World Day Against Child Labour

Today Fairtrade Africa is joining the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is raising a red card for the 138 million children still in child labour worldwide.

Nearly 70% of them work in agriculture. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than one in four children aged five to seventeen are engaged with child labour. Poverty is the primary driver and that is where real intervention needs to start.

Fairtrade Africa takes a human rights -based approach to child protection and targets those root causes directly. Fairtrade standards prohibit child labour as defined by the ILO. Children under 15 cannot be employed by Fairtrade-certified organisations. Those aged 15 -17 cannot engage in hazardous work, or work that jeopardises their schooling or development.

But prohibition is not enough. When cases of child labour are found, we take immediate action to enable remediation and, wherever possible, work with national child protection agencies, local authorities and child rights organisations with the goal of protecting the long-term wellbeing of the child.

Through programmes lie the kuapa Kokoo Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System in Ghana, and our Youth-Inclusive Community-Based Monitoring and Remediation System, now deployed in 18 countries. Fairtrade Africa works with farming communities to address the conditions that put children at risk in the first place.

Ending child labour requires action from everyone: farmers, businesses, buyers,governments, and consumers.

Purchasing Fairtrade contributes to farmers building livelihoods where children can go to school rather than work.