Child labour
Child labour remains a global issue which hinders children's education, health and future employability, perpetuating hunger and rural poverty. Seventy percent of child labour – nearly 112 million boys and girls – takes place in agriculture, including farming, livestock, forestry, fishing and aquaculture. This means that ending child labour in the agriculture sector is crucial to create future decent youth employment opportunities, reduce poverty, and achieve food security.
Not all work carried out by children is considered child labour. Some activities may help children acquire important agricultural and life skills and contribute to their family’s livelihood. Yet, much of the work children carry out in agriculture is not age-appropriate; it is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with their education.
For instance, when children are forced to work long hours, their opportunity to attend school and develop their skills is limited and this can interfere with their ability to access decent and productive employment later in life.
Children working in fields where pesticides have been applied, or staying up all night on a fishing boat, or carrying heavy loads that harm the development of their body – these are common examples of hazardous work that is damaging the future well-being of children.
Household poverty, lack of livelihood alternatives, poor access to education, and limited labour law enforcement are the key factors that contribute to child labour in rural areas.
The role of FAO
FAO supports the integration of child labour considerations into national policies for rural development and enhances cooperation between ministries of labour and agriculture. It also works to boost the incomes of rural families to break their economic dependence on child labour, and promotes quality education for children. In particular, FAO works to:
- Mainstream child labour considerations into national, regional and global agricultural and corporate due diligence policies and programmes, enhancing the knowledge and capacity of agriculture stakeholders.
- Implement dedicated child labour prevention programmes to strengthen rural livelihoods and promote sustainable practices in agriculture subsectors.
- Ensure that large-scale programmes adopt tailored measures to end child labour in agrifood systems, from rural investments to emergency and climate-smart programmes.
- Strengthen cooperation to end child labour in agriculture by facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogues and facilitating knowledge-sharing on how to tackle child labour comprehensively. FAO is an active member of the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture (IPCCLA) and the Alliance 8.7.
- Support agrifood actors in meeting due diligence requirements by addressing the structural drivers and characteristics of child labour along specific value chains – such as cotton, cocoa and coffee.
Featured publications
Voices from cotton fields - Fighting child labour in Burkina Faso, Mali and Pakistan
31/01/2023
Child labour, including hazardous work, one of the worst forms of child labour, is present in cotton value chains in multiple countries across the globe. Not only does child labour infringe on the rights of a child, but it also perpetuates the cycle of poverty among families and communities. With funding from the European Union, the CLEAR Cotton project “Eliminating child labour and forced labour in the cotton, textile and garment value chains” was launched in 2018 to support the elimination of child labour and forced labour in the cotton, textile and garment value chains in target producing countries. As demonstrated through six human stories, FAO is making a difference in Burkina Faso, Mali and Pakistan, by addressing the linkages between livelihoods improvement and the elimination and prevention of child labour in agriculture.
The child labour in agriculture prevention facility
27/05/2022
The Child Labour in Agriculture Prevention Facility (CLAP Facility) is a flexible and impact-oriented multi-donor programme, implemented by FAO. The Facility will support and strengthen the capacity of agricultural stakeholders to improve the livelihoods of rural communities and reduce their dependencies on child labour at scale, with special consideration to socio-cultural and economic specificities and inequalities. This publication highlights funding modalities, FAO's comparative advantage, and the main actions undertaken through the Facility to address the root causes of child labour in agriculture, as a prerequisite to eradicate rural poverty and build inclusive and sustainable agrifood systems.
FAO framework on ending child labour in agriculture
12/06/2020
The purpose of the FAO’s framework is to guide the Organization and its personnel in the integration of measures addressing child labour within FAO’s typical work, programmes and initiatives at global, regional and country levels. It aims to enhance compliance with organization’s operational standards, and strengthen coherence and synergies across the Organization and with partners. The FAO framework is primarily targeted at FAO as an organization, including all personnel in all geographic locations. But the framework is also relevant for FAO’s governing bodies and Member States, and provides guidance and a basis for collaboration with development partners. The framework is also to be used as a key guidance to assess and monitor compliance with FAO’s environmental and social standards addressing prevention and reduction of child labour in FAO’s programming.
Related projects
Videos
Child labour
Addressing child labour in Cambodia's fisheries sector
13/05/2021
In Cambodia, many families living on the Tonle Sap Lake are extremely poor and have to use their children as workforce to survive. Youth aged 15-17...
News
Child labour
DIGICHILD: Exploring georeferenced data to combat child labour in agrifood systems
02/12/2024
The clock is ticking as the 2025 deadline to end child labour under SDG 8.7 rapidly approaches, and the challenge remains critical.