Towards sustainable action for prevention and elimination of child labour in tobacco farming in Urambo district, Tanzania

URT/06/02/ECT Project Summary 1. Introduction Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. The economy depends heavily on agriculture, which accounts for almost half the GDP, provides 86% of the exports, provides 43% of the GDP and employs 80% of the work force. The sector performance is low due to poor infrastructure, inadequate extension service, low mechanisation, lack of credit facilities, high illiteracy rate and the effect of HIV/AIDS. The education sector in Tanzania is developing slowly resulting in poor education, which impacts negatively on parental motivation to send children to school. Despite the free, compulsory primary education only 56% of the children in the rural areas are enrolled in school. The lack of accessible secondary education has resulted in only 2% of the rural youth finishing secondary education. The child labour prevalence is rampant in Tanzania with an estimated total of 6.5% (777,708) of children under 15 years, which is expected to increase due to the effect of HIV/AIDS. In 2001, following the ratification of Convention 182, the Government of Tanzania committed itself to the elimination of the worst forms of child labour by 2010 through the establishment of its Time Bound Programme (TBP). Within this framework, the International Labour Organization (ILO/IPEC) International Programme on Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has been implementing a number of projects of support to the national TBP, the main one being the USDOL -funded ILO/IPEC TBP, which is currently in its second phase. Other projects included a USDOL-funded project on the elimination of child labour in commercial agriculture (COMAGRI) which ended in 2004, and the ECLT (Elimination of Child Labour in Tobacco Foundation, based in Geneva) -funded project (above in the title) phase 1, operating in Urambo. Both COMAGRI and TBP I covered also the district of Urambo. 2. The Urambo Tobacco Sector Project (UTSP) Urambo has an estimated population of 369,329 , constituting 62,633 households and a population growth rate of 4.2% against the national rate of 2.9%. It is the district growing the most tobacco in the region. Tanzania is among the Africa biggest producers of tobacco along with Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. The tobacco growing is undertaken by smallholder farmers, who are contracted by the tobacco companies. Tobacco growing requires high inputs of fertiliser and pesticides, which is provided by the tobacco companies, who later deduct the costs of the inputs from the payment. The crop is labour intensive, which makes the farmers employ children as cheap labour force. ATTT (Association of Tanzania Tobacco Traders) have carried out a survey showing that children make up 45% of the labour force in tobacco growing. ILO-IPEC studies showed that the children are between seven and fifteen years of age. The ILO/IPEC Urambo Tobacco Sector Project (UTSP) was launched in January 2004 and terminates in December 2006. The donor contribution of US$557,729, was provided by the Elimination of Children in Tobacco Foundation (ECLT), based in Geneva. The main objective of the project phase I was to reduce incidences of child labour in the tobacco sector through capacity building of community and partner agencies in Urambo district so as to capacitate them to eliminate and prevent hazardous child labour. 3. The Urambo Project Phase II strategy The phase II for the UTSP aims to utilise and build on acquired partner skills and use these to address the root causes of child labour in tobacco growing in Urambo and at large, and assist the Government in achieving the national TBP and MKUKUTA (Tanzania National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty) goals for elimination of child labour and poverty eradication. The Urambo Tobacco Sector project Phase II will be for a four-year period from January 2007 to December 2010. The project document has been completed and approved by the ECLT Board Meeting, with a total fundin

Project symbol

URT/06/02/ECT

Admin unit

CO-Dar es Salaam

Start date

01/01/2007

End date

31/03/2011

Total allocation

1415340

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

1416074

Development Partners

Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ECLT)

Country/Countries

United Republic of Tanzania

Outcomes

Child Labour