UN agencies ILO and FAO launch first Arabic-language guide for practitioners attending to child labour in agriculture

BEIRUT (ILO News) – The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have launched the first Arabic-language guide for practitioners attending to child labour in agriculture.

With the agricultural sector employing the majority of child labourers globally, the new publication, titled “Child Labour in Agriculture in Lebanon – a guide for practitioners,” will provide valuable information to a wide range of officials and practitioners working to combat child labour, especially hazardous work of children, in Lebanon and the wider Arab region, the two UN agencies said. The guide is also available in English.

According to ILO estimates from 2013, 9.2 million - or about 8.4 per cent - of all children in the Middle East and North Africa are child labourers. According to the FAO, nearly 60 per cent of child labour takes place in agriculture.

“In Lebanon, the onset of the Syrian crisis, and the influx of refugee families desperate for income, has greatly increased the incidence of child labour,” said Frank Hagemann, the ILO’s Deputy Regional Director for Arab States and Director of the regional Decent Work Team.

“Working children, many of them in agriculture, are being exploited in their thousands, sometimes under extremely hazardous working conditions,” Hagemann said.

“The main cause of child labour is poverty. The reduction of its incidence in agriculture is inter-linked with the reduction of poverty. It requires a multi sectoral social protection policy which focus especially on rural areas,” said Maurice Saade, FAO Representative in Lebanon. “In Lebanon, child labour is most prominent in remote and poor rural regions most heavily affected by the Syrian refugee crisis, especially the Beqaa and North and South Lebanon,” Saade said.

There is a dearth in the Arab region of practical information on how to attend to child labourers in agriculture, who are amongst the most vulnerable members of society, ILO and FAO said.

“We have put together this guide, compiled from expert information provided by practitioners already working in Lebanon, to address this lack of informative and educational material on the topic. Whereas some of the material is specific to the situation in Lebanon, the guide will also prove a significant tool for those combatting child labour in other Arab countries,” said Alfredo Impiglia, FAO’s Delivery Manager for the Regional Initiative on Small Scale Family Farming.

The publication was launched in Beirut on 6 September, in the presence of officials from Lebanon’s Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Agriculture, child labour practitioners and civil society representatives.

Agriculture and the worst forms of child labour

Agriculture is one of the three most hazardous sectors in terms of work-related fatalities, non-fatal accidents and occupational diseases, alongside mining and construction. Yet many children enter this field of work at a very young age, sometimes as young as five years old, thus increasing the duration and extent of exposure to the hazards of such work over the course of their lifetime.

Regionally, the already vast number of children engaged in the worst forms of child labour in the agricultural sector increased substantially following the outbreak of the crisis in Syria in 2011, and the arrival of refugees in neighboring countries.

The growing exploitation of these working children is one of serious concern in the region, the ILO and FAO warned.

The guide

The guide has been produced in a comprehensive and detailed manner to offer valuable information and tools to practitioners attending to child labour in agriculture. It consists of five chapters in addition to a related CD that includes power points presentations to be used by facilitators and trainers combatting child labour.

A collaborative effort

The ILO and FAO are collaborating within the International Partnership on Child Labour in Agriculture. In Lebanon, the ILO through its Regional Office for the Arab States, and the FAO through its Regional Initiative on Small Scale Family Farming (RI-SSFF), joined efforts in 2015 to support the government in the implementing the National Action Plan to Combat the Worst Forms of Child Labour. FAO and ILO support include conducting studies, developing awareness-raising campaigns, and providing training sessions and materials on occupational safety and health in agriculture.