Malawi still not doing well in combating child labour

Malawi is still not doing well in combating child labour in spite of the various interventions government and non-state actors have undertaken to deal with the vice.

Speaking on Tuesday on the sidelines of a three-day training of Employers on Child Labour by Employers Consultative Association of Malawi (ECAM), Chief Labour Officer in the Ministry of Labour, Francis Kwenda, lamenting the rising cases of child labour in various sectors of the economy in Malawi.

ECAM organized the training with financial support from International Labour Organization (ILO) under a child labour elimination project it is implementing in Mulanje, Thyolo, Mzimba, Chitipa and Ntchisi.

Kwenda stated that statistics show that Malawi is still among countries that are not doing well in terms of eliminating child labour.

“From the previous studies, it is clear that there is an increment in cases of child labour in Malawi from 37 percent to 38 percent. There are a number of factors contributing to this rise, among them being poverty, cultural beliefs, family breakups and orphanage,” he said.

Kwenda, who is also Head of Child Labour Unit, said the government is currently developing strategies for eliminating child labour. He called for collaboration among different stakeholders in the implementation of the strategies to ensure Malawi deals with the vice.

ECAM Executive Council Member Orphan Mapopa Chirwa said training of the trainers is one of the interventions the private sector has undertaken to complement government efforts in eliminating child labour.

Chirwa – who is also Amref Health Africa Human Resources and Administration Manager responsible for Operations in Malawi, Zambia and South Africa – challenged the participants to be ambassadors in sensitizing other employers on the need to address child labour.

Sharing is caring!