Key Priorities Raised Ahead of Marrakech
When global leaders gathered in Marrakech in February 2026 for the VI Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, they did so against a stark reality. An estimated 138 million children remain in child labour, progress has stalled, and budgets for addressing the challenge are shrinking.
Worryingly, progress has been slowest among children aged 5 to 11 years. Between 2008 and 2024, child labour in this age group declined by just 13 per cent - a reduction of 12 million - compared to decreases of 55 per cent among those aged 12-14 and 50 per cent among 15–17-year-olds. As a result, the share of the youngest children in child labour rose from 42 per cent in 2008 to 57 per cent in 2024.
In the lead-up to the Conference, many stakeholders emphasized the need to sharpen the global response – particularly in agriculture, where 61 per cent of child labour occurs, and among younger children working as unpaid family labour on subsistence and smallholder farms.
Among these contributions, the ECLT Foundation put forward a Call to Action titled “Turn Off the Tap: Focus on Agriculture and Children 5–11 Years.” The Call highlighted structural drivers of child labour in subsistence and smallholder agriculture and proposed several priorities for strengthening global action.
The Marrakech Global Framework for Action Against Child Labour reflects inputs from governments, workers’ and employers’ organisations, UN agencies and civil society. The analysis below highlights how key priorities raised in ECLT’s Call to Action resonate with the directions adopted in the global framework.
1. Focus on agriculture and children aged 5-11
ECLT’s Call to Action emphasised a fundamental reality: child labour is largely concentrated in subsistence and smallholder farming systems and disproportionately affects younger children working as unpaid family labour. It argued that unless this dependence is addressed – especially among children aged 5-11 – progress towards elimination will remain limited, akin to “draining an overflowing bathtub without turning off the tap.”
The Marrakech Outcome Document strongly reinforces this diagnosis. It explicitly notes that 79 million children in child labour are aged 5-11 and that they are “mostly engaged in child labour in agriculture as unpaid family labour”. It also commits to “designing and implementing targeted strategies to address child labour among children aged 5 to 11”.
In doing so, the framework clearly recognises this age group and sector as a critical entry point for accelerating global progress.
2. Amplifying the voices of smallholder farmers and rural workers
Ahead of the Conference, ECLT highlighted the importance of ensuring that subsistence and smallholder farmers’ and workers’ organizations are meaningfully included in global discussions, policy design and implementation processes. The Marrakech Framework strongly reaffirms the role of employers’ and workers’ organisations and social dialogue. Importantly, it also calls for enhanced engagement with civil society organisations and representative organisations of smallholder producers, including cooperatives, and emphasizes decentralized and community-based approaches.
The framework further commits to “bringing essential services closer to communities affected by child labour” and encourages local solutions such as community-based child labour monitoring systems linked to national systems.
It also explicitly supports the development of a global strategy to eliminate child labour in agriculture, supporting rural livelihoods and productivity, and strengthening cooperatives and rural institutions.
While these provisions reinforce the importance of rural participation, they remain framed within broader tripartite and civil society processes rather than establishing a formal, dedicated space for smallholder organisations withing global governance structures on child labour in agriculture.
3. Integrating production, procurement and policy to reduce dependence on child labour
ECLT’s Call to Action proposed an integrated approach linking production, procurement and policy as pathways to reduce small farm’s structural dependence on child labour and support living incomes.
The Marrakech Framework reflects elements of this integrated approach across several areas:
- • On production, the framework commits to “supporting rural economies and increased productivity” through infrastructure, services, logistics, technology, and climate smart, safer practices in agriculture. These measures align with calls for investments that reduce labour pressure on smallholder households.
- • On policy, the document urges for comprehensive, multi-sectoral national policies, integration of child labour concerns into poverty reduction and just transition strategies, and strengthened social protection systems, including floors and universal child benefits.
- • On procurement, the framework includes a dedicated action point on ending child labour in supply chains. It calls for responsible purchasing practices, human rights due diligence, and regulatory approaches that enable decent work and living wages.
Taken together, the Marrakech text addresses all three dimensions, even if it does not explicitly frame them as a single integrated model or directly use concepts such as “functional dependence” or “living income” in the same terms.
4. Strenghtening platforms for cross-sectoral coordination
ECLT’s Call to Action also emphasised the importance of national coordination platforms linked to global initiatives such as the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture (IPCCLA) and the Alliance 8.7 Action Group on Agriculture.
The Marrakech Framework places strong emphasis on multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder cooperation. It promotes South-South and triangular cooperation, regional initiatives - under AU, SADC, ECOWAS, ASEAN and others – and strengthen global and regional cooperation mechanisms, explicitly referencing the Alliance 8.7.
Specifically on agriculture, the framework commits to “providing resources to the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture (IPCCLA) for the development of an inclusive global strategy to end child labour in agriculture … and enhancing cooperation among agricultural and other rural economy stakeholders at all levels.”
These provisions clearly embed agriculture within the broader global coordination architecture and reinforce the importance of cross-sectoral collaboration.
From global commitment to practical implementation
Viewed as a whole, the Marrakech Global Framework signals growing convergence around several key priorities: stronger focus on agriculture, attention to younger children, improved livelihoods, stronger rural voices, responsible supply chains and enhanced coordination across sectors and levels.
The real test now lies in implementation. Translating these commitments into concrete policies, investments and partnerships that reach rural communities will determine whether progress can accelerate in the years ahead. As Jacqueline Mugo, President of the International Organisation of Employers, reminded participants at the close of the Conference, the challenge is to “carry forward more than commitments on paper.”
For organisations working on child labour in agriculture, including the ECLT Foundation, the framework provides both validation of key strategic directions and a clear roadmap for continued engagement – supporting solutions that addresses the root causes of child labour where it is most concentrated.
