CLEAR Cotton project activities in Burkina Faso

The project contributes to efforts to tackle child and forced labour, focusing on the cotton, textile, and garment value chains.

National context

According to the latest ILO-UNICEF global estimates, more than 160 million children are engaged in child labour worldwide. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest prevalence, with nearly 24% of the region's children found in child labour, representing 86.6 million children.

In Burkina Faso, according to the statistics from the 2006 national survey on child labour conducted by the Institut National de la Statistique et de la Démographie (INSD), approximately 41% of children aged 5 to 17 years old are involved in an economic activity, including 39.3% of children engaged in child labour (32.8% of girls and 45.5% of boys). 69.2% of children in child labour works in the agriculture sector. Of these working children, 92.8% are unpaid. More recently, the baseline survey on child labour in cotton-producing areas conducted by the Institut Supérieur des Sciences de la Population in 2017 revealed that nearly one half of children in these areas are in child labour, with half of them performing hazardous work.

The Government of Burkina Faso has therefore taken actions to eradicate child labour. The country ratified ILO Convention No. 138 on minimum age in 1999 and Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child labour in 2001. It also adopted the 2019-2023 National Strategy to Combat the Worst Forms of Child Labour (SN/PFTE), articulated around 4 areas (prevention, protection and rehabilitation/reintegration of child victims of the worst forms of child labour, and piloting).

The CLEAR Cotton Project contributes to efforts to tackle child and forced labour, focusing on the cotton, textile, and garment value chains. Burkina Faso is one of the largest cotton-producing countries in Africa, ranking first in 2006 and 2007. Cotton is mainly grown in three cotton-growing areas located in the West, East and Centre of the country (notably the Hauts Bassins, Boucle du Mouhoun, Cascades, Centre West and South West regions). In recent years, the sector has experienced a slowdown, with a fall of production levels - and therefore producers' incomes. For the 2020/2021 production year, the estimated production level is of 492,613 tons of seed cotton, making Burkina Faso the third producing country in Africa, behind Cote d'Ivoire and Benin.

The cotton sector has recently been impacted by the different challenges faced by the country: security threats, low rainfall, lower yields, and the socio-economic repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Eastern region has been particularly affected, with a 70% drop in production in 2020/2021 compared to the previous season.

Main project activities

Project activities in Burkina Faso include:

• Improve access to education of children in or at risk of child labour in cotton production areas through accelerated schooling programmes to reintegrate mainstream schools.
• Provide vocational training to children aged 15-17 in or at risk of child labour to access decent work opportunities in the cotton, textile and garment value chains.
• Strengthen livelihoods of vulnerable families through training on new income generating activities.
• Raise awareness of key stakeholders, target communities and the general public on child and forced labour.
• Develop community-based multi-stakeholder monitoring and remedial mechanisms to combat child labour and forced labour.
• Provide capacity building for representatives of the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Protection (in particular the child labour unit), of employers’, workers’ and cotton producers’ organizations
• Conduct quantitative and qualitative research on child labour, forced labour and other fundamental principles and rights at work in the national cotton, textile and garment value chains to complement the knowledge base.

Partners

• Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Protection; Ministry of Education and Promotion of National Languages ; Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Crafts.
• Workers' organizations: Unité d’Action Syndicale (UAS).
• Employers' organizations: Conseil National du Patronat Burkinabè (CNPB).
• Direct actors in the value chain: Association Interprofessionnelle du Coton au Burkina (AICB); Union Nationale des Producteurs de Coton du Burkina Faso (UNPCB) and cotton companies (SOFITEX, SOCOMA, FASO COTON).
• Civil society organizations.

Target beneficiaries

• Children in or at risk of child labour, and their families, working at any level of the cotton, garment and textile production chains; victims of forced labour and workers at risk of forced labour; cotton producers communities; cotton cooperatives; workers of the cotton, garment and textile production chains.
• Local public authorities, labour inspectors, employers’, workers’ and producers’ organizations; enterprises, and media.