Commemoration of the 2021 World Day Against Child Labor. Theme: Act Now, End Child Labour!
Posted on: 16th December, 2021 By: NRDO Uganda 10 min readMOROTO - Selina (not real names) aged 14 years is one of the children who has been engaged in mining from the time she was 7 years. She is currently a primary six student but would have been in senior one hadn’t it been due to COVID-19 disruptions. She wakes up at 7am daily to go to work at either the stone quarries or gold mines, which are over 5 kilometres away from her village, Nanyidik in Moroto District. She lowers her body into what looks like a bottomless pit to look for gold and spends over 9 hours underground, 6 days a week. Underneath the ground, Selina like many other children is detached from the world. In our interaction with her, she told us that while underground, all she thinks about is if she would get paid her UGX 3,000 shillings compensation for the day. Her peanut payment is not even spent on meeting her personal needs. She does not have the luxury of buying herself a new pair of shoes, or dress or a soda. Whatever she earns, she hands it over to her parents to support other household expenses. By the end of the day, she is usually very fatigued, and has chest pains as she goes to sleep. Another child of the same age in a different setting within Uganda is possibly being trained how to play football or is attending online classes, or in person coaching at home or taking lessons in playing musical instruments. In the end, all these children will certainly sit the same national examination and compete for the same opportunities. All of us (including you and I) have a duty to disassemble and reconstruct this narrative, the lives of Ugandan children matter, and that means every Ugandan child. This is especially urgent given that over 30 years ago, Uganda ratified the United Nations convention on the Rights of the child (UNCRC) in 1990 committing to protect children from economic exploitation, from hazardous work and work that interferes with their education or is harmful to their health, physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. The UNCRC has indeed been domesticated by enacting the children statute which is the current Children’s Act. The question to ask ourselves is how seriously do we as a country take these laws and commitments?
Child labour is a gross violation of children’s fundamental rights, according to the MGLSD (2021). It is exploitative and detrimental to the physical, emotional and mental wellbeing of children. It denies children the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills for lifelong learning through education and training as demonstrated in the narrative of Selina. Child labour is a global concern, affecting over 160 million children globally and over 2 million Ugandan children. Due to COVID-19 and the associated measures of managing the pandemic, child labour skyrocketed and continues to upsurge. We can say that Uganda is currently experiencing child labour boom. Therefore, now is the time to act and eradicate child labour, now is the time to stop robbery of children’s lives, their dreams, their ambitions, their joy, their wellbeing, and their all.
This week, several partners led by the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social development (MGLSD) in collaboration with Work No Child Business (WNCB) coordinated by Hivos and other CSOs like Ecological Christian Organization (ECO) and Nascent Research and Development Organization (NRDO) organized a belated commemoration of the World Day Against Child Labour (WDACL) in Moroto district at Boma grounds. This year, the theme for the commemoration of the WDACL was “Act Now, End Child Labour”. It is a theme that we as partners are determined to push forward until we harvest the desired results. During the commemoration, the chief guest, RDC Moroto, Mr. Shilaku James, applauded the work and efforts of different stakeholders towards stopping child labour and called for the continued support from various stakeholders. In his remarks, he emphasized that parents should be the main target since they are most responsible for their children. He urged all stakeholders to come up with programmes that include parents at the centre of ending child labour. He called for a need to construct more schools in the region and emphasized that education should be made compulsory for all school going children and institute a school task force that arrests parents who don’t take children to school. The Programme coordinator for WNCB Ms. Juliet Wajega noted that there is an increase in child labour and high school dropouts and this phenomenon is partly fuelled by the global COVID 19 pandemic. She pointed out that there is increase in poverty, high population growth and more food insecurity in the vulnerable regions which require targeted actions to help these communities. She also noted that Nakapiripit alone has communities that have children moving over 30 kilometres to reach the nearest school. She urged all districts to institute bylaws and create work plans to support school level systems and make them sustainable. Molly Namirembe, working with Ecological Christian Organisation, urged stakeholders to focus more on young people because they get recruited as child soldiers and this is a security issue.
In a pre-event organized by Nascent RDO in the communities of Nanyidik village, LC1 Chairman Lomilo Loram, noted that there was increased number of children working at the stone quarries in his region. He called for the continued support and collaboration of more partners fighting to see more children go back to school next year. Similarly, during the stakeholders engagement also coordinated by Nascent RDO, held at Masceto hotel and highly attended by a range of CSOs working in Karamoja region including local government officials and the MGLSD, partners agreed on key actions. These include Monitoring and inspection of companies and mining sites, Re integration of children found in child labour back to their families and offer support to them, Creating synergies between government and civil society organizations (CSO), Economic strengthening of households, Skilling of youth especially the 14-17 who are on optional education, Committees for elimination of child labour right from the ministry to LC1 to be strengthened, and Research and advocacy
The commemoration of the WDACL was also an opportunity for the partners to disseminate the Uganda National Action Plan for the Elimination of Child Labour (NAP 2020/2021-2024/2025). The revised NAP was launched by the president of Uganda at the beginning of this year. The goal of the NAP II is to ensure that all households, communities and sectors in Uganda are free from child labour. It aims to reduce child labour by 4% in the fiver-year period of implementation plan. Fundamentally, the goal is to have a society that is child labour free, businesses that have no blood of children and money that has no traces of children’s blood. On December 15th, 2021, the MGLSD together with her partners extended the dissemination of the NAP and pledged to further the awareness of the NAP to all relevant actors in the fight against child labour. In the launch of the NAP, Mr. Amuriat, an officer at the MGLSD noted that child labour is very complex and requires collective efforts to stop it. He applauded the support of all partners especially ILO who have heavily invested in the success of the dissemination launch, but also for their contribution during the revision of the NAP, a process which started a couple of years back. He also explained about livelihood programs like operation wealth creation which are going to be reaching different communities through the parish model which will be crucial at ending child labour
The fulfilment of the goal anticipated by the NAP II will require efforts of several actors both public and private, communities, households, and individuals young and old. Nascent Research and Development Organization (Nascent RDO) is one of those partners who work with communities most hit by child labour in Uganda and seeks to implement innovative solutions to fight child labour while tackling its root causes. One of the key efforts Nascent RDO is part of is the Accelerating Action for the Elimination of Child Labour in Supply Chains in Africa project (ACCEL ) and in Uganda the program focuses on coffee and tea supply chains in 7 districts Uganda (Greater Mbale, Central region-Buikwe, Greater Hoima and Kabarole district). This programme is implemented collaboratively with the MGLSD and the ILO together with ILO’s partners. Nascent RDO specifically focuses her efforts on supporting vulnerable households to diversify and enhance their livelihoods in order to support the education of their children (6-14 years) and skilling of their children (14 – 17 years). In addition, Nascent RDO in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are piloting an intervention in Moroto and Amudat districts that seeks to address the root causes of child labour through economic strengthening of farming vulnerable households. This program has enabled over 400 households to start up new IGAs, expand their projects and value addition to some of the existing enterprises. The benefiting households are also members of village savings and loans associations, an opportunity for them to save money ahead of school re-opening anticipated early next year.
Moreover, on the WNCB where Nascent RDO is also a partner along others including, Save the Children, UNATU and EWAD coordinated by Hivos, the intervention has for the last two years engaged with households in the Karamoja region on issues of child labour, children’s education, enhanced household incomes, skilling youth and systems strengthening. The program has enabled households to save for business expansion, new businesses and school fees needs, children have been motivated to re-join schooling when schools re-open, youth have been skilled in several vocational aspects and the elders are highly engaged in the fight against child labour in the region. Small steps taken, but the journey is still very long.
If Uganda is going to end child labour by 2025 as the Government of Uganda has pledged being a pathfinding country, the remaining three years will require concerted and intentional efforts. We will need more dedicated actors in the landscape, more finances invested in systems strengthening and Government supportive structures, going beyond the rhetoric to action, holistic measures that are inter-ministerial especially between the MGLSD, MoES, MoH, MoLG, MAAIF, MIA. A battle against child labour requires several engines notably, existence of well facilitated schools and presence of well-motivated teachers. It requires a foundation of households with meaningful livelihoods and communities with zero tolerance to harmful social practices, gender inequalities and discrimination crowned by the will from All. The lives of all Ugandan children matter, if only you, will, we will end child labour.
Child labour is a gross violation of children’s fundamental rights, according to the MGLSD (2021). It is exploitative and detrimental to the physical, emotional and mental wellbeing of children. It denies children the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills for lifelong learning through education and training as demonstrated in the narrative of Selina. Child labour is a global concern, affecting over 160 million children globally and over 2 million Ugandan children. Due to COVID-19 and the associated measures of managing the pandemic, child labour skyrocketed and continues to upsurge. We can say that Uganda is currently experiencing child labour boom. Therefore, now is the time to act and eradicate child labour, now is the time to stop robbery of children’s lives, their dreams, their ambitions, their joy, their wellbeing, and their all.
This week, several partners led by the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social development (MGLSD) in collaboration with Work No Child Business (WNCB) coordinated by Hivos and other CSOs like Ecological Christian Organization (ECO) and Nascent Research and Development Organization (NRDO) organized a belated commemoration of the World Day Against Child Labour (WDACL) in Moroto district at Boma grounds. This year, the theme for the commemoration of the WDACL was “Act Now, End Child Labour”. It is a theme that we as partners are determined to push forward until we harvest the desired results. During the commemoration, the chief guest, RDC Moroto, Mr. Shilaku James, applauded the work and efforts of different stakeholders towards stopping child labour and called for the continued support from various stakeholders. In his remarks, he emphasized that parents should be the main target since they are most responsible for their children. He urged all stakeholders to come up with programmes that include parents at the centre of ending child labour. He called for a need to construct more schools in the region and emphasized that education should be made compulsory for all school going children and institute a school task force that arrests parents who don’t take children to school. The Programme coordinator for WNCB Ms. Juliet Wajega noted that there is an increase in child labour and high school dropouts and this phenomenon is partly fuelled by the global COVID 19 pandemic. She pointed out that there is increase in poverty, high population growth and more food insecurity in the vulnerable regions which require targeted actions to help these communities. She also noted that Nakapiripit alone has communities that have children moving over 30 kilometres to reach the nearest school. She urged all districts to institute bylaws and create work plans to support school level systems and make them sustainable. Molly Namirembe, working with Ecological Christian Organisation, urged stakeholders to focus more on young people because they get recruited as child soldiers and this is a security issue.
In a pre-event organized by Nascent RDO in the communities of Nanyidik village, LC1 Chairman Lomilo Loram, noted that there was increased number of children working at the stone quarries in his region. He called for the continued support and collaboration of more partners fighting to see more children go back to school next year. Similarly, during the stakeholders engagement also coordinated by Nascent RDO, held at Masceto hotel and highly attended by a range of CSOs working in Karamoja region including local government officials and the MGLSD, partners agreed on key actions. These include Monitoring and inspection of companies and mining sites, Re integration of children found in child labour back to their families and offer support to them, Creating synergies between government and civil society organizations (CSO), Economic strengthening of households, Skilling of youth especially the 14-17 who are on optional education, Committees for elimination of child labour right from the ministry to LC1 to be strengthened, and Research and advocacy
The commemoration of the WDACL was also an opportunity for the partners to disseminate the Uganda National Action Plan for the Elimination of Child Labour (NAP 2020/2021-2024/2025). The revised NAP was launched by the president of Uganda at the beginning of this year. The goal of the NAP II is to ensure that all households, communities and sectors in Uganda are free from child labour. It aims to reduce child labour by 4% in the fiver-year period of implementation plan. Fundamentally, the goal is to have a society that is child labour free, businesses that have no blood of children and money that has no traces of children’s blood. On December 15th, 2021, the MGLSD together with her partners extended the dissemination of the NAP and pledged to further the awareness of the NAP to all relevant actors in the fight against child labour. In the launch of the NAP, Mr. Amuriat, an officer at the MGLSD noted that child labour is very complex and requires collective efforts to stop it. He applauded the support of all partners especially ILO who have heavily invested in the success of the dissemination launch, but also for their contribution during the revision of the NAP, a process which started a couple of years back. He also explained about livelihood programs like operation wealth creation which are going to be reaching different communities through the parish model which will be crucial at ending child labour
The fulfilment of the goal anticipated by the NAP II will require efforts of several actors both public and private, communities, households, and individuals young and old. Nascent Research and Development Organization (Nascent RDO) is one of those partners who work with communities most hit by child labour in Uganda and seeks to implement innovative solutions to fight child labour while tackling its root causes. One of the key efforts Nascent RDO is part of is the Accelerating Action for the Elimination of Child Labour in Supply Chains in Africa project (ACCEL ) and in Uganda the program focuses on coffee and tea supply chains in 7 districts Uganda (Greater Mbale, Central region-Buikwe, Greater Hoima and Kabarole district). This programme is implemented collaboratively with the MGLSD and the ILO together with ILO’s partners. Nascent RDO specifically focuses her efforts on supporting vulnerable households to diversify and enhance their livelihoods in order to support the education of their children (6-14 years) and skilling of their children (14 – 17 years). In addition, Nascent RDO in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are piloting an intervention in Moroto and Amudat districts that seeks to address the root causes of child labour through economic strengthening of farming vulnerable households. This program has enabled over 400 households to start up new IGAs, expand their projects and value addition to some of the existing enterprises. The benefiting households are also members of village savings and loans associations, an opportunity for them to save money ahead of school re-opening anticipated early next year.
Moreover, on the WNCB where Nascent RDO is also a partner along others including, Save the Children, UNATU and EWAD coordinated by Hivos, the intervention has for the last two years engaged with households in the Karamoja region on issues of child labour, children’s education, enhanced household incomes, skilling youth and systems strengthening. The program has enabled households to save for business expansion, new businesses and school fees needs, children have been motivated to re-join schooling when schools re-open, youth have been skilled in several vocational aspects and the elders are highly engaged in the fight against child labour in the region. Small steps taken, but the journey is still very long.
If Uganda is going to end child labour by 2025 as the Government of Uganda has pledged being a pathfinding country, the remaining three years will require concerted and intentional efforts. We will need more dedicated actors in the landscape, more finances invested in systems strengthening and Government supportive structures, going beyond the rhetoric to action, holistic measures that are inter-ministerial especially between the MGLSD, MoES, MoH, MoLG, MAAIF, MIA. A battle against child labour requires several engines notably, existence of well facilitated schools and presence of well-motivated teachers. It requires a foundation of households with meaningful livelihoods and communities with zero tolerance to harmful social practices, gender inequalities and discrimination crowned by the will from All. The lives of all Ugandan children matter, if only you, will, we will end child labour.
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Last updated on: 3rd July, 2023
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