Ending the vicious circle of child labour in agriculture

On the occasion of Europe Day 2021, the EU Delegation in Rome organized a Virtual Symposium on Ending Child Labour by 2025, to ‘Act, Inspire and Scale Up’ in Agriculture and Value Chains.

The meeting, which took place in the context of 2021 as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, brought various partners together to discuss the most critical challenges in progress towards a world without child labour. These included high-level representatives from the European Union and FAO, as well as from the Government of Ghana and the Holy See.

An estimated 152 million children are currently engaged in child labour around the world, and about 71 percent of them work in agriculture.

FAO was represented at the meeting by Chief Economist Máximo Torero, who stressed the importance of addressing the root causes of child labour in agriculture. He explained that long-term sustainability will require turning the “vicious circle of child labour and rural poverty into a positive circle of education, decent work and better livelihoods.”

Martin Seychell, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) outlined the European Union’s strong commitment to fight child labour. He also highlighted the importance of working across all aspects of value chains, of understanding local contexts, and of education.