Child labour in Uganda: The case of joining forces

On June 12th the International Community commemorates the need to end child labour through the World Day Against Child Labour. Exactly 25 years ago, the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention was adopted, signalling a new era in the long-time effort to abolish child labour. It triggered unprecedented attention and investments to tackle child labour and brought a profound sense of urgency to the task. While for nearly two decades the world had been making steady progress in reducing child labour, in recent years, conflicts, crises and the COVID-19 pandemic have forced millions more children into child labour, rolling back decades of progress. 

According to the latest Global Estimates on Child Labour (ILO-UNICEF 2021) there are 160 million children in child labour worldwide, 79 million of whom are in hazardous work, one of the worst forms of child labour. In recent years, Uganda has also known a surge of child labour from 14% in 2016/17 up to 39.5% or 6.2 million in 2021 (UBOS 2021), excluding household chores, and this despite various policy interventions and the adoption of national actions plan to eliminate child labour by the Government of Uganda. 

The problem of child labour in Uganda is particularly concerning in the agricultural sector where many very young children are engaged in child labour. In recent years the issue of child labour in supply chains has come to the forefront of the public debate. Acknowledging that voluntary guidelines and frameworks had little or no impact, several states have adopted mandatory due diligence legislation and many multinationals and companies have begun to introduce corporate sustainability due diligence into their business models to address child labour in supply chains. 

The adoption of the European Union Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive has spurred efforts to ensure compliance with mandatory human rights due diligence in Uganda, particularly along the coffee supply chain. For many businesses however, child labour continues to be a salient human rights risk, in part because of approaches exclusively focusing on monitoring children in workplaces, rather than on tackling the root causes of the problem. 

The main drivers of child labour include absence or weak labour rights, poverty and social vulnerability, low levels of productivity, barriers to free and quality education. These issues are further exacerbated by climate change impacts, inadequate or absence of social protection, limited decent work opportunities and limited labour protection. 

On this World Day Against Child Labour, a unique multi-stakeholder partnership to prevent and eliminate child labour in Uganda’s coffee supply chain was officially launched. The joint Ending Child Labour in Supply Chains (CLEAR Supply Chains) program is implemented by consortium led by the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the International Trade Centre (ITC), co-funded by the European Union and has the active involvement of some major global coffee buyers. 

The program focuses on the development and implementation of an integrated and area-based model that addresses the socio-economic causes of child labour. The piloting of the model will engage policymakers, coffee supply chain operators and communities affected by child labour in Kalungu, Masaka and Manafwa district.  

By joining efforts among several United Nations (UN) agencies, national and local stakeholders, and the private sector, the CLEAR Supply Chains program will be able to support vulnerable communities and children with an array of services, including reintegration and retention of children in school, skills development for youth, diversification of livelihood, adoption of climate-resilient production practices, and increased due diligence and promotion of labour rights in the coffee supply chain.   

This joint program will complement other ongoing ILO programs in Uganda, including the “Strengthening capacity of Governments to address Child Labour, Forced Labour and human trafficking in sub–Saharan Africa (CAPSA)” and the “Accelerating Action to address child Labour in supply chains in Africa (ACCEL)” project whose aim is to improve the enforcement of policies at national and subnational level, enhance coordination and improve access to assistance services by the survivors of child labour, forced labour and human trafficking, and the prevention and elimination of child labour in the tea and coffee supply chain.

While the number of children whose health, safety and future development are put at risk by child labour has gone up in Uganda and worldwide, the experience of the last 25 years has shown that attaining a world free from child labour is possible. 

#EndChildLabour