Ending Child Labour in Supply Chains in Uganda

Uganda is one of the four countries in a partnership project on ending child labour in the global supply chains. The other countries are Honduras, Vietnam, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The trade volume to the European Union in these four countries is significant. The partnership is for a duration of 3 years and half for a total of 10 million Euros funding from the European Commission, divided between the four agencies and the countries. The project brings together the European Commission (EC), the ILO as the leading UN specialized agency for the Action, together with the FAO, UNICEF and the ITC. The project strategy seeks the active cooperation of supply chains actors at the global (e.g., IOE, ITUC, multinationals, financial institutions), regional, national, and local level (Ministries of Labour, Trade, Agriculture, Education, trade unions and employers’ organizations, cooperatives, youth organizations) in advancing an approach that puts the emphasis on solving the root causes of child labour and sustaining progress by investing on preventive measures. Under ILO’s leadership, the four UN agencies (ILO, FAO, UNICEF, ITC) work together to implement a model of intervention to tackle the root causes of child labour in supply chains. The model is being piloted in the coffee supply chain of Uganda Honduras and Vietnam, and in the cobalt supply chain in the DRC. The partnership global component supports the mandate of Alliance 8.7 and the ILO Child Labour Partners. The overall objective of the project is to contribute to eliminating child labour in the coffee and cobalt supply chains. The specific objectives of the project are; tackling child labour root causes in the selected value chains sectors and facilitating adoption of actions against child labour by partners and key stakeholders. To achieve these objectives, the project is focusing on four result areas, namely: Strengthening the knowledge base on root causes and recommendations to address child labour in coffee and other supply chains; Establishing an integrated and replicable model to eliminate child labour in the coffee supply chain; Strengthening global partnerships and alliances, including the Alliance 8.7 Action Group on Supply Chains, to eliminate child labour in supply chains. The project is applying both an area-based approach, as well as a supply chain approach, with close linkages to other supply chains, possibly tea and/or other coffee-associated crops (Uganda) and fruits and/or other coffee-associated crops (Honduras). Within this approach, the interventions target all forms of child labour in the given geographical location, considering all violations of child rights on similar strength, and building the capacity of local communities to deliver interventions against child labour in any sector. The knowledge generated at the country level together with the model interventions is the basis for informing and strengthening global partnerships, which allows for the dissemination of lessons learned and opportunities for replication. In this regard, the Alliance 8.7 Action Group on Supply Chains, the ILO Child Labour Platform, and other global initiatives to eradicate child labour plays an important role in bringing together a large coalition of coffee producing and buying countries, social partners’ organizations, private sector, civil society and other critical partners to facilitate north-south and south-south cooperation on solutions to tackle the root causes of child labour. The programme is coordinated by the ILO and implemented in partnership with FAO, UNICEF and ITC. Within the ILO, a global programme coordinator, based in Kampala-Uganda is responsible for the overall project coordination among the UN partners, as well as the management and supervision, administration, and implementation of the ILO component of the joint programme.

Project symbol

UGA/22/50/EUR

Admin unit

CO-Dar es Salaam

Start date

01/05/2023

End date

30/09/2026

Total allocation

1544107

Total expenditure

Status

Active

1288281

Development Partners

European Commission, DG for International Partnerships

Country/Countries

Uganda

Outcomes

Outcome 1: Strong, modernized normative action for social justice