Is Uganda at Crossroads: The Country’s Hope to End Child Labour
Posted on: 11th June, 2025 By: NRDO Uganda 7 min readChild labour in Uganda has surged to over 6.2 million children, nearly 40%, despite strong laws and global commitments. Nascent RDO-U reflects on its efforts and warns that national momentum is fading. With 2025 declared the year to end child labour, the article urges urgent, collective action, better enforcement, and sustained investment to protect Uganda’s children and keep the country’s promise.
Over 6.2 million children in Uganda representing nearly 40% are trapped in child labour, a number close to half of all Uganda’s children. Just eight years ago in 2016/17, that number stood at 2 million, representing about 14% of Uganda’s children engaged in child labour. The rate at which child labour is rising in Uganda is alarming and cannot be ignore. These figures are not just statistics, they are a piercing indictment that should unsettle our priorities and push us to question how we are responding to child labour as a nation. Note that this negative trend is irrespective of the extensive investments, partnerships, laws and policies and various innovations by different stakeholders-the Government, and its partners at different levels from grassroots to global.
Uganda is not short on commitments. We are a pathfinding country under Alliance 8.7, a signatory to the Durban Call to Action, and our legal frameworks on child labour are among the most progressive in the region. This contradiction must provoke us. If we are investing more but achieving less, we must now ask with urgency and honesty: Where are we going wrong?
Nascent RDO’s Reflexive Journey to Ending Child Labour
At Nascent RDO-U, we have walked this journey with determination and with the strength of collaborative partnerships. Through initiatives like ACCEL Africa (2021–2023) with the ILO, MoGLSD and local governments, and the Work: No Child Business programme (2019–2024) with Hivos, Save the Children, UNATU, and others, we have engaged in deep rooted community action, education system strengthening, and child empowerment. I am sure that many of you reading this article, especially if are part of Uganda’s family working towards ending child labour would, associate with our sentiments. You possibly have similar questions like us of Are we doing the right thing? Are we investing rightly? What needs to change?
Today, it feels like we are losing our momentum. Just a reminder of the commemoration of the WDACL of 2022, with a theme “Universal Social Protection to End Child Labour” in Kabarole. Children stood before us, not as victims, but as advocates calling for protection, freedom, and opportunity. Their voices rang clear. They expressed their agency. The year that followed (2023), we were only able to commemorate in Kampala at Sheraton Hotel, then in 2024 again in Kampala at Mestil Hotel. This year 2025, the World Day Against Child Labour was commemorated at Golden Tulip Hotel, Kampala, in an event hosted by the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER). Notably, the event included the participation of a young adult from a refugee setting, who represented the voices of children during the discussions, bringing powerful perspectives to the forefront. While this was a welcome improvement, opportunities for broader child participation, reflection, and networking remained limited, reminding us of how far we still need to go to truly center children in this national dialogue.
Can this Year be a Turning Point for the Country’s Efforts?
The year 2025 was declared globally as the year to end child labour. In Uganda, however, the trend is moving in the wrong direction. Numbers are rising, funding is shrinking, and the national sense of urgency appears to be waning. In this moment, it is no longer sufficient to ask what has been done. We must instead ask—what must be done differently, and now?
Ending child labour can no longer be treated as a peripheral development concern; it must be recognised as a national emergency that directly threatens our social and economic future, a problem that not only robs our children their today but also their tomorrow. We also must act decisively to enforce the laws that already exist. Uganda’s legislative framework is not the problem, our challenge is persistent and widespread non-enforcement. As long as laws remain unimplemented, they offer no protection to the millions of children whose rights continue to be violated. Furthermore, addressing child labour demands long-term investment in social protection systems that target the root causes, poverty, social exclusion, and vulnerability. This fight needs consistent funding and not one off projects of one year or two being implemented like the world is ending tomorrow without opportunities of honest reflection and re-strategizing.
Final Reflection
If 2025 ends without decisive and collective action, we will have not only missed an opportunity, we will have broken a global promise. More painfully, we will have betrayed the children of Uganda. Let us choose differently this time. Let us move beyond rhetoric and into action. Let us ensure this is the year we honour our promise. Like our theme this year “End Child Labour: Let us Speed up Action” fully, finally, and without excuse.
Uganda is not short on commitments. We are a pathfinding country under Alliance 8.7, a signatory to the Durban Call to Action, and our legal frameworks on child labour are among the most progressive in the region. This contradiction must provoke us. If we are investing more but achieving less, we must now ask with urgency and honesty: Where are we going wrong?
Nascent RDO’s Reflexive Journey to Ending Child Labour
At Nascent RDO-U, we have walked this journey with determination and with the strength of collaborative partnerships. Through initiatives like ACCEL Africa (2021–2023) with the ILO, MoGLSD and local governments, and the Work: No Child Business programme (2019–2024) with Hivos, Save the Children, UNATU, and others, we have engaged in deep rooted community action, education system strengthening, and child empowerment. I am sure that many of you reading this article, especially if are part of Uganda’s family working towards ending child labour would, associate with our sentiments. You possibly have similar questions like us of Are we doing the right thing? Are we investing rightly? What needs to change?
Today, it feels like we are losing our momentum. Just a reminder of the commemoration of the WDACL of 2022, with a theme “Universal Social Protection to End Child Labour” in Kabarole. Children stood before us, not as victims, but as advocates calling for protection, freedom, and opportunity. Their voices rang clear. They expressed their agency. The year that followed (2023), we were only able to commemorate in Kampala at Sheraton Hotel, then in 2024 again in Kampala at Mestil Hotel. This year 2025, the World Day Against Child Labour was commemorated at Golden Tulip Hotel, Kampala, in an event hosted by the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER). Notably, the event included the participation of a young adult from a refugee setting, who represented the voices of children during the discussions, bringing powerful perspectives to the forefront. While this was a welcome improvement, opportunities for broader child participation, reflection, and networking remained limited, reminding us of how far we still need to go to truly center children in this national dialogue.
Can this Year be a Turning Point for the Country’s Efforts?
The year 2025 was declared globally as the year to end child labour. In Uganda, however, the trend is moving in the wrong direction. Numbers are rising, funding is shrinking, and the national sense of urgency appears to be waning. In this moment, it is no longer sufficient to ask what has been done. We must instead ask—what must be done differently, and now?
Ending child labour can no longer be treated as a peripheral development concern; it must be recognised as a national emergency that directly threatens our social and economic future, a problem that not only robs our children their today but also their tomorrow. We also must act decisively to enforce the laws that already exist. Uganda’s legislative framework is not the problem, our challenge is persistent and widespread non-enforcement. As long as laws remain unimplemented, they offer no protection to the millions of children whose rights continue to be violated. Furthermore, addressing child labour demands long-term investment in social protection systems that target the root causes, poverty, social exclusion, and vulnerability. This fight needs consistent funding and not one off projects of one year or two being implemented like the world is ending tomorrow without opportunities of honest reflection and re-strategizing.
Final Reflection
If 2025 ends without decisive and collective action, we will have not only missed an opportunity, we will have broken a global promise. More painfully, we will have betrayed the children of Uganda. Let us choose differently this time. Let us move beyond rhetoric and into action. Let us ensure this is the year we honour our promise. Like our theme this year “End Child Labour: Let us Speed up Action” fully, finally, and without excuse.
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Last updated on: 12th June, 2025
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