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Climate change-related events undermine children’s educational attainment, exposing them to child labour, hazardous work and forced migration. This nexus is particularly relevant for agriculture and its subsectors: indeed, they absorb about 26 percent of the economic impacts of climate change-related disasters and host 70 percent of all child labour. This study aims to identify the extent to which climate change-related events and impacts affect child labour in agriculture by exploring the underlying connection between the two challenges as the initial step towards integrating a child labour lens within the international community’s work on climate change. It showcases the multi-dimensional relationship through [...]

The aim of the guidance note on elimination of child labour in agriculture through social protection is to enable practitioners at national, regional and global levels to adapt social protection systems to contribute actively to eliminate child labour in agriculture.Universal social protection can prove an effective means to both address rural poverty and child labour in agriculture, if done right. This requires integrating child labour analysis into social protection policies and programmes, designing social protection programmes that address the underlying drivers of child labour and/or directly target families and communities prone to child labour.This guidance note analyses evidence related to [...]

This review aims to look into the consequences of (1) the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures put in place to mitigate the spread of the pandemic and (2) the policies and programmatic responses to mitigate socio-economic consequences of the pandemic and how they have potentially interacted with child labour drivers, especially in agrifood systems. Thus, this review aims to document and spell out how policy and programmatic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular social protection measures, have the potential to prevent or contain an increase of child labour in agriculture at large.

Emerging evidence suggests that rural children, particularly older girls in low-income countries, are at risk of being withdrawn from school when weather-related disasters occur. Identifying actions that mitigate the adverse effects of weather shocks on school enrolment, therefore, is critical for sustaining equitable human capital formation in the context of climate change. In this paper, we use four waves of household and community panel survey data, merged with long-term, spatially explicit rainfall data to investigate whether access to school feeding programmes (SFP) in Malawi supports primary school enrolment when weather shocks occur.

The FAO-IFPRI study, focuses on the use of tractors because they are among the most versatile farm mechanization tools and are universal power sources for all other driven implements and equipment in agriculture, with significant potential to replace animal draught power and human power, including children’s muscle power. Tractor use is typically also the first type of machine-powered equipment in use at lower levels of agricultural development, the context where most child labour is found.Mechanization is mostly assumed to reduce child labour, as it is expected to be labour saving in general. Yet, this is not always the case, as [...]

The FAO-IFPRI study, of which this policy brief is a summary, focuses on the use of tractors because they are among the most versatile farm mechanization tools and are universal power sources for all other driven implements and equipment in agriculture, with significant potential to replace animal draught power and human power, including children’s muscle power. Tractor use is typically also the first type of machine-powered equipment in use at lower levels of agricultural development, the context where most child labour is found.Mechanization is mostly assumed to reduce child labour, as it is expected to be labour saving in general. [...]

Agricultural production relies heavily on migrant labour across geographies and production systems, from large-scale plantations growing food crops for global supply chains to small-scale pastoralist families following their herds to new pastures depending on seasons. Much of the migration is seasonal, filling peak labour demands, such as during harvest. Hence, stable agri-food systems that can contribute to fulfilling Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 on zero hunger are intrinsically intertwined with migrant workers’ lives and working conditions.While migration can provide families with new opportunities, it can also pose challenges to children migrating with their parents or left behind. Seasonal agricultural migration [...]

Agricultural production relies heavily on migrant labour across geographies and production systems, from large-scale plantations growing food crops for global supply chains to small-scale pastoralist families following their herds to new pastures depending on seasons. Much of the migration is seasonal, filling peak labour demands, such as during harvest. Hence, stable agri-food systems that can contribute to fulfilling Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 on zero hunger are intrinsically intertwined with migrant workers’ lives and working conditions.While migration can provide families with new opportunities, it can also pose challenges to children migrating with their parents or left behind. Seasonal agricultural migration [...]

The global aquatic food industry, long under scrutiny over environmental sustainability concerns, has also come under increased scrutiny within the past decade over poor working conditions and severe human rights violations, including widespread use of forced labour and child labour. However, there is limited research and documentation available on child labour in fishing, aquaculture and fish and aquatic food processing globally. Much of the available evidence is centred on labour conditions in global supply chains. However, due to higher levels of informality, limited law enforcement capacity, and so on, it is more likely that children produce fish and aquatic-sourced foods [...]

Poverty reduction and food security are intrinsically linked. Both depend on sustainable food systems and safe and sustainable agricultural practices. Similarly, poverty reduction and sustainable food systems can only be realized if those producing food, for their own consumption and for local and global supply chains, have decent working conditions and stable livelihoods.Hence, it is essential that young people above the minimum age for employment are protected, offered relevant technical and vocational training, and able to work in safe, non-exploitative agricultural work. Working towards a successful school-to-work transition for the 15-17 years age cohort goes hand in hand with the [...]