Brief project overview

With funding from Japan Tobacco International (JTI), IPEC is implementing a targeted support programme aimed at reducing the worst forms of child labour in tobacco-growing communities in Zambia. The project is designed to advance the aim of IPEC of progressive elimination of child labour worldwide, with the eradication of the worst forms as an urgent priority. The Project supports the implementation of JTI’s strategy to reduce child labour in tobacco growing communities in Zambia and the JTI ARISE (Achieving Reduction of Child Labour in support of Education) program, implemented in collaboration with Winrock International. In promoting access to quality education, awareness raising and social mobilization, and economic empowerment in tobacco-growing communities, as well as improved regulatory frameworks, the project draws on ILO-IPEC’s long experience in Zambia in promoting community and country-led, sustainable social progress to eliminate child labour.

The ARISE Project in Zambia came into effect in November 2012, with a start-up preparatory phase from November to April 2013 before the effective start of operations. The official launch was on 29 April 2013. The project has laid a foundation, through a rapid assessment, stakeholder mapping and stakeholder consultation, on which the activities have been framed. Currently, establishment of local coordination structures and identification of implementing partners are being conducted to ensure strong and technically sound commencement of activities on the ground. This is particularly critical for the on-going local level coordination and participation in the project activities

Objectives

Development Objective: To contribute to the progressive elimination of child labour in tobacco growing communities in Kaoma District

Expected deliverables

1. Strengthened capacity of national and local partners to implement an Integrated Area Based Approach to reduce child labour in tobacco-growing communities;
2. Income Generating Activities (IGAs) undertaken by target community structures, schools and households in tobacco-growing communities;
3. Strengthened national and local capacity to implement and enforce the legal, regulatory and policy frameworks for the elimination of child labour and promotion of education.

Project Implementation

The project is implementing a gradual integrated area based approach (IABA) (as opposed to a sectoral approach) in selected tobacco growing communities to reduce child labour in target areas by promoting livelihoods of vulnerable parents/guardians and strengthening community structures to lay the foundations for community-level CLMS which in the longer-run will contribute to the creation of child labour free zones in the target areas. The interventions aim at replicating, adapting and improving models of intervention for the elimination of child labour that have already been developed and piloted in Zambia in other districts, and that will be adjusted as interventions for the elimination of child labour in tobacco-growing communities, and will be made available for future replication and scaling up by the relevant government structures.