Programme Summary

International Labour Organization (ILO) funded Farm Concern International (FCI) to implement on alleviating child labour through commercialization of smallholder farmers and enhancing access to incomes and economic development in Kitui and Busia, Kenya to address the challenges of child labour in Kenya. 

The Child Labour Analytical Report released in June 2008 by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics with support from ILO-IPEC , indicates that 1 million children aged 5-17, or 7.9% of the total number of children aged 5-17 years, are still working in Kenya and remain deprived of quality education, good health, and other basic needs. 

This scenario is prevalent in rural and urban centres due to increased poverty levels, lack of agricultural mechanization and shortage of labour. 

The program had two-fold objectives:  To identify market opportunities, establish commercial villages and link households to markets for increased incomes as well as facilitate child protection and child labour mitigation through agro-value chain wide action against child labour and participatory monitoring, evaluation and learning.

The project, piloted between en October 2012 and September 2013 targeted seven value chains for commercialization and food security. In Kitui, the project targeted maize, beans, cowpeas and green grams while in Busia, the project targeted cassava, vegetables (TAVs) and sweet potatoes. 

Notable achievements in this project include:

1. Creation of market linkages to institutional buyers and informal traders for increased sales and income;
2. Promotion of innovations, natural resource management and climate change adaptation technologies geared towards reduction of child labour;
3. Value addition, post-harvest management and development of strategic partnerships with different organizations for child labour mitigation. 

The project worked with 3,217 households, formal and informal markets and 38 traders were identified and linked to the CVs in the project site.