Advocacy and Learning - Uganda’s accelerated steps in eliminating child labour
Posted on: 16th December, 2022 By: NRDO Uganda 5 min readKAMPALA - The efforts made in fighting against child labour in Uganda seem to be insufficient according to the latest survey report by Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), which reveals a sharp rise from 2,048,000 children to 6.2 million children.
Nascent Research and Development Organization Uganda (NRDO-U), Ministry of Gender Labour and Social development, in collaboration with the International Labour Organization, invited over 50 Civil Society Organizations to attend a Learning and Advocacy event. This event took place on Thursday, December 08, 2022 at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel.
The main objective was to discuss about the increase in numbers related to child labour as reported by the 2022 report from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), as well as reflections on progress, gaps, and way forward.
The chief guest, Hon. Betty Amongi, the Minister for Gender, Labour and Social Development, said the low level of industrialization, poverty, high cost of education among others have forced children to go into child labour. The minister observed that to reduce unskilled labour, the country must move towards industrialization.
Head of department, Population and Social statistics, Vincent Fred Sennono representing Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), emphasized that a lot needs to be done and parents need to be advised on what age children should begin to work and what age should be in school.
Programs Manager - Social Protection, Barbara Odongo while speaking to the participants of the Learning and Advocacy event pointed out that the UBOS numbers indicate majority of child labour is in the agriculture sector. She asked for more support from all stakeholders to see that the fight is won before 2025.
The year 2025 is the year indicated in “The Durban Call to Action”. It is guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, a 15-year cycle of increasingly ambitious action to build a better, more equal world. Specifically, SDG Target 8.7 says that all UN Member States will take measures to end child labour in all its forms by 2025.
Among other participants of the event, were former pupils
of Kiburara Primary School in Kabarole district, who presented a “call
for action” paper developed during the Children’s Conference that took
place in 2022, which asked the government to strengthen the enforcement
of laws against child labour. They also called upon child rights actors
to sensitize the public on the dangers of child labour and asked
religious and cultural leaders to get involved in the fight against the
vice.
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