yocris contribution to reducing child labour in dedza -malawi

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YOUTH AND CHILDREN RIGHTS SHIELD

(YOCRIS)

PROJECT EVALUATION REPORT

“ENHANCING COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN

RESPONSE TO CHILD LABOUR”

31ST DECEMBER 2007

Youth and Children Rights Shield (YOCRIS)P. O. Box 180DedzaMalawiTel/Fax : +265 1 223 745Mobile : +265 9 511 879E –mail: [email protected]



YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

Written By Ephraim Banda 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I EVALUATION SCOPE

II TOOLS AND LIMITATIONS

1.0 INTRODUCTION

2.0 BACKGROUND INFORMATION

3.0 PROJECT DESIGN

4.0 ANALYSIS OF PLANNED ACTIVITIES, PLANNED OUTPUTS AND

ACHIEVED OUTPUTS

5.0 ANALYSIS OF IMPACT AT OUT COMES LEVEL

6.0 PROJECT STRATEGIC ACHIEVEMENT

7.0 OVERALL ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE PROJECT

8.0 CHALLENGES

9.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

10.0 CONCLUSIONS





I EVALUATION SCOPE

Objectives of the study

The evaluation was called for specifically to achieve the following objectives: To assess how the project has performed pragmatically and ascertain

whether there is any impact created. To review the reporting system, identify gaps and proposed reporting system

in relation child rights issues

PeriodThe Evaluation schedule lasted for (3) three weeks begging from the day whenthe contract was signed (14th December 2007) to the day of submission of finalreport.

Mode of working A working calendar for 15 days was drawn and shared with YOCRIS. The consultant drew the study tools A project officer from YOCRIS was attached to work together with the

consultant for the community related work

Expected out put1 comprehensive report of the project performanceProposed Reporting system in relation child rights issues





II TOOLS AND LIMITATIONS

The following are the tools which were development and used during theevaluation:

1. Focus Group Discussions (FGD)

The discussions were done with the following groups: Men Women Boys Girls

2. Semi Structure Interview (SSI) The semi-structured interviews were done with the following cadres:

Community Child Protection Committees Village development Committees

3. Key informant Interview (KII)The following groups of key informant were interview

Parents of child labourers Group Village heads Children withdrawn from Child labour Executive Director –YOCRIS

4. Seasonal calendar

5. Busometer





1.0 INTRODUCTION

Youth and children rights shield (YOCRIS) has been implementing project thataimed at protecting child rights through prevention and monitoring of child labourrelated issues. The project was implemented in the area of traditional Authority

Kachere in selected four Village development Areas ;

Chikufikani Village Development Committee

Kapesi Village Development Committee

Mnjonja Village Development Committee

Chimalira Village Development Committee

The project was funded by NORAD through Human Rights ConsultativeCommittee (HRCC) HRCC-NORAD Basket fund to total funding ofMK2,496,970.00 (US$18,000.00). The implementation of the project started fromAugust 2006 and was expired to end September 2007.





2.0 Background information

Child Labour is one of the worst forms of Child abuse. According to theInternational Labour Organization (ILO), Child labour remains a serious problemin the world today. Malawi is one of the countries where child labour is being

practiced. Many children are being trafficked or voluntarily leaving the ruralsetups migrating to other rural set ups and urban areas where they are engagedin child labour. Dedza district is one of the districts, which has high numbers ofchildren being trafficked to districts within Malawi and tobacco estates inMozambique and Zambia where they are engaged in child labour as domesticworkers or estate workers. Such children drop out of primary schools willingly orforced by their parents to go to urban areas and estates where they areemployed to suffice their family income.

According to The Malawi 2002 Child Labour survey, they are 1.4 million childlabourers. 734,845 of the child labourers aged 5-17 and are in agriculture.

288,341 children aged 1-17 are in hazardous labour. 603,780 child laborers arein community, social and personal services sector. 26.5 % of child labourersnever attended school: while, as 53 % did not complete junior primary school(ILO, 2002).

Desk review carried out by YOCRIS at Dedza Labour offices in January 2005indicate that quite a number of children between the ages of 8-17 are going out oftheir villages to places where they are engaged in child labour. For instance inMcheneka Village alone, 142 children as of February 2005 were engaged indifferent forms of child labour in the urban and rural areas. Out of the 142children, 61 were girls whilst 81 were boys. In Mfutso village within the targetedarea, 107 children by February 2005 had gone to places where they are engagedin child labour. Out of these children 53 were girls and 54 were boys. Statistics atDedza District labour Office indicate that on average most of villages supplyabout 70 Children to Child labour. A sample survey in 6 primary schools in thetargeted area shows that there is a considerable drop out of pupils and is linkedto child labour related issues.

Causes of Child Labour

Child labour is caused by a number of factors and below are some of them:Lack of preventive, monitoring and reporting mechanism on the issues to do with

child rights abuse, Lack of coordination in combating child labour activities, Lackof awareness of children rights on the part of children themselves makes itdifficult for children themselves to claim and defend for their rights, Lack ofawareness on the effects of child trafficking and child labour, Lack of child rightsknowledge in totality, Low community participation in combating child labour,Lack of understanding of rights-based approach and Poor economic growth





3.0 PROJECT DESIGN

Project GoalTo contribute towards reduction of child labour in the area of Traditional Authority

Kachere in Dedza by July 2007

Project purposeTo create a society where communities collaborate in the prevention of childlabour and other child rights violations.

Specific Objectives

Specifically, the project intends to achieve the following objectives:1. To reduce child labour by 10% April 20072. To increase community participation and district coordination in

preventing, monitoring and reporting of child labour by March 2007.3. To enhance the capacity of YOCRIS in advocating for the eliminationof child labour by July 2006

Target Groupsa. Childrenb. Parentsc. Local Leadershipd. Local Governance Structurese. Target area

Implementation StrategiesAdvocacyResearchCapacity building

a. Community level b. Institutional level

ActivitiesIn order to successfully achieve the outlined goal and objectives , the had thefollowing activities.:

a. Pre-consultation meeting with concerned communitiesb. Stakeholders’ orientation and formation of district child labour forumc. Baseline surveyd. Train of district master trainers of child laboure. Train ADC, VDCs on child rights, child labour , monitoring and reporting of child

rights abuses and formation of community child labour monitoring committeesf. Follow up on the formed child labour committees





g. Traincommunity child labour monitoring committeesh. Production of IEC materialsi. Conduct community debates

j. Conduct child rights awareness campaignsk. Monitoring And Evaluation



No Planed Activity PlannedOut Put

Actual output Out Come Comme

1. Pre-consultationmeetings withconcernedcommunities

5 meetings 5 meetingsconducted

Mobilized communityleadership supporttowards the projectimplementation.

The actthe inte

2. Baseline survey One reportproduced One reportproduced Established analysis ofthe real situation on theextent on child labourissues in the projectimplementation area.

Activity

3. Train district trainersof child labour(TOT)

15 trainedtrainers

15 trained The trainers were theone engaged in train.They also continuetraining other up to know

The traisustainatraining

4. Train ADC on childrights, child labour

monitoring andreporting

30 trainedADC

Members

50 trained ADCmembers

Mobilized support fromthe ADC

Created sub committeeon Child labour

The outplanned

consola

5. Print and distributeIEC materials

1000 fliersprintedPrint 150 T-Shirts

1000 fliersprinted anddistributed150 T-Shirtsprinted anddistributed

The T-Shirts ands Fliersare spreading themessages and bringproject visibility

The numVillagesmany pto now.

6. stakeholdersorientation andformation of district

child labour forum

1 meeting30 membersoriented

1 meetingconducted30 members

oriented

Establishment of thedistrict child labourcommittee started

The chiname toprocess

come towas wit7. Conduct Child labour

committee meetings4 meetings 4 meetings The meeting provided

room for informationsharing

The actthe last Decemb

4.0 ANALYSIS OF PLANNED ACTIVITIES, PLANNED OUTPUTS AND ACHIEVED





2007. thactivity funds frrefunde

were nouse accYOCRIS

8. train VDC on childrights, child labourmonitoring andreporting

80 VDCmemberstrained

4 childlabourcommitteesformed

152 memberstrainedChild labourcommitteesformed

The committees havebeen able to implementthe skill and knowledgegained during thetraining

The numhigher tadvanta

9. Train community

child labourmonitoringcommittees

4

committeestrained105memberstrained

4 committees

trained80 memberstrained

The committees are the

ones doing the day today work on the ground.

The num

what shthe budwe can has beethey figthe log

10. Conduct communitydebates

8 debates 8 debates Increased knowledgelevel on child labourissues among membersof the community

The actachieve

11. conduct child rights

awarenesscampaigns usingopen rallies

8 open

ralliesconducted

8 open rallies

conducted

Increased knowledge

level on child labourissues among membersof the community

The act

achieve

12. Procure bicycles 5 bicyclesprocured

5 bicyclesprocured and

Improved mobility bycommunity child

The bic





anddistributed

distributed protection committees inmonitoring child labourissues.

13. Conduct Quarterly

review meeting

4 meetings 9 review meetings

conducted

Sharing of challenges

and braining storming ofsolutions to theproblems.

The inc

reportedwere nodemandnot budindicateto havesorted o

14. Carry out monitoringactivities

400 visits 56 regular visitsmade

Linking the issues fromthe communities withdistrict officials ( fromYOCRIS and the District

Assembly)

The numbelow thaccordiYOCRIS

distancealso duevehiclesmonitor



5.0 ANALYSIS OF IMPACT AT OUT COMES LEVEL

Out comes Indictors Cumulative ProgressReduced child labour

by 10%

# of children with drawn

# of children enrolled back inschool a result of this project# of children whose workingcondition have improved

104 children withdrawn from cattle

165 children (76 girls and 89 boys)chores work78 boys withdrawn from farming28 withdrawn out side Dedza29 girls withdrawn from child Prosttrafficked from other district)81 Children (18 girls and 63 boys) 178 children (127 boys and 51 boconditions improved to meet minim(683 children befitted from the pro

Increased community

participation and districtcoordination on childlabour and other childrights violations

Extent to which the committees

and members of the communityinvolve themselves in dealing withissues of child labour.

There is high level of community p

coordination in dealing with child laduring the focus group discussions

Enhanced Capacity ofYOCRIS in advocatingfor elimination of childlabour

Improved delivery of servicesImproved capacity

• 1 person prosecuted and was schild labour and YOCRIS won

• One project staff recruited to m• The project contributing to the a• At the time of evaluation YOCR

spearheading prosecution of twrecruiting children at bar girls (p

trading center



6.0 PROJECT STRATEGIC ACHIEVEMENT

1. To enhance the capacity of YOCRIS in advocating for the eliminationof child labour by July 2006

This is one of the strategic objectives the project wanted to achieve. The projecthas achieved this strategic objective as follows:

1. Recruitment of project officer (a project officer was recruited andspecifically was responsible for implementing this project Mr. MossesBusher)

2. Administrative Support The project some contributed towards rentalpayments, salaries for staff , communication and electricity bills

3. The project provides some resources for monitoring though the amountwas very low as compared to the area and distance of the project area.

4. The project provided training for trainers of child labour issues which also

included members of staff from YOCRIS. As a result of this training therewas an increased knowledge on Child labour issues

Case studies to show increased knowledge and improved capacity learn fromnews cuttings

Girls who were rescued from employment Child prostitution: More information on the news cuttings





At the time of this study (DECEMBER 2007) YOCRIS was in Court with twopeople who had also employed girls as child prostitution.





2. To increase community participation and district coordination inpreventing, monitoring and reporting of child labour by March 2007.

This is another strategic objective the project planned to achieve. In the selectedarea where this project was implemented there is improvement in terms of

community participation and coordination in dealing child labour issues. Thegraph below demonstrates:

Table 1: Graphic representation of community participation trends in all the VDCs

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Kapesi Chikufikani Mnjonja Chimalira

BeforeProject

In the coof theProject

At the enthe proje

The graph above shows the trend of community participation and coordination inpreventing and monitoring child labour at three levels. The fist level is where itwas measured before the beginning of the project while the middle bar it at themiddle of implementation and the lat bar very tall it is at the end of the project.

Table 2 Matrix representation of community participation trends in all the VDCs in numerical forms

Kapesi VDC Chikufikani

VDC

Mnjonja

VDC

Chimalira

VDCBefore Project 10% 19.5 % 12% 10%

In the course ofthe Project

50% 67% 70% 75%

At the end of theproject

80% 85% 90% 92%

Level ofParticipationin %





Case studies of community participation and coordination at both district andcommunity level

Establishment of community child protection committees (4) Facilitation of the creation of district child protection committee being

chaired by YOCRIS and District Social welfare office as the secretariat. Partnership in child labour issues organizations with the district (recently

operation YOCRIS did in December on owners who employed girl childrenas bar girls involved Labour district office , YOCRIS and Police)

Increased community awareness on child labour issues Creation of bylaws for people who come to collect labourers in T/A

Kachere area by the Area Development Committee. Bylaws in there area of TA Kachere relating people who come to collect

children to and work outside the district whether in their own or in the

company of adults.

By laws:1. Any vehicle that comes in T/A Kachere to collect labourers should come

through the District labour office where they should be given letter ofauthority to take labourers to where every they want to go with them.

2. Having collected the letter from the district labour officer they should gothrough the T/A’s office where they should be given letter of authority fromthe T/A to go to the villages to collect people.

3. Having arrived in the villages before start taking people they should firstreport to Village head and show the village head the letter of authorizationthey got from the T//A .

4. Upon leaving they should bid bye to the village head who together with theChild protection committee inspect the vehicle to check if there are nochildren aboard.

5. Any child should be told to disembark from the car if found.6. Any family who has children in their company should also be told to

disembark from the car.7. On the way back from the village the vehicle should pass through the T/A

who should also verify that in the car there are no children whether ontheir own or in the company of their parents. Any one who also at T/Asoffice is believed to be a child is forced to disembark from the car. Thenthe T/A gives the owner of the car a letter that he has to take with him tolabour office indicating that very thing is okay.

8. Any car that come to the T/A or Villages without authorization letter is sentback to the district labour office.



3. To reduce child labour by 10%

The project has achieved tremendously its intended goal in relation to reduction of child labour labour in the selected four Village development Committees with average over of 81%.

Table 3: Matrix showing the number of children who re engaged in child labour at the beginnimplementation and at the end of the project. The totals give an overall decrease of 81% olabour

Table 4: Linier graph showing impact performance of the project emerging from Table 3.

Project Impact Perfomance Assessment

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Before The Project After 7 Months After 14 month

Project Span

C h i l d r e n e n g a g e d i n

c h i l d l a b o u r

Kapesi Chikufikani Mnjonja Chimalira

Before The Project After 7 Months After 14

Kapesi Village Development Committee 86 42

Chikufikani Village Development Committee 187 78

Mnjonja Village Development Committee 273 157

Chimalira Village Development Committee 264 111





Table 5: Bar chart showing numbers of children withdrawn from various forms of child labour aback to school as a result of the project.

Table 6: Matrix showing numbers of children withdrawn from various forms of child labour and to school as a result of the project.

Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug

Cattle herding 0 0 6 10 15 21 18 3 0

Household chores 0 0 23 12 32 11 17 10 13 Farming 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 12

withdrawn out side Dedza 0 0 2 7 3 9 0 0 0

Child Prostitution 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 3 0

Children Back to school 0 19 0 19 0 34 9 0 0

Improved condition of services 4 3 12 2 11 17 43 17 18

0

10

20

30

40

50

Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug

Cattle herding Household choreswithdrawn out side Dedza Child ProstitutionImproved condition of services

ChildrenWithdrawn

Children Saved by the Project



7.0 OVERALL ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE PROJECT

1. Established community structures (community child protection committees) to coordinate inpreventing, monitoring and reporting of child labour related issues at community level.

2. Improved coordination dealing child labour issues.

3. District coordination structure for child protection issues beyond child labour (district childprotection committee being chaired by YOCRIS and District Social welfare office assecretariat)

4. Reduced the number of children engaged in child labour. the Table below shows number ofchildren serviced by the project in each area

Cattle herding 104Household chores 165Farming 78withdrawn out side Dedza 28Child Prostitution 29

Children Back to school 81Improved condition of services of children working to meet minimum standards 178

5. Enhanced capacity for the community structures (village development committees, (childprotection committees an to deal with child labour issues capacity increased knowledge andskills.

6. Increase knowledge and awareness on what continues child labour among the members ofthe community in the targeted 4 VDCs (Chimalira, Chikufikani, Kapesi and Mnjonja)





8.0 CHALLENGESThe following are major challenges the project faced

8.1 Monitoringa. Inadequate Monitoring visits.

The project proposed to have approximately 400 visits is its entire project period. Howeverthere are about 56 visits made to monitor project progress.

YOCRIS management retaliated that inadequate monitoring visits were as a result of littleamount of fuel allocated to monitoring as compared to the distance covered duringmonitoring because the project was being implemented in an area that was about 70Kilometers from Dedza Boma. However because of the good monitoring tools the organization has been able to capture a lot of data.

b. Little follow ups on issues.Because of the few visits made to the field there was little follows ups from YOCRIS office

to the field in terms of issues. One monitoring visits would was programmed to include anumber of villages and this never provided ample time for the organization to exhaustivelyfollow up on some issues. However the issues were being addressed by the child protectioncommittees which form strength of the project in terms sustainability. Some of the issueswere followed up using telephones and this was expensive on part of the implementingorganization.

8.2 IEC materialsa. Inadequate T-shirts.Almost every Child protection committee complained that the T-shirts distributed were notenough. The feeling was that it would be better if half of the village had received T-shirtbecause those also remind the community the present of the project. Of paramountimportance the committees suggested that at least every member of the committees shouldat least have received a T-shirt. The project printed 150 T-shirts were used as awardsduring awareness campaigns

8.3 Project coverage areaa. Request to extend the coverage area.The project was planned to cover 4 VDCs in the first year of implementation. However thecommittees report that they have had pressure from their neighboring VDCs to extend theimplementation of the activities to the near VDCs. The challenge is that the VDCs whichextended their services to other VDCs had very large distance to cover. Since such VDCswere not planed to be covered in the project activities in those other VDCs were donehaphazardly facilitated by the VDCs which were trained.

8.4 Refusal of re admission of entry into primary schoolsSome schools refused to readmit some children who were withdrawn from child labour thereason being that they were seeking fro admission at the time when the schools were in themiddle of the school calendar.





8.5 Alternative to child labour as a source of income.The project did not provide an alternative to households that used children as their sourceof income. The project should realize that some children engaged in child labour becausethere are orphans or their parents were not able to provide them with necessities.





9.0 RECOMMENDATIONSThe following are major challenges the project faced

9.1 Monitoring

Inadequate Monitoring visits. It recommended that in future projects YOCRIS should adequately budget for monitoring. Aproper number of visits per month must be derived at to ensure that there are enough followups on issues that require follow ups.

9.2 IEC materials

Issues of T-shirts in a number of projects always become a hot issue as every one wouldwant to get a T-shirt. With limited funding produce T-Shirts must be prudently distributed. Infuture projects, T-shirts must be first distributed to key structures such as communitystructures that are directly linked to the project and others later.

9.3 Project Extension

The committees indicate that there is need to have replicated in other VDCs . However thefollowing has to be taken into consideration if plans are underway to replicate the project inother areas.1. The VDCs where this project was being implemented should not be abandoned.2. There is need to come up with follow up projects that would sustain children withdrawn

from the labour to as to ensure that children withdrawn do not go back to child labour.3. Future projects of child labour should propose to include initiatives that will provide

alternatives to child labour for the families that are prone to have their children engagedin child labour.

9.4 Refusal of re admission of entry into primary schools

The community structures must be linked which school management committees andPrimary Education Advisors for proper guidance on issues of re admission.




10.0 CONCLUSIONS

“ENHANCING COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN RESPONSE TO CHILD LABOUR” project hasbeen implementing well though gaps identified in areas of monitoring. Overall the projectperformance has been satisfactory. The project ha s benefited children who were exposed to child

labour and can continue to benefit more. There is need to have the project continued but inklingnew aspects that can maintain the children withdrawn from child labour.

yocris contribution to reducing child labour in dedza -malawi

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