Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Agricultural extension and advisory services (EAS) providers have a big role to play in reducing and preventing child labour in agriculture. They have a capillary network of field workers and direct relations with rural producers, as well as the mandate to support not only agricultural production, but also livelihoods of rural population. As such, I believe that their role can be relevant for all the questions in this discussion.

It is essential to keep in mind that EAS are mouch more than just technology transfer and production-related technical advice. Nowadays, EAS concern a very wide range of services, from those aiming at improving production and natural resource management, adaptation to climate change, access to markets and entrepreneurship, hence boosting income, to supporting producers in getting organized, equipping them with skills such as negotiating and innovating, and making their voice heard. This means that EAS providers could contribute to reduction and prevention of child labour in many ways: from promoting safer and labour-saving practices and OSH, facilitate mechanisation (e.g. access to shared schemes), helping to improve income, to raising awareness about danger of child labour and getting information from the field to relevant stakeholders (e.g. on unintended negative impacts of projects or technologies).

However, for this to happen, EAS providers need to recognize that child labour in agriculture is also an agricultural problem, and not only a labour problem. They need to understand the difference between child labour and safe age-appropriate tasks, know whom to turn to for advice and collaboration. They also need both technical and soft skills (e.g. on labour-saving practices, marketing, communication and conflict management etc.) that would allow them to make a change. Currently, it does not seem to happen a lot.

Clearly, no single provider, especially short of resources, can provide such a differentiated range of services. But nowadays EAS are not limited only to public extension agents but include a whole host of pubic and non-state, formal and informal providers (e.g. NGOs, producer organizations, agri-input dealers, farmer leaders, universities and many more). This pluralism can be of great advantage as each provider type has different strengths and can provide different support, if properly sensitized and capacitated. Hence, it is key to involve them, and not leave the problem only to labour stakeholders.

The work in Lebanon on child labour elimination in agriculture hs yielded results thanks to the solid partnerships built between FAO, ILO and UNICEF and fostering collaboration across inter-agendcy coordiantion mechanisms (ex. Food Security cluster, Interagency Child Labour Task Force, National Action Plan to Combat Child Labout in Lebanon) as well as inter-ministerial collaboration (joint activities implementation on raising awareness, studies, and techncial support between Ministry of agriculture, Ministry of social affairs and the Ministry of Labour).Child labour is a complex issue and partnerships are key for a holistic approach addressing its multifaceted dimensions. FAO played an important role also in child protection work (ex. Protecting children from pesticides material).

Joint FAO/ILO support was designed for both MoA extension staff and MoL inspection unit through the development of a Guide for practitioners in both Arabic and English languages (based on the Turin course on CL) as well as other educational material. FAO further supported Ministry of social affairs in developping training material to promote decent work for rural youth and financial inclusion.

FAO and UNICEF commisioned a research on the demand for child labour in the agricultural sector and a report was prepared. The study sheds light on the nature and the extent of young people's work in agricultuere, and the institutional framework to address the phenomenon. The joint study also evaluates how the labour market has been impacted by the Syrian crisis and highlights CL trends over the last decade.Qualitative assesemt on the supply of CL in agriculture by Syrian refugees was undertaken by the American University of Beirut with support from FAO, ILO and UNICEF in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour.   

The partnership with ILOROAS was extended to the NENA region and a further study on trends in child labour across the region was developed in collaboration the League for Arab States in Cairo. The study was endorsed and launched in March 2019. Further continuation of the elimination of child labour and social protection is needed there.

I learned much on Child Labour combating work not only from FAO techncial perspective abut also gained more on the regulatory, social and institutional perspective through the partnership with ILO. 

3) Family farming

Child labour in family farming is particularly difficult to tackle when family farmers are the most impacted by poverty and vulnerability, and face high levels of economic, financial, social and environmental risks. Which agricultural policies and strategies related to family farming have led to a reduction of child labour in agriculture?

Family farming is extremely important for families affected by conflict, family farming is essential for the family's own food consumption, for their income, and also to supply food for the community. Family farmers are often already very vulnerable in developing countries and conflict exasperates their situation; conflict can displace these families, damage lands and livestock, or impede agricultural work because of insecurity. This can increase child labour in agriculture but also outside of agriculture, as children may need to support their families through other income-generating activities, such as begging or even joining armed groups. Supporting these family farmers can prevent child labour, but also improve the nutrition and wellbeing of communities. Agricultural policies may be hard to implement in conflict zones where state authorities lack capacity or there are no state authorities operating. However, agricultural programmes alongside social protection programmes, supported by international and national organizations, would make a difference in the lives of family farmers living in conflict zones. I have seen such impact myself through programmes that support family farmers living in conflict zones by providing i) income to families to support their work in agriculture, ii) agricultural products, such as chickens, seeds, or greenhouses to also support their work, and iii) technical support to families to start their own work or business in agriculture. Supporting family farmers in conflict zones can be life-saving for families and communities and also contribute to building the resilience and recovery of countries in conflict. 

Child labour on Lake Volta, Ghana

Reference is made to questions 2 and 6, related to environmental degradation and domestic value chains. The Volta lake case study led to the conclusion that insufficient fisheries-management effort is made and that thus cheap child labour is required for food and nutrition security. Improved management could strengthen the domestic value chain considerably.

The dam in Ghana on the Volta River was completed in 1965. The reservoir filled up slowly and started to deliver the products it was meant for, hydropower and irrigation. A side product appeared to be fish and large quantities of fish were landed since the fishery established. Like in all African reservoirs the fisheries production increases in the first few years after impoundment and then starts levelling off, and eventually the number of fishers is too large for obtaining decent incomes from the catches. The master fishermen cannot longer afford adult assistants and resort to child labour. Children from remote provinces are “recruited” by specialized agents paying the parents a small sum of money. The young boys of 10 to 14 years of age are taken to the lake, where they have to assist their “masters” in fishing activities. Paddling, bailing water, setting and hauling the nets are not very dangerous activities. The nets, however, are set in between the old tree trunks that hardly reach the water surface. The nets may get entangled in the underwater branch of the tree stumps and then the boys have to dive underwater to remove the net from the obstacles. The boys do not use goggles or flippers and thus it happens that they get entangled in the nets and fail to timely reach the surface. ILO estimates the total number of children below 18 years of age in the lake fisheries at approximately 20,000. Interviews led to the conclusion that many children knew about other kids that drowned during the fishing operations; obviously not much attention is paid to such unfortunate events. The children receive some sort of payment for their labour, which is hardly sufficient to pay for shelter (often belonging to their masters) and for some food. Deals have been made that children should return to the shore on time for school, but often they are too tired and/or hungry to pay attention to the teachers. On top of that, they cannot pay the examination fees and thus they leave school without any certificates. The above reasoning indicates that child labour exists due to overexploitation of the fisheries resources. One of the solutions could be better managing the fishery through strengthened co-management so that catches per boat increase and older “assistants” can find employment in the fishery. Other elements in the fish supply or value chain can then also be improved, like the auctioning, processing and marketing of the fisheries products. In order to avoid post-harvest losses and to add value to fisheries products, the fish is smoked. Improved smoking techniques will contribute to safer products with a much longer shelf life.

Particular attention needs to be paid to children who migrate on their own or with their families for (seasonal) agricultural work. Children are at risk of being engaged in child labour due to incentives such as piece-rate payments or pressure to meet quotas. Even though only the household head may be on the books, the whole family may work in order to earn enough to meet basic needs or to pay back debts incurred in migration. The children of migrant families may work longer hours and be exposed to more hazards that children of resident families. Additionally, migrant children might not have access to schools, either because schools don’t exist near the living or worksite, or due to factors such as language or cultural barriers, or the difficulties in moving between schools and the lack of recognition of coursework completed. Young children might accompany their migrant families to the fields due to lack of childcare, including relatives to look after them. In some cases, plantations may even require everyone to work if they live in company housing. Trust between migrant and host communities may also be a barrier in terms of leaving their children with others. Housing conditions are often unsanitary, transport unsafe, and children migrating on their own are also at particular risk of various kinds of abuse.

This points to a need for improvements in decent work for migrant workers in agriculture, not only internationally, but also internal seasonal migration in developing countries.

Children who are left-behind may also be at risk, in particular in households that are not receiving remittances and don’t have enough money to hire labour. In order to cover the labour needs for producing food and meet basic household needs, they may take over the work that the migrant household member used to undertake on the farm or in the home, being exposed to hazards, including long hours of work, and may be forced to drop out of school.

Targeted support is needed for left-behind families, to ensure that the remaining adult(s) in the household have access to support for successfully managing agricultural activities without resorting to child labour. This is particularly the case for women, who may face additional barriers and obstacles in ownership and control of the land, access to technologies, finance, extension services etc.

See also Migration and child labour: Exploring child migrant vulnerabilities and those of children left-behind  

Family farming and Child labour

Thanks FAO for giving us an opportunity to contribute to this segment. EAFF has not directly worked on this issue on child labour. But we have worked in the family farming agenda where our main focus is on land issues and one of the things we have found out is the high poverty leading to all members of the family contributing to work on the land. In East Africa, 15 million children go to work instead of school - one in every four children. Poverty is the main cause of child labour in agriculture, together with limited access to quality education, inadequate agricultural technology and access to adult labour, high hazards and risks, and traditional attitudes towards children’s participation in agricultural activities. Parents regard their children as additional sources of income. Especially in the context of family farming, small-scale fisheries and livestock husbandry, some participation of children in non-hazardous activities can be positive as it contributes to the inter-generational transfer of skills and children’s food security. It is important to distinguish between light duties that do no harm to the child and child labour, which is work that interferes with compulsory schooling and damages health and personal development, based on hours and conditions of work, child’s age, activities performed and hazards involved. In many countries child labour is mainly an agricultural issue. Worldwide 60 percent of all child laborers in the age group 5-17 years work in agriculture, including farming, fishing, aquaculture, forestry, and livestock. This amounts to over 98 million girls and boys. The majority (67.5%) of child laborers are unpaid family members. In agriculture this percentage is higher, and is combined with very early entry into work, sometimes between 5 and 7 years of age. Agriculture is one of the three most dangerous sectors in terms of work-related fatalities, non-fatal accidents and occupational diseases. About 59 percent of all children in hazardous work aged 5–17 are in agriculture. Even though legal frameworks outlawing child labour do exist in all East African countries, enactment and enforcement remains inadequate due to insufficient budgets, limited technical capacity and low awareness.

In Kenya where I live, child labour is still very high due to increased poverty levels especially in the rural areas. As the costs of labour increases and low mechanization of agriculture, most family farms use their children to fill in the gap. Even though the country introduced free primary school education many families are still yet to take their children to school. Most children are used in tilling, fetching water for irrigation as well as household use. Being a highly patriarchal society, most young children (girls) often don’t go to school to leverage the boy child. Though many efforts have been put place by the governments to see all children access free primary school education. This is mostly through community policing and also the law. In this time of COVID-19, I believe that child labour is high on family farms as schools were closed to reduce the infection curve. With a very high digital divide, most children in rural areas who live in areas with no electricity, flood prone areas are not able to access the online learning facility offered by the governments. Therefore, the result is to “earn their keep” through working on the farms to increase the family chances of improved income. There are policies in place in Kenya and most East Africa countries on child labour I haven’t heard a policy specifically focusing on family farms.  

6. Attention to agriculture  supply chain( global and domestic)

Eliminating child labour in global agricultural supply chains receives significantly more attention and funding than eliminating child labour in domestic and local supply chains, yet there is a wide consensus that more child labour is found in latter.

Global agriculture supply chain

Yes, there is greater attention on child labour in global agricultural supply chains. It must be said that ethical practices of local farmers’ in the global supply chain would impact those farmers who run their agricultural operations which are totally domestic. Indeed , in practice there are famers who are both local and global.

At the same time some it is observed that global companies have found non transparent ways of continuing in the business engaging child labour as it is apparently profitable. n a way they have cleverly absolved themselves even as child labour exists. It is difficult to provide evidence for this as most transactions are hidden.

Domestic supply chain

At the domestic level there is a weak enforcement of the child labour prohibition act as well as the implementation of right to education act. Also, there is absence of shock an outrage that children are at work and not in schools. Child labour is seen as inevitable. There is no elite consensus- (political, bureaucratic, corporate, academic and intellectual, media) to abolish child labour once and for all.

Policies and programs are not in place. Enforcement is weak. Consumer awareness is not built. A consensus is on existence of child labour. No consensus on total abolition of child labour in domestic and local supply chain.

Which kind of agricultural policies and strategies could help to address child labour in domestic and local agricultural supply chains?

Farmers depend upon banks for credit to carryout all their agricultural operations. There must be a clear conditionality that credit will not be available for farmers if they employ children .Banks and agriculture extension officers along with labour officials are to monitor every farm that has taken loan.

Are there any cases where gender inequalities in local and /or domestic supply chains have been assessed in linking its impacts on child labour?

All farm work is labour intensive and since women and girls are source of cheap labour they are in great demand. Thus, there is feminisation of agriculture work. Girls are more vulnerable than boys and drop out of schools to join fam work. Girl child marriages also end up in child labour.

Question 7: Cross-sectoral policies and strategies

In many contexts, agricultural workers do not benefit from the same labour rights as other more formalized sectors. Where and how have agricultural stakeholders complemented labour law compliance in order to successfully improve working conditions for agricultural workers and through this helped reduce the vulnerability of households that engage in child labour

There is evidence to show that when child labour is withdrawn from agriculture and all children go to schools, there is scarcity of labour and so adult workers have a better bargaining position. Thus, there has been an increase in wages for adult workers and also improvement in conditions of work for adults. It has also introduced changes in farm practices with introduction of mechanisation. The argument is that there is a clear link between abolition of child labour and increase in wages and quality of life of the poor. Child labour depresses wages for adults.

It is important that in all works of the government that is directly implemented or through the contracts there has to be an adherence to labour laws. This will have a spin off effect on benefits to agricultural workers. Unfortunately, even the governments’ rural employment guarantee program (MNREGA) is also exempt from paying minimum wages as per law.

Wherever there have been strong agriculture labour unions with participation of men and women workforce they pressed for tripartite agreements and have made gains in improvement of work conditions and better wages. Currently there is a trend in payment on piece work basis, contract labour and engagement of migrant labour force. This has increased the exploitation of agriculture labourers, with family along with children as a whole engaged in work and weakened the trade union movement.

In which circumstance have agricultural and education stakeholders come together to formulate and implement policies or programmes on addressing child labour in agriculture ensuring that children have access to affordable and quality education in rural areas? Has this process been successful and what are the main challenges?

Wherever there has been a strong process of social mobilisation in the villages, involving all stakeholders including farmers there has been a success in abolishing child labour. Further, in these areas’ farmers have come forward to put pressure on the government to provide for adequate infrastructure and school teachers and in demanding that the right to education act is implemented.

Education stakeholders too have to take a clear stand that access to schooling till 18 years is a non-negotiable. There has to be zero tolerance of school drop outs and child labour by the state.

Presently abolition of child labour is not on the agenda of agriculture stake holders. When they inspect fields for quality production of agricultural commodities and quality of seeds, distribute and educating farmers on high yield varieties the issue of child labour needs to be also taken up.

The real challenge is in the non-seriousness of the education and labour department to implement the laws.

Social protection in rural areas can be a mechanism to provide support to vulnerable households and address child labour in agriculture. Are there any examples of social protection schemes that address the vulnerabilities experienced by migrant agriculture labour, since children can be at particular risk (including multiple forms of exploitation) in these scenarios?

Certainly, there needs to be child centric protection policies to ensure that children are in schools and continue in the education stream till they complete at least secondary school education. Such policies would involve provisioning of hostels and residential schools, free education up to graduation level, free text books, transportation, special and remedial classes, scholarships, programs of sponsorship and foster care for children at risk, seasonal hostels for children of migrant labour, noon meal program at all levels from primary schools to graduation, free health care facilities. All such decisions are to be taken at the level of local bodies, at a decentralised level in order to address the specific challenges of each and every child.

Finally elimination of child labour  in any sector from our experience  An Area based approach is best stratagy in  creation of Child Labour Free Zones. In an area based approach every child out of school and working  as child labourers  in any sector are tracked and mainstreamed into formal schools.

From:

R.Venkat Reddy, National Convener, M.V.Foundation

Referring to question #1, I am a researcher at Loei Rajabhat University in rural Thailand. From my perspective, child labour is necessary in some cases, so that they can feed themselves and pay for their studies. It's not as prevalent as in past years. In many cases, the ideal family is very strong. This compels children to want to contribute to the family income. There are two cases. Children from poor families may leave school to work to contribute to their family's income. The parents may be migrant labourers and the children follow the parents. They may have to operate machinery or do other dangerous work. This type of work is not appropriate for children. Other children work only after school and during the weekends. Still, others are forbidden to work by their parents. 

Referring to question #3, The Thai law has a child labour policy that is in accordance with the International labour convention prohibiting employment of 13-year-old and younger children working during school hours, and then only with approval for out of school and weekend work times. Moreover, the government set up a labour policy for 15-year-old children so that they can access labour welfare as a normal worker for employment, taking sick leave, and time-off. These laws have led to fairness for children and their lives.   

Dear all

Thanks FAO for creating the opportunity to contribute on this and thanks all for ideas being shared so far. I would like to make a contribution on the innovation sub-theme, especially relating to use of digitalisation to address child labour.

I don’t know if much has been done in that area to date, especially in least developed countries? It could be interesting to discuss via channels such as physical brainstorming sessions or webinars, how digital tools could support the fight against child labour and/or take stock of existing practices and possibilities in that area. This could be instrumental as digitalisation, including the use of mobile phones and social media, is increasingly being democratised, which is also the case in the agricultural sector. Among other stakeholders, youth not subject to child labour and who can have access to social media could be mobilised to contribute to monitoring or creating awareness on child labour in their areas using these platforms.

Another idea could be to promote and support the development of national or regional online child labour portals (where these do not exist – I guess it’s the case in many least developing countries) that could help support the fight against child labour. Issues to monitor could include what policies are put in place and how they are implemented, key activities or best practices from various national or regional organisations in this area. This tool could also offer an interface for alerting or documenting verified child labour practices, as well for advocacy and awareness raising on this issue. Platforms that can be managed in a multistakeholder framework may be particularly instrumental; sustainability of these platforms (not always easy to maintain online portals!) should be considered from the onset.

Alerting on child labour should be carefully managed in order to avoid defamation, especially because child labour can sometimes be a contentious issue and some stakeholders may have different understandings of child labour as it is normatively recognized.

Specific mobile applications, integrating social media platforms such as Facebook could be developed and used to favour networking, awareness raising and monitoring on that issue.

If you have examples of how digital technologies are being used in your country to address child labour, kindly share.

Regards

Ken Lohento

Digital agriculture & youth entrepreneurship specialist

CTA

There should be compulsory child education, academically and technically in all developing countries and Highly Indebted Poor Countries. This should start in the basic education system through to the tertiary and professional level. The Government through the Ministry of Education should adopt and revise the school curriculum to cater for skills/technical subjects/courses practical based to enable the children interpret the theories through hands on deck. Thus, when the academic and skills training run along side eachother, the country will have a youthful population that is vibrant in various skills areas, and be able to manned key sectors be it government or institutions and move forward.

In the other hand, agricultural policies can be revised to be highly mechanised, and be totally against child labour and be monitored to the letter. The chapters and clauses in the policies should be in support to stoppage of child labour in agriculture. This can be fuelled by a well structured education system that is compulsory and responsive to the rural communities, and be influenced and monitored especially during the cropping season, as a form of remedy to child labour.  This will enable the children attend school instead of becoming farm hands for their parents. In connection, the government should provide much incentives to the farmers, and also revive the Mixed Farming Centres, Farmer Field Schools and Farmer Cooperatives. The Village Development Committees (VDCs) should be supported to ease the sensitisation at the village level, and the road networks build for easy access on monitoring and assurance.