The ILO brings together experts in Europe to discuss the development of its campaign on child labour in global supply chains.

The workshop brought together experts from a variety of fields, including public relations and communications specialists, behavioural scientists, and activists who provided input from their own experience in campaigning on child labour that helped inform and shape the strategy.

Article | 07 October 2021
In most cases, European consumers are likely to consume products produced by children.
Child labour in African agriculture is not only a concern for stakeholders on the African continent since African agricultural products are imported to regions outside the continent, including the European Union, which imports products such as cocoa, coffee, tea, fruits, and vegetables.

Therefore, in most cases, European consumers are likely to consume products produced by children.

Since the elimination of child labour is essential for economic growth to lead to greater equity, social justice, and poverty reduction, additional actions to eliminate child labor are needed by actors on both the consumer (EU) and production (Africa) sides.

This is why Accel Africa, an ILO Dutch funded project, is developing an "awareness to action" campaign, which will be rolled out in Europe and Africa.

This approach, unlike a generalized awareness campaign, will use very specific tools and methods, tailored to particular target groups.

By focusing only on a narrowly defined audience and developing a strategy to change their behavior, it is hoped that these efforts will bring about real change.

Because the scope of the campaign goes beyond simply raising awareness, the project commissioned Wageningen University and Research in January 2021 to conduct a literature review and market study to document past and current campaigns in the area of behaviour change, providing key characteristics including: target audiences, impact, channels used, and specific interventions in European countries and in Africa at the regional level.

The study informed the workshop discussions and helped develop a campaign strategy that drew on key lessons learned from the study.

The workshop also brought together potential implementing agencies to implement the campaign in Europe, selected based on their expression of interest and proposed supply chains to be covered and types of interventions to be conducted, to discuss the details of the campaign.

In the next phases, technical and financial proposals should be received by the ILO Accel Africa project by the end of October.

After the selection of the implementing agency and the launch of campaign activities, a pre-analysis will determine the levels of awareness, understanding, and commitment of the identified audiences-as well as any gaps-and identify their needs, challenges, and the best channels and methods to use to reach them effectively.

Communication materials and channels will be developed accordingly. These efforts will include regular monitoring of progress through interviews, surveys, and analysis to track campaign performance and refine it as needed.