ECAM to train and offer decent work to children withdrawn from labour
The meeting for Southern African Development Community (SADC) Ministers of Labour and Social Partners has started in Lilongwe on Monday, with Employers’ Consultative Association of Malawi (ECAM) undertaking to find a lasting solution to child labour in Malawi.
ECAM is among non-state actors participating in the meeting, which is being held under the theme: “Achieving full productive and decent work for all, including women!”
The association’s Executive Director, George Khaki, told Nyasa Times that the association intends to start providing vocational and technical skills training and thereafter create decent employment for survivors of child labour.
Khaki disclosed that the association will achieve this through its “Accelerating action for the elimination of child labour in supply chains in Africa (ACCEL Africa)” Project.
The project is being funded by the Government of the Netherlands and aims to accelerate the elimination of child labour through targeted actions in selected supply chains.
In Malawi, the project is targeting five districts of Mulanje, Thyolo, Mzimba, Chitipa and Ntchisi.
Khaki said to achieve this goal, the Malawi is pursuing policy, legal and institutional frameworks are improved and enforced to address child labour in global supply chains; and innovative and evidence-based solutions that address the root causes of child labour in supply chains are institutionalized.
Khaki said they believe that providing sustainable skills would enable children and youths withdrawn from child labour to get decent employment.
“The project is being implemented in the context of Malawi’s second Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP-II, 2020 – 2025), especially Priority Area 2: ‘Ratification and application of international labour standards (ILS) and fundamental principles and rights at work.
“So, what we have done, so far, is to commit ourselves to withdraw children that are either in child labour or that are in danger of going into child labour to withdraw them from that and train them and then give them jobs.
“Our target is that we should have a starting point to move not less than 50 children into the workforce after giving them appropriate training,” he said.
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Can Malawi make a law of 2 children per married couple. We are too much overpopulated comparing to the resources we have in the country. Let’s face reality here. Africa must make a plan for birth control. Not even COVID has made any difference.