Policy Support to an ECLT-sponsored Conference in Malawi on Child labour in Agriculture

At the initiative of ECLT, an international conference on child labour in agriculture, will be organized in early 2012. The Government has formed a Task Force to support the organization of this conference. Representatives of workers’ and employers’ organizations form part of this, as Government recognizes them as crucial partners without whose efforts the fight against child labour cannot be won. To ensure effective coordination among and participation of all relevant agriculture and labour stakeholders, it is recommended that the Task Force include representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, sectoral agricultural workers’ organizations (for example TOTAWUM; SPAWUM, PAWUM), and agricultural producers’ organizations such as NASFAM. ILO-IPEC proposes to support ECLT in the policy and research initiatives leading up to the conference. These will be vital in ensuring that the conference leads to increased efforts to tackle child labour in agriculture, including in tobacco growing, farming, fishing and livestock, led by the Government of Malawi and in support of the NAP and its agricultural component. In order to build consensus and monitor progress on the agricultural component of the NAP, a series of workshops with ILO constituents and other relevant stakeholders, especially from Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, agricultural producers and other relevant agricultural organizations, will be held, also in preparation for the conference. The content of these workshops will be determined by national agriculture and labour stakeholders, in consultation with the national tripartite Task Force established to support the project, and with technical support from the International partnership for cooperation on child labour in agriculture. They will include thematic specific focus on capacity building, policy and legislative review, coordination, and mainstreaming of child labour in agriculture and rural development policy, as well as a specific focus on hazardous child labour in agriculture. To support the conference objectives, ILO-IPEC will also conduct tailored qualitative research. This research will complement ongoing IPEC research into child labour in tobacco and may focus on other crops and agriculture activities. A research gap analysis will be conducted in coordination with the Task Force and members of the International partnership in order to determine this research agenda. The research will provide inputs into the conference, particularly for specific technical sessions, and will focus on identifying solutions to the main challenges and constraints faced by agricultural communities and producers in eliminating child labour.

Project symbol

MLW/11/01/ECT

Admin unit

CO-Lusaka

Start date

23/09/2011

End date

30/05/2015

Total allocation

465042

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

390396

Development Partners

Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ECLT)

Country/Countries

Malawi

Outcomes

Child Labour