12/06/2026
The World Cup is underway. And today, on World Day Against Child Labour, Fairtrade Africa is joining the International Labour Organization in raising a red card — not on the pitch, but for the 138 million children still in child labour worldwide. 🖐🟥
Nearly 70 percent of them work in agriculture. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than one in four children aged five to 17 are engaged in child labour. The causes are complex, but poverty is the primary driver and that is where real intervention needs to start.
Fairtrade Africa takes a human rights-based approach to child protection and targets those root causes directly. Our standards prohibit child labour as defined by the ILO. Children under 15 cannot be employed by Fairtrade-certified organisations. Those aged between 15 and 17 cannot engage in hazardous work, or work that jeopardises their schooling or development.
But prohibition alone is not enough. When cases of child labour are found, we take immediate action to enable remediation and, whenever possible, work with national child protection agencies, local authorities and child rights organisations with the goal of protecting the long-term wellbeing of the child.
Through programmes like the Kuapa Kokoo Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System in Ghana, and our Youth-Inclusive Community-Based Monitoring and Remediation system, now deployed in 18 countries, Fairtrade Africa works with farming communities to address the conditions that put children at risk in the first place.
Ending child labour requires action from everyone: farmers, businesses, buyers, governments, and consumers. Purchasing Fairtrade contributes to farmers building livelihoods where children can go to school rather than work.
