Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2020, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) - United Republic of Tanzania (Ratification: 1998)

Article 1 of the Convention. National policy and application of the Convention in practice. In its previous comments, the Committee noted the various measures taken within the framework of the National Action Plan (NAP) for the Elimination of Child Labour, including providing trainings to government officials and other stakeholders and the establishment and reactivation of district child labour committees. The Committee further noted from the findings of the third National Child Labour Survey (NCLS) – the Analytical Report released in January 2016 – that 34.5 per cent of children aged between 5 and 17 are engaged in child labour with agriculture, forestry and fishing industry employing more than 92 per cent of all working children. The Committee observed that 22.1 per cent of children aged 5 to11 years and 36 per cent of children aged 12 to13 were involved in child labour, which amounts to about 2.76 million children in total. Noting with concern that a significant number of children below the minimum age were involved in child labour, the Committee urged the Government to strengthen its efforts to ensure the progressive elimination of child labour, and to continue taking measures to ensure that the NAP was effectively implemented.

The Committee notes the Government’s information in its report that the NAP for the Elimination of Child Labour was merged with the NAP on Violence against Women and Children (VAWC). In December 2017, the Government endorsed the National Strategy on Elimination of Child Labour (2018–22) to strengthen the implementation of measures eliminating child labour through the NAP VAWC. According to the Government’s information, this strategy has identified issues and interventions that would address child labour at all levels. The Government indicates that the ILO, with the Japan Tobacco International funding, is successfully implementing the Achieving Reduction of Child Labour in Support of Education (ARISE) project to support the Government in implementing the NAP VAWC 2017/18–2021/22.

The Committee also notes the information provided by the Government in its report under the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), that within the framework of the Promoting Sustainable Practices to Eradicate Child Labour in Tobacco (PROSPER+) project 2016–17, several child labour awareness events in targeted communities involving 9,725 participants were carried out in collaboration with the Tanzania Leaf Tobacco Companies and Alliance One International. Moreover, the Tanzania Social Action Fund Conditional Cash Transfer Program (TASAF CCT) Phase III (2012–2018) which aims to provide financial assistance to vulnerable populations, including children, led to an increase in school enrolment and reduced child labour.

The Committee further notes from the Government’s report to the Human Rights Council of February 2016 that the State’s collaboration with Plan International and WEKEZA (Supporting Livelihoods and Developing Quality Education to Stop Child Labour) had succeeded in preventing 3,016 children between the ages of 5 and 13 from becoming child labourers, rescuing about 2,232 children from child labour, providing them with school facilities and bringing them back to schools and technical schools. This report also indicates that the State has collaborated with small–scale miners associations and raised awareness on the effects of child labour and the legal prohibitions. This campaign led some villages in the Geita Region to adopt by-laws, which prohibit child employment in mines and agricultural activities (A/HRC/WG.6/25/TZA/1, paragraph 63).

The Committee, however, notes from the ILO report entitled Child Labour and the Youth Decent Work Deficit in Tanzania, 2018, that child labour in Tanzania continues to affect an estimated 4.2 million children aged 5 to17 years. Around one in four children aged 5 to 13 years, almost 2.8 million children, are engaged in child labour. Nearly 95 per cent of child labourers are in the agricultural sector, often working for long hours and in hazardous conditions. The Committee finally notes the Government’s statement that child labour remains a major challenge to socio-economic development and constitutes a major obstacle to achieving education for all and other developmental goals. The Committee once again expresses its concern that a significant number of children below the minimum age are still engaged in child labour in Tanzania. While noting the measures taken by the Government, the Committee once again urges the Government to strengthen its efforts to ensure the progressive elimination of child labour, including by taking effective and specific measures within the framework of the NAP VAWC as well as through collaborating with PROSPER, Plan International and WEKEZA. It requests the Government to continue to provide information on the measures taken in this regard and the results achieved in terms of progressively eliminating child labour.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.