This compendium is the result of a first-of-its-kind stocktaking exercise looking at FAO activities to address child labour in agriculture in Malawi, Mali, Uganda, the Niger and the United Republic of Tanzania over a decade (2010–2020). It is intended to make a practical contribution to the field of child labour elimination in agriculture, by shedding a light on some of the FAO-supported activities, country processes and practices as well as achievements, and lessons learned. As such, it highlights the general main lessons learned and key messages, outlines and provide details on country processes and related outcomes and achievements on knowledge generation, capacity development, awareness raising, policy advice and promotion of advocacy and partnerships. The contents on these FAO strategies for the elimination of child labour in agriculture are complemented by examples of areas of work such as promoting safe practices and labour-saving technologies and empowering and building the skills of youth aged 15–17 by facilitating school-to-work transition in agriculture.

The purpose of the FAO’s framework is to guide the Organization and its personnel in the integration of measures addressing child labour within FAO’s typical work, programmes and initiatives at global, regional and country levels. It aims to enhance compliance with organization’s operational standards, and strengthen coherence and synergies across the Organization and with partners. The FAO framework is primarily targeted at FAO as an organization, including all personnel in all geographic locations. But the framework is also relevant for FAO’s governing bodies and Member States, and provides guidance and a basis for collaboration with development partners. The framework is also to be used as a key guidance to assess and monitor compliance with FAO’s environmental and social standards addressing prevention and reduction of child labour in FAO’s programming.

The Flexible Voluntary Contribution (FVC) 2022 annual progress report captures the key achievements of the FVC, both in terms of its role as a pooled fund for non-earmarked and softly earmarked contributions from resource partners and the implementation of development initiatives through FVC subprogrammes. The report provides a comprehensive understanding of the FVC's role within the Organization, the contribution of FVC-funded work to the achievements of FAO's four betters and their respective Programme Priority Areas (PPAs), and the future direction of the FVC based on experiences in 2022. The report comprises six sections: (1) Introduction, (2) Achievements of the FVC as a fund, (3) Achievements of FVC programmes (the four betters), (4) Key FVC principles, (5) Challenges and lessons learned, and (6) Conclusions and future actions.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Millions of children throughout Africa undertake many forms of farm and domestic work. Some of this work is for wages, some is on their family’s own small plots and some is forced and/or harmful. This book examines children’s involvement in such work. It argues that framing all children’s engagement in economic activity as ‘child labour’, with all the associated negative connotations, is problematic. This is particularly the case in Africa where many rural children must work to survive and where, the contributors argue, much of the work undertaken is not harmful. The conceptual and case-based chapters reframe the debate about children’s work and harm in rural Africa with the aim of shifting research, public discourse and policy so that they better serve the interest of rural children and their families.

At head of title: Rural employment, knowledge materials.

The Handbook aims to sensitize agricultural programme staff on the importance of incorporating child labour prevention as a crosscutting issue in their planning, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system and of systematically considering the potential positive and negative impacts of agricultural programmes on child labour. The Handbook furthermore encourages the user to identify good agricultural practices for preventing and reducing child labour in agriculture.

On 2–3 November 2021, to mobilize global action and highlight concrete solutions to eradicate child labour in agriculture, FAO, in close collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and in partnership with the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture (IPCCLA) and the Alliance 8.7, organized a high-level virtual event: the Global Solutions Forum (GSF). The objectives of the GSF were to raise the voices and commitment of agricultural stakeholders, share game-changing solutions, and identify ways to step up concerted action to prevent and end child labour in all agricultural subsectors. The outcomes of the event are expected to inform the V Global Conference on Child Labour in 2022, along with other global initiatives such as the United Nations Decade of Family Farming.