EWAD Uganda

This afternoon, i joined our Development partners, members of the Diplomatic Community & @ilo in commemorating the World Day Against Child Labour at Mestil Kampala   I wish to note that the ILO launched the first World Day Against Child Labour in the year 2002 as a way of highlighting the plight of children engaged in Child Labour. Since then, 12th June of every year is observed as the World Day Against Child Labour and this is intended to renew efforts towards elimination of child labour.   The theme for this year’s WDACL is “Let us act on our Commitments: End Child Labour1!”. On this day, all of us here will be promoting concrete actionsand fulfilling the commitments to address the root causes of child labour, which was at the heart of the Durban Call of Action, adopted at the 5th Global Conference for Elimination of Child Labour in May, 2022 in South Africa.   As we commemorate the WDACL, it is important to remember that Child Labour, refers to work that is mentally, physical, socially/or morally dangerous and harmful to children. It is hazardous work,which by its nature or in the circumstances under which it is performed, jeopardizes the health, safety and morals of the children. Child labour is also perceived as work or activities which interferes with children’s school attendance.   We all need to take the concept of Child Labour seriously. This is because child labour is the most visible problem caused by poverty. Furthermore, child labour in all forms deprives children of education, skills and other opportunities and denies them from securing decent incomes and stable employment as adults. It is an injustice that is felt in most cases at the level of households and families- two-thirds of childlabour occurs as a contributing family member. But it holds back economic growth of entire countries and can be linked to rising inequality in many parts of the world. It is a threat to social cohesion and human progress.   According to ILO Child Labour Global Estimates: Road Forward, 2020,Child labour remains a persistent problem in the world today. The latest global estimates indicate that 160 million children (63 million girls and 97 million boys) were in child labour globally at the beginning of 2020, accounting for almost 1 in 10 of all children worldwide. Seventy-nine (79) million children; nearly half of all those in child labour were in hazardous work that directly endangers their health, safety and moral development.     The recent UBOS National Labour Force Survey 2021 revealed that 6.2 million (40% of the 15.7 million) children aged 5-17 years were involved in child labour excluding those doing household work with more boys (50.4%) than girls (49.6%) working. The rates were higher in rural (42%) compared to urban (32%) areas. Of those, 10.4 million (67%) were working in an equal share of six in ten by sex. The findings revealed that eight in ten of the children aged 5-11 years were working yet they are not supposed to work. The proportion of children involved in hazardous occupations or industries, and working for long hours more than 14 hours a day was almost 3%.   Uganda’s prevalence of child labour rose from 21 to 36 % during COVID-19 that stood at over 4M but now at 40% (6.2m) of the children engaged in child labour, where the Agricultural sector harbours over 90% of children who are deprived of their right to education, decent work, and protection from exploitation. The Covid-19 pandemic & its immense impact on health, temporary school closures, rise in adult unemployment and loss of livelihoods has exacerbated child labour numbers in Uganda.   To make matters worse the United Nations Children’s Fund reported that even after schools were re-opened in Jan/2022, 1 in 10 school going children did not go back to school, most likely, these children slipped into Child Labour.   This year’s theme is: “Let us act on our Commitments to End Child Labour!”. @Mglsd_UG @GovUganda @EUinUG @ilo @UNICEFUganda @WFP