Child labour

ECLT Foundation and ILO sign agreement to combat child labour in tobacco

Agreement to develop global guidance on hazardous child labour and occupational safety and health in tobacco growing, and to support stronger social dialogue in three of the countries where ECLT operates projects: Malawi, the United Republic of Tanzania, and Uganda.

Press release | 26 May 2015
GENEVA – The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco-growing Foundation (ECLT) have entered into an agreement in order to develop global guidance on hazardous child labour and occupational safety and health in tobacco growing, and to support stronger social dialogue in three of the countries where ECLT operates projects: Malawi, the United Republic of Tanzania, and Uganda.

The global guidance will examine the nature and conditions of hazardous child labour in tobacco growing. It will promote tripartite action to ensure that children do not perform this work, and will support decent employment opportunities for young people between the minimum working age and the age of 18. The global guidance will be based on existing and new research, and its development will be facilitated by the ILO with advice from experts from the tobacco sector, academia, and others, and will include tripartite consultations.

Corinne Vargha, Director, ILO Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Department, Sonia Velazquez, Executive Director, ECLT Foundation, and Jürgen Schwettman, Director, ILO Department of Partnerships and Field Support, 25 May 2015

In Malawi, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania, the project will enhance the capacity of governments and of the social partners to develop and implement policies and action plans to combat child labour in agriculture. It will also provide technical support for tripartite meetings on child labour in agriculture.

The agreement builds on the collaborative efforts of ILO and ECLT in Malawi to provide policy support to ILO constituents to implement the agriculture component of the National Action Plan to Combat Child Labour and the declarations adopted by the Malawi National Conference on Child Labour in Agriculture, held in 2012. It also builds on the recent Tanzania National Sustainability Conference on "Pathways to Sustainability: Together We Can Eradicate Child Labour in Agriculture" (May 2015). Since 2002 ECLT has implemented projects combating child labour in tobacco growing in Malawi, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania, and in several other countries.

The global guidance on hazardous child labour in tobacco growing, and the results of efforts supporting social dialogue on combating child labour in agriculture in the three target countries will feed into the IV Global Child Labour Conference, to be held in Argentina in 2017.

About the ECLT Foundation

The Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing Foundation is a global leader in preventing child labour in tobacco agriculture and protecting and improving the lives of children in tobacco-growing areas. ECLT strengthens communities, improves policies, and advances research so that tobacco-growing communities can benefit from agriculture while ensuring that their children are healthy, educated, and safe.

About the International Labour Organization

The ILO is the UN agency devoted to advancing opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Its main aims are to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue in handling work-related issues.