Dear Participants,
Thanks to all of you for the sharing your insights, recommendations and posing questions related to the root causes of child labour and hazardous work to the wider community.
Certification schemes certainly have strong potential to set environmental and social criteria based on consumer demand and can certainly be leveraged to set higher decent work standards for plantations and employers, including addressing child labour. To further add to this point, it is equally important to consider how these measures are being monitored in practice and ensuring that employers are not only abiding by legislation but also providing decent working conditions for agriculture agriculture workers (including formal contracts, fair wages, right to collective bargaining etc.) in order to address the root cause of child labour.
An interesting contribution was this made this week on smallholder access to mechanization in order to address child labour in family farming. Moreover, there was also a question on whether children working in agriculture come to harm more frequently or experience different or more severe harm than adults. To briefly add to this point, we do know that risks are more acute to children under 18. The reason for this is that they are still growing both psychologically and physically. They have less natural defenses and have less cognitive maturity in terms of 'risk-taking' behaviours compared to adults. If we look at employment in all sectors, children and young workers display higher rates of injuries, and acute and chronic diseases compared to adults [1]. While it is challenging to find substantial evidence on the rates of injury and diseases amongst children in agriculture (harm incurred) for sub-Saharan Africa, it certainly remains an area where additional research seems critical. On a global scale, previous research (2006) suggests that the fataility rate in the agriculture sector is four times higher for young workers than in other industries [2]. Furthermore, the importance of addressing hazardous work in agriculture for all workers is essential, yet the fact that children are exposed to greater risk, would imply their need for particular attention.
We encourage the continuation of the discussion on the points mentioned as well as contribution of research, experience, case studies and recommendations of the additional themes questions mentioned above.
Thanks very much,
Jessie Rivera Fagan [Facilitator]
[1]: For more information on hazardous child labour please see the ILO pubication: https://www.ilo.org/ipec/Informationresources/WCMS_IPEC_PUB_30315/lang-…
[2]: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J096v11n02_09
Ms. Jessie Rivera Fagan