Zambia calls for collaborative efforts to fight child labor

Zambia on Monday joined the rest of the world in commemorating this year’s World Day Against Child Labor with the government calling for collaborative efforts with all stakeholders to tackle the scourge.

Collins Nzovu, the acting Minister of Labor and Social Services, called on stakeholders to work with the government to eliminate the scourge and allow children to grow in an environment and conditions that will support their growth and development.

“I wish to assure my fellow parents and our children that their caring government will continue to take a wide range of actions in order to contain and mitigate all vices related to child protection,” he said during the commemorations.

This year’s commemoration was themed “Social Justice for All. End Child Labor.”

The minister said the theme was meant to help the government and stakeholders showcase what was being done in fighting the scourge by addressing various causes such as poverty, poor employment practices and lack of awareness by some citizens on the dangers of child labor.

According to him, child labor was detrimental to a child’s development and was a global concern, with estimates conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) indicating that there were about 160 million girls and boys engaged in child labor, with half of them engaged in hazardous work.

In Zambia, the 2020 child labor report estimated that 430,075 children were engaged in child labor, 6.9 percent of the population aged 5-17.

Nzovu, however, said that the government was determined to fight child labor and has put in place various measures such as ratifying the ILO Convention No. 182 and Convention No. 138 that speak to the worst forms of child labor and the minimum age for work.

The government, he said, has also domesticated the ILO conventions into the country’s employment law which provides guidance on the employment of young people. He further said the government in 2021 implemented the second action plan for the elimination of the worst forms of child labor.

Wellington Chibebe, the ILO director for Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique, called on the international community to support greater social justice and step up the fight against child labor, adding that for the first time in 20 years, child labor was on the rise.

He said the ILO was calling for reinvigorated action to achieve social justice, universal ratification of Convention No. 138 on minimum age and Convention No 182 on the worst forms of child labor as well as effective implementation of the Durban Call on Action on the elimination of child labor.

Zambia Federation of Employers (ZFE) Vice President Kennedy Njamba said children were forced into child labor because of the inequitable economy Zambia was passing through. He said there was a need to holistically address the need for social justice by first of all fixing the economy and supporting the full implementation of the Children’s Code Act to safeguard the welfare of children. Enditem