Rwenzori Education, Livelihoods and Gender Project

The project approach is an integration of advocacy and direct improvements for a better learning environment, a community-based approach to child labour eradication, gender advocacy and empowerment as well as youth livelihoods enhancement approaches to address the many youths that are out of school and unemployed. It is estimated that nearly 23% of the population of children aged 5-14 are working (US Department of Labor). Of those children who are working, 95% are employed in agriculture, including cultivating and harvesting coffee, making coffee value chains highly susceptible to child labour and the worst forms of child labour. Inadequate funding, training, and resources have restricted the capacity of law enforcement agencies to conduct child labour inspections and investigations. For the consortium partners it is a priority to raise awareness of children’s rights, and to strengthen the community-based approach to identify, manage and remediate child protection concerns and incidents in the supply chain. The aim is to include child protection in the whole value chain. All households, including those with child rights violations, are trained and supported to increase farm and coffee production and with that household income. The anticipated impact will be adoption of child labour response models by supply chain actors, sustainable community led child labour response structures, and reduced incidences of child labour due to enhanced awareness and better household incomes.