Tackling child labour in livestock keeping
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Livestock farming often takes place in remote rural areas where farmers and their families have limited access to infrastructure and basic social services, notably education, health, access to clean water and social protection. Moreover, farming practices are under pressure by, for example, climate change induced changes to weather patterns and urbanisation. Therefore, many livestock dependent families, especially small scale farmers and pastoralists, are generally vulnerable and face different types of risks and shocks. Their children may end up leaving their home areas to nearby towns and cities working rather than going to school, often performing hazardous work (for example in street work). This may fuel a downward spiral, depriving tomorrow’s herders and farmers of their health and education, increasing environmental degradation and perpetuating intergenerational poverty as families opt for child labour as part of short term survival strategies.
Ensuring changes to land tenure system, agricultural practices, labour divisions and protecting children from hazardous work, while respecting the cultural rights of children, their families and communities, is essential to engage livestock farming communities on sustainable pathways.
This paper seeks to analyse the dynamics underpinning child labour in livestock farming and identify the strategies that governments, farmers, private sector, international organizations and others may pursue to prevent and eliminate child labour in livestock keeping.
This paper focuses on child labour in livestock keeping operations, but it is also important to note that child labour may also be present in the wider livestock value chains, e.g. in abattoirs, packaging, transport and so forth.