The International Labour Organization (ILO) and Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services (MoFLSS) came together with the private sector in Istanbul on 21 December 2018 in the context of “Integrated Model for the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour in Seasonal Agriculture in Hazelnut Harvesting in Turkey Project” and 2018 Year against Child Labour. Hosted by ILO and MoFLSS, the workshop drew participation from hazelnut producing and exporting firms.

In his opening remarks for the workshop, Mr. Şeref Kazancı, Deputy General Director of Labour of the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Security said: “We have come together today in relation to child labour in hazelnut agriculture. However, our goal as the Ministry is to combat child labour across all agriculture, not only hazelnut agriculture. In that sense, the project we are implementing jointly with ILO is a guiding light for what we can do to solve problems in other sectors”, and continued that “as the Ministry, we included serious actions against child labour in the National Employment Strategy. We also started the implementation of the National Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour. By 2023, we will continue to implement the measures in the National Programme, and add new measures. We as the Ministry engage in cooperation with all stakeholders in the sector to that end. We derive information from stakeholders in the field and social partners. We are here together today to discuss what we can do to scale up the combat against child labour in seasonal agriculture.”


Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Mr. Nejat Kocabay, Senior Programme Manager in the ILO Office for Turkey said: “We now see that the project, first of its kind in public-private partnership for the elimination of child labour in Turkey, jointly implemented by the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services and ILO with participation from many stakeholders has already matured. We are glad that at this stage we have already seen the fruits for policy development and implementation. Each hazelnut season we have worked in help us learn more, and we put such learning into good use by assessing and verifying the work, planning project activities for the upcoming year, and providing support to the scaling up and implementation of the policies developed by the Ministry. This year, following the close of the season, we evaluated the season at various venues with public and private sector representatives. We had the meeting of civil administrators with largest participation in Ankara last month. Such participation was important in showing that how the top administrators of the public sector owned the issue in the field and exchanged views with the Ministry. We view today’s meeting as a continuation of the process. We believe this is a venue where we specifically hear the experience, views and assessments of producers and exporting firms from the provinces, we provide information on the developments, and as I have stated at the beginning, how we can scale up this top example of public-private cooperation in other fields of seasonal agriculture, and discuss the role of private sector on the particularity of hazelnut.”

At the workshop, the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services provided information on the relevant legislation and National Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (2017-2023). Also explained to the participants were activities of the Integrated Model for the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour in Seasonal Agriculture in Hazelnut Harvesting in Turkey Project. Experience and views were exchanged on the private sector’s role and experience in the sector in combating child labour, and ways of cooperation through discussions of the existing social work of firms, findings and recommendations on child labour.


Integrated Model for the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour in Seasonal Agriculture in Hazelnut Harvesting in Turkey Project

The efforts to eliminate child labour in seasonal hazelnut agriculture are scheduled to run until end of 2020 under the “Integrated Model for the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour in Seasonal Agriculture in Hazelnut Harvesting in Turkey Project” which was first implemented in 2012-2015 in Ordu under the partnership of the General Directorate of Labour of the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services and the International Labour Organization (ILO) Office for Turkey, then expanded to the provinces of Düzce, Sakarya and Şanlıurfa in 2015-2018.


The project aims to contribute to the elimination of the worst forms of child labour in seasonal agriculture. It is also aimed that the strategic intervention model developed for this objective would contribute to policy development and implementation, public-private partnership, and serve as a platform of cooperation among all stakeholders.