Maputo holds 'Cotton with Decent Work' Project steering committee

The meeting was attended by the Brazilian delegation, composed of ILO Brasilia, the Brazilian Cooperation Agency, the Brazilian Embassy in Maputo and the Brazilian Ministry of Labour, the Mozambican National Labour Directorate, the General Labour Inspectorate, the Agriculture and Forestry Union, the Working Women’s Committee and ILO Maputo office, which was coordinating the project.
The meeting was co-hosted by ILO Maputo office and the National Labour Directorate, which reiterated the trilateral partnership between the ILO, Brazil and MITSS in the context of South-South cooperation.
Addressing the meeting, ILO Projects Office Coordinator and Focal person for Maputo Martin Gasser said the ILO together with Mozambican government, social partners and stakeholders were committed towards promoting decent work in the rural sector and especially in the cotton production chain, where the organization had put in place initiatives to combat child labour in the agricultural sector, which employed 73 percent of the world’s productive child labour.
Mr. Gasser stated that the ‘Cotton with Decent Work’ Project, which started in 2020 and officially closed in March 2024, scored success in combating child labour in the cotton production chain, stating that the project had contributed towards the operationalisation of the National Plan to Combat Child Labour, the implementation of the List of Worst Forms of Child Labour, strengthening the capacities of the General Labour Inspectorate to identify and recommend the rescue of children in situations of child labour in agriculture, and supporting development of a proposal on Rural Labour Regulation.
“We are pleased to have supported the transformation of the Cotton Producers’ Association into the Netia and Macheria Agricultural Cooperative, which realises that cotton producers also consider other agricultural activities to support their families,” he said. “Among other results that the project provided technical stand out: the development of a normative framework to arbitrate labour relations in the rural sector through the drafting of the proposal for the Rural Labour Regulation; the production of the Labour Inspector’s Guide and its practical testing in the cotton fields; and the institutional strengthening of the Forum for Labour Inspection; and the institutional strengthening of the Cotton Producers Forum through support for the drafting and implementation of its Institutional Development Strategy and the transformation of two producers’ associations into agricultural cooperatives.”
The National Director of Labour, Marta Isabel Mate expressed satisfaction over the successes scored by the project, stating that the project had not only contributed towards the elimination of child labour in the cotton production chain, but also changed the lives of people in the country.
Meanwhile, Counsellor Minister of the Brazilian Embassy in Mozambique, Mr. Rómulo Neves said he was satisfied with the results of South-South cooperation, given the positive implementation of the Cotton with Decent Work Project, adding that the Brazilian Cooperation Agency would continue to collaborate with Mozambican government, ILO and the social partners in future national development projects.