies, and integrating programmatic efforts at country level with agrifood stakeholders at both the global and local levels.

The objective of the workshop was to revise the guidance document published in 2013 by ILO and FAO to address the urgent need for information and analysis on the nature and extent of child labour in the fisheries and aquaculture sector, along with its causes and consequences.

More than a decade after its initial publication, a revision of the guidance is necessary to address new and evolving challenges, such as the growing impact of climate change on fishers' livelihoods, which directly and indirectly influences child labour. Moreover, the importance of social protection for rural households is increasingly evident, and due diligence approaches are emerging as valuable tools for addressing this issue.

The primary objective of the revision, as highlighted by Manuel Barange, FAO Assistant Director-General and Director of the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Division, is to enhance the guidance by "incorporating real-world examples and best practices, while aligning national policies with international standards."

Key recommendations from the workshop included expanding the focus on climate change and technological advancements on child labour, integrating regional fisheries data, and addressing gender considerations, linked to socioeconomic dynamics. Participants also highlighted the need to take into account the growing role of aquaculture in aquatic food production and generating specific knowledge and guidance on addressing child labour in the sector. 

Sebastian Mathew, Executive Director of the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), referenced the 2022 ILO-UNICEF report, which found a clear correlation between higher social protection coverage and lower child labour rates. Limited access to social security is closely tied to inadequate educational opportunities and poses threats to environmental sustainability and fisheries management practices. The FAO-IPC-IG study on Socioeconomic impact evaluation of unemployment insurance for small-scale fishers in Brazil (Seguro-Defeso) also shows the positive socioeconomic impact of social protection programmes for small-scale fishers and their families.

Participants also stressed the importance of strengthening the role of trade unions and cooperatives, in line with the ILO Convention 182. They also acknowledged the critical role played by the media in raising awareness and promoting community-led initiatives and highlighted the need for international coordination mechanisms to identify and disseminate best practices. Continuous updates and reviews of country cases were seen as essential to ensure that the guidelines remain relevant and impactful.

Kirill Buketov, International Policy Officer at the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Associations (IUF), stated: "Child labour does not happen in a vacuum. Addressing child labour must be integral to promoting all fundamental principles and rights at work, including freedom of association and collective bargaining, the elimination of forced labour and discrimination, and the right to a safe and healthy working environment. Among these, freedom of association and collective bargaining is key, as it may enable the realization of other fundamental principles and rights at work."

Over the next months, FAO and ILO will continue integrating promising practices and update the document which will be published and launched in 2025. Moving from guidance to action is of outmost priority. This will be followed by efforts to disseminate the content and put into practice at the country level integrated and multi-actor approaches, through technical assistance and programmatic efforts.