Interview: Poverty driving child labour in tobacco sector

LAST week the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board hosted a Child Labour Workshop which sought for collaborative solutions and commitments for positive change within the national action plan to address child labour issues. Presenters at the workshop agreed that there was a strong nexus between poor economic performance and child labour especially in the tobacco and mining sectors. Our business reporter, Melody Chikono (MC) spoke to Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Law (ECLT) chairperson Michiel Reerink (MR), who said there was need for all stakeholders to unite and remove children in the supply chain. Below are excerpts of the interview:

MC: Can you share with us your mandate as ECLT and your achievement so far in mitigating child labour?

MR: ECLT is a Swiss foundation that was founded in 2000. It focuses on the tobacco sector. Its mission is important, in the sense that it is working to see a thriving agricultural society where children are free of labour. You cannot address tobacco without looking at the other sectors. Because you are looking at root causes, you are looking at displacement, you are looking at, for example, the tobacco farmer, and if we as a tobacco sector are successful in convincing the farmer not to engage  children as has been happening for years, we would have won a war. It takes time, but that's fine. I think we need to be patient and we need to be urgent at the same time.

MC: Can you give us an overview of child labour, specifically in the Zimbabwean context.

MR: The ECLT is a foundation that works globally, and it is funded by a number of companies in the tobacco value chain, manufacturers and merchants in particular. And Zimbabwe is one of the most important tobacco growing countries.

It is also a country where surveys have clearly indicated that there is child labour on the tobacco farms. I mentioned earlier today that a 2019 survey found that about 26% of children on tobacco farms had reported working on the farm in the preceding seven days.

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So that clearly shows that there is an issue with regard to child labour. The ECLT Foundation and the companies that contribute to it and are represented on the board believe strongly that children should not be working on the tobacco farm or elsewhere.

So the foundation is active in a number of countries with different types of programmes to help remove child labour from the tobacco farms. We work with governments because a government's role predominantly is to ensure there is legislation, there is enforcement of the legislation, but that there also is awareness of that legislation. We also work with other stakeholders.

I think there is no stakeholder here who would say I want children to work. Everybody is united in an objective to remove children from the supply chain.

But bringing together the stakeholders as facilitated by the TIMB today is just one of the examples of the work that we are trying to do ultimately to give the children of this country but also in other countries a better future.

MC: From your experience, what can you say are the challenges that are pushing child labour in the tobacco sector?

MR: The root cause of child labour and a predominant one is poverty, due to the economic situation.

Another one is still awareness and the third one is maybe a change of perspective.

Too often, child labour is approached from our perspective and it was observed today that in the form of a rhetorical question, isn't child labour good for business? I would dare to say it is not, but it is also more important to reframe that question, not from the perspective of a business or a company or an employer, but to look at this from the perspective of the child.

Child labour is a violation of the child's human rights.

Child labour is still addressed from an adult's perspective, and not sufficiently from the child's perspective.

So poverty, lack of awareness, reframing it, but equally inadequate measures, inadequate inspections, inadequate follow-up, all of those are small and large factors that contribute still to the existence of child labour as we know it today. And in addressing all of those factors, we can hope to contribute to eradicating it.

MC: What can you say about the gaps in terms of the legal framework that governs child labour?

MR: The legal framework is there. I think the government has ratified various ILO conventions. Now, in other sectors, there may be sector-specific conventions that we have heard may still require ratification. I cannot speak to that.

But most generally, the government of Zimbabwe has ratified the conventions, has introduced the national frameworks, has introduced the statutory instruments, the legislation is there. I think ultimately, as so often, it also comes down to a resource problem.

There is one thing in having a law, the next step is then to make sure that there is broader knowledge of the legislation and that also that law is enforced.

Those are challenges that we face everywhere. It is not specific to Zimbabwe because I believe strongly that the willingness to continue to do more is there. Sometimes it is just a lack of resources.

It sounds very simple to do inspections, but if you want to be comprehensive, I need to add more inspectors to do that, train more inspectors, give them the vehicles to go around. I'm very much aware that in Zimbabwe, like in many other countries, resources are not unlimited and therefore difficult choices need to be made.

MC: There is a nexus between child labour and the economy. What is your comment on that?

RM: It's one of the root causes and as you reduce the root causes, as for example in the tobacco sector, as farmers get a higher income, buy a better crop, they rely less on child labour because they may be able to afford hired labour instead of child labour. So there is clearly a correlation between economic development, farmer income, or the economic situation more generally, and the incidence or absence of child labour.

MC: Can you speak to opportunity costs of employing children vis-à-vis performance of the economy?

RM: From the person who uses child labour's perspective, it may be because the child is there and in the context of an absence of, for example, an ability to hire paid labour, that is how it occurs. And I think that may be an easy explanation, but it also goes back to the point I made earlier.

Even if that opportunity may be there, that's the opportunity that appears to exist from the perspective of the farmer or the employer is the wrong term because it's not an employment, the person who uses child labour. If we look at it from the child's perspective it is an opportunity lost.

And I think we need to look at that opportunity lost because you're taking away the potential for education and the potential for the child's future that way. So I would like to say it's not opportunity cost, it's opportunity lost that we should be looking at.

MC: What can you say is the way forward in terms of ending child labour?

RM: I think in terms of the messaging for today, I think a lot of this is ensuring that we bring other sectors together, that we cannot do this in isolation as ECLT.

We have to continue to work with the various ministries, with the marketing board, the regulator, but also with other sectors. So the National Employment Council that we're presenting today on their action plans I see as a very important step, because it's recognition of the issue, it's taking forward the actions and then looking at potential synergies between the actions.

We have had quite a few flags already. There is a great opportunity to identify actions together, but also to undertake these actions together. If we all work in the same direction, I think we're going to be able to make significant steps.

MC: Are you optimistic about eradicating child labour in the near future?

MR: I am an optimist. And what I am hearing today is all about everybody being in agreement that more needs to be done, further actions need to be identified towards the alienation of child labour.

From an ECLT perspective, that's very encouraging because we will continue to do the work with the TIMB, continue to work with the ministry and the tobacco sector in Zimbabwe is fully behind that. The companies are already very active in this regard and will continue to do so. At this stage I cannot commit to any specific targets.

We have an MOU with the TIMB which is underway.

We will continue to look at the actions that were agreed there. We had updates and we will continue to look at further implementation of those targets.

I mentioned that the minister attended our board meeting yesterday and that that was an opportunity for further discussions in our areas where the MOU is about to expire. I think it is very fair to say that we identified a lot of common ground for agreement and further actions.

I cannot be specific about those actions yet because they will need to be discussed with I cannot be specific about those actions yet because they will need to be discussed with I would, in an ambitious way, be very hopeful that we can follow up all of the actions that were in the agreement.