Linking Women's Employment to the reduction of Child Labour - Tanzania (2000 - 2003)

Publications

• Series on Gender in the Life Cycle - National Report for Tanzania: Promoting the Linkages Between Women's Employment and the Reduction of Child Labour
  
• The Guide for Training Women Economic Groups. (The Guide is in Kiswahili and prepared by the ILO in Tanzania)
  

Current policies and programmes tend to address separately the promotion of women's employment and the elimination of child labour. On the one hand, efforts to promote women's employment often ignore related issues such as improved family welfare, children's education and their protection from labour exploitation. On the other hand, measures to reduce child labour focus on the reduction of poverty through the promotion of adult employment, but information and experience of the most effective socio-economic alternatives to the use of child labour are still limited. Certain types of employment could, in fact, lead mothers to withdraw their children from school to join them in their jobs or to take over family responsibilities, or could set negative role models for their children. Female children are often in the greatest danger of being withdrawn from school to take over household responsibilities, pressured into hazardous and exploitative income generating activities, or sold into debt bondage.

With the financial support of the Netherlands Government, GENPROM started projects in Bangladesh and Tanzania to promote the linkages between decent employment for women and the reduction of child labour. Action research, based on a specially designed survey questionnaire, was conducted to shed light on the types of economic sectors, characteristics of women's employment and working conditions and the kinds of support structures that positively or negatively affect child labour. Model schemes were developed and tested. Awareness raising for women included the rights of children and the importance of human capital investment in children. Group organization activities enabled community watch groups to monitor vulnerable children. Programmes for skills training, access to credit or marketing facilities imposed the condition that the women should ensure regular school attendance of their children and no involvement of child labour.

Facts and Figures One of the poorest countries in the world: GNP per capita of US$240. 85% of total female labour force are in poverty-stricken rural areas Children under 15 constitute half the workforce in urban informal sector 30% of all 10-14 year olds are out of school 25,000 out-of-school children in countryside are working in hazardous conditions in commercial agriculture, mining and quarrying. Recruitment of girls from villages for domestic service and prostitution rapidly increasing

The Project in Perspective: Tanzania is part of broader IPEC efforts to eliminate worst forms of child labour. The project is working in Dar-es-Salaam, Iringa, Mbeya, Ruvama, Kilimanjaro, Morogoro and Arusha The project is building links with: Action to Assist Rural Women; Women Workers in Sugar Plantations and IPEC projects on child domestic workers and in mining communities

Sectors the project focuses on in Tanzania
*Informal sector
*Manifacturing sector
*Plantation
*Commercial sex sector
*Mining communities
*Domestic workers

Development and testing of "Model Schemes":

• awareness raising for women includes the rights of children and importance of human capital investment in children
• group organisation activities introduce women community watch groups to monitor vulnerable children
• programmes for skills training, access to credit or marketing facilities impose the condition that women should ensure regular school attendance of their children and no involvement of child labour

Project Achievements at the end of 2003

• 1,025 women had been trained and helped to organise themselves into a total of 18 groups by the project, in Zanzibar (both Pemba and Unguja) and in three regions of Tanzania mainland;
  
• 150 leaders of women's economic groups had been trained in organisational skills;
  
• 848 of these had been trained in different job and business skills;
  
• 848 trained on savings and credit and procedures at access loans;
  
• 541 women had been given loans ranging from US$50 to USD 500;
  
• 1,258 children between the ages of 2 and 8 years had been enrolled in a total of 14 day-care centres established in tea plantation estates;
  
• 1,026 children (475 girls and 551 boys) had been identified, withdrawn from child labour, and provided with opportunities for primary education or vocational training.
  
• 200 leaders of women's groups and potential advisers attended training of trainers courses on gender issues, reproductive health and occupational health and safety.
  
• In the Tea Plantations 1258 children have been enrolled in day-care centres.
  
• In partnership with employers 15 centres have been renovated and provided with learning materials and 14 day-care assistants have undergone 12 months of training;
  
• A revolving fund has been administered by a local commercial bank under an agreement with the Ministry of Labour, Youth Development and Sports and the ILO.
  
  

For further results see Excerpts from the Independent Evaluation Report

The Next Phase of the project has been decentralised to ILO Dar es Salaam under the project "Promoting Gender Equality and Decent Work throughout all Stages of Life".