Update from Alliance 8.7 Partners

The 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, hosted by the Government of South Africa, came at a critical time in the fight against child labour as progress has stalled and is further threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic, armed conflict, as well as food, environmental and humanitarian crises.

The six-day Conference, organized for the first time in Africa and in hybrid mode format:

• Gathered 2,750 participants (1,150 in person and 1,600 online) as well as 270 speakers from all regions.  For the first time, child delegates also participated
• Included 54 sessions - 12 thematic panels, 3 high-level panels with heads of states, and 24 side events
• The livestream of the Conference was viewed around 15,000 times during the 6 days
• 8,000 people posted on social media using the hashtag #RaiseYourHandForKids, and 17 celebrities joined the challenge

The Conference concluded with the adoption under acclamation of the Durban Call to Action, which includes commitments in 6 areas:

1. Making decent work a reality for adults and youth above the minimum age for work
2. Ending child labour in agriculture
3. Preventing and eliminating child labour and forced labour through data-driven policy and programmatic responses
4. Realizing children's right to free, compulsory, quality and inclusive education
5. Achieving universal access to social protection
6. Increasing financing and international cooperation for the elimination of child labour and forced labour

The "Call to Action" has been welcomed by the G7 Employment Ministerial Meeting held on 24 May in Wolfsburg, Germany, as per this Communiqué.

A statement from the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture and a Civil Society Position Paper on Child Labour in Africa contributed to the Conference.
 

The Research to Action - Human Trafficking Research Initiative (RTA-HTRI) conference "Generating Evidence to Support the Elimination of Child Labour, Forced Labour, and Human Trafficking" will take place from 27-29 from 13:15-19:45 (GMT+2 / Geneva). 

The Conference, organized by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), will share and promote the results of recently-funded research and new evidence to support the elimination of child labour, forced labour, and human trafficking.

Register here.
Visit the Conference website here.

FAO has launched a multi-resource partner facility to prevent child labour in agriculture.  The Child Labour in Agriculture Prevention (CLAP) Facility is a flexible and impact-oriented multi-resource partner programme, implemented by FAO. The Facility addresses the root causes of child labour in agriculture, as a prerequisite to eradicate rural poverty and build inclusive and sustainable agrifood systems. To this purpose, it supports and strengthens the capacity of agricultural stakeholders to improve the livelihoods of rural communities and reduce their dependencies on child labour at scale, with special consideration to socio-cultural and economic specificities and inequalities.

Check out the CLAP Facility brochure here.

FAO has released a new podcast "The coffee industry - a catalyst for change in child labour" on how FAO and partners are promoting education and safe youth employment in the coffee industry in Guatemala.

Released on the occasion of the World Day Against Child Labour, the podcast is published on the FAO Audio Catalogue, Soundcloud, and the FAO podcast Target: Zero Hunger on your favorite podcast apps.

Listen to the podcast in English | French | Spanish
 

The Partnership Against Child Exploitation (PACE) programme has developed a new tool which combines an innovative, bottom-up supply chain mapping approach with labour market and value chain analyses of tantalum mining in DRC and sesame farming in Ethiopia. 

This new approach helps reveal where child labour can often operate invisibly and undetected in the supply chains of our food and electronics, which traditional top-down supply chain mapping methodologies struggle to identify. The site draws together research that focuses on identifying pathways to remove children from the worst forms of child labour and to prevent it re-occurring - with recommendations for safe and decent alternatives. 

Watch a short introductory video here.
View the site here.