Child Rights Risk Assessment Underway in Brazil’s Agriculture Sector

The Centre has recently started work on a child rights risk assessment in the agriculture sector in Brazil, marking our first on-the-ground project in a supply chain in Brazil. This assessment will allow our client to understand the role of children in their farms, and will lay the foundation for creating strong processes to prevent and remediate cases of child labour. 

Child labour is common in Brazil, especially in the agricultural sector, where an estimated 1.8 million children are working. Child work can, however, take many different forms and can range from hazardous work and exploitation of juveniles and children to light work where children can combine  non-hazardous work on family farms with education, their rights to play and free time. Understanding the nature of children’s involvement in work is therefore crucial in finding the most appropriate solutions.

The Centre’s risk assessment in Brazil includes of a comprehensive stakeholder mapping to understand the key child rights risk in the client’s sourcing activities, as well as interviews and focus group discussions with farmers, parent workers, young workers and children at the farm level. Findings from these interviews will then inform the content of a child labour training for the client’s management team. 

The purpose of the trainings is to increase the understanding and awareness of child rights, including child labour in agricultural contexts in Brazil with a specific focus on the client’s commodity. The training will also provide concrete guidance and advice on what to do when child labour is identified on farms, and will ultimately enable the client to effectively prevent and respond to child labour risks using a child-centric approach.  

To learn more about The Centre’s risk assessment service, please click here. 

Photos: Children take part in focus group activities to help The Centre gain an understanding of the child rights risk in the children’s communities and the nearby farms.