Cooperation to Address the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Agriculture: Support to the International Agricultural Partnership

The project aims to extend IPEC’s arena of action on agriculture by mainstreaming child labour into the policies and programmes of the international agricultural agencies, and to overcome roadblocks on the ground by capitalizing on the breadth of experience and opportunity offered by ILO-IPEC projects working in rural areas. It speaks to the goals which the Partnership set for itself in its initial meeting in 2008, namely to: (i) promote cooperation and achieve policy coherence on child labour among the Partners, and develop policy and programme links especially at the field level; (ii) create awareness of and mainstream child labour concerns into existing activities, programmes, and projects of agricultural organizations and help agricultural agencies and bodies to understand how the elimination of child labour in agriculture, especially hazardous child labour, contributes to achieving organizational mandates; (iii) promote action and cooperation in operational activities aimed at improving rural livelihoods; (iv) promote action and cooperation in operational activities to ensure that children do not carry out hazardous work in agriculture; and (v) promote opportunities for decent youth employment in agriculture and in rural areas. At the global level, this will take the form of a strengthened knowledge base on child labour in agriculture, including both statistical and behavioural data, as well as a policy framework that will help to guide the Partnership agencies’ staff and local partners as they incorporate child labour into their action plans and budgets, and in their advice to governments on the legal, occupational safety and health (OSH), rural development, gender, and youth employment implications concerning child labour in agriculture. At the country level, it will take the form of national partnerships comprised of agriculture ministries, workers’ organizations, and employers’ groups in three target countries. These national partnerships, in turn, will be responsible for undertaking capacity-building activities (awareness-raising and training) for those who work directly with local farmers and farm groups. Also, in selected countries where IPEC projects have an agricultural component, the national partnerships will be assisted to experiment with innovative solutions to the problems that inhibit effective action against child labour in agriculture, sharing their findings with each other through a “community of practice” on agriculture.

Project symbol

GLO/09/58/USA

Admin unit

IPEC

Start date

30/09/2009

End date

30/06/2013

Total allocation

1500000

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

1474257

Development Partners

USA, United States Department of Labor, Bureau for International Labor Affairs, Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking

Country/Countries

Global

Outcomes

Child Labour