Malawi Baseline Survey 2011: Conducted for the ECLT Foundation

Malawi Baseline Survey 2011: Conducted for the ECLT Foundation
Research Team
Joseph Chiwaula of Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI),
Bright Sibale, Peter Jere, James Kaphuka, Max Chunga and Ivy Gondwe of Centre for
Development Management,
Mei Zegers – Independent Consultant,
Leonard Mbwanda of JIMMAT Consulting Malawi
Technical Assistance Team
Elna Hirschfeld, Helene Aiello, Peter Fridjon, Jenna Kamps and Phuti Mongalo of Khulisa
Management Services (Pty) Ltd

Executive Summary
Introduction
The Government of Malawi is faced with the challenge of eliminating child labour in the
Country. Child labour is a violation of the rights of the child as enshrined by the Malawian
Constitution. Child labour puts at risk the country’s progress by limiting the potential of its
future workforce, its children.
In Malawi, the Constitution defines a child as a person below the age of sixteen. The
Employment Act defines a child as a person under the age of 14. The Act prohibits persons
under the age of 14 to be employed or work in any public or private agricultural, industrial or
non-industrial undertaking, except if that work is done in a vocational technical school or
other training institution and is (a) approved and supervised by a public authority; or (b) is an
integral part of the educational or vocational training programme for which the school or
institution is responsible 1 .
In the context of this baseline study, a child is defined as a person between the ages of 5 and
17 years. In general, the term child labour refers to involvement of children in the kind of
work that is detrimental to their development. When measuring statistics on child labour two
issues are considered, i.e.; (i) the age of the child; and (ii) the productive activities in which
the child is involved, the nature and conditions in which these activities are performed
including the time spent in the activity. Malawi has developed a National Plan of Action
(NPA) against child labour. 2 The Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco growing Foundation
(ECLT) is committed to supporting the Malawi Government in implementing the NPA through
a new programme called the Child Labour Elimination Actions for Real (CLEAR) Change
programme that will be implemented in the three districts of Mchinji, Ntchisi and Rumphi.
As part of the CLEAR Change programme development process, the ECLT has contracted a
number of local Malawian experts through the Centre for Development Management (CDM),
in order to conduct a baseline study of child labour in tobacco growing areas in these three
districts. Mchinji and Ntchisi districts are located in the Central Malawi Region while Rumphi
is in the Northern Region of Malawi. The main objective of the baseline survey was to
measure the levels and nature of child labour in the selected tobacco growing areas within
these focus districts. Findings from the baseline study are intended to inform the design of
child labour intervention projects for the CLEAR Change programme.
Planning and implementation of the baseline study took place between November, 2010 and
February, 2011.
Summary Findings
Characteristics of Survey Population
The total number of households interviewed in the baseline survey was 1645. The total
population in these households was 8,723, of whom 50.3% or 4,389 were male and 49.7%
(4,334) were female. The total number of children aged 5-17 years in the sampled
1 http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/WEBTEXT/58791/65218/E00MWI01.htm
2 Ministry of Labour (2009a) Child Labour National Action Plan. Lilongwe: Ministry of Labour

households was 3,689. Of these, 3,584 (95%) were available for interviews. Of the 3,584
children available for interviews, 68 children (approximately 1.8%), either refused an
interview or were not fit to be interviewed. A small number of questionnaires within the 1.8%
were rejected during data processing due to incompleteness of data.
Based on these population figures, the average size of the household is 5.3 for all three
districts. The average number of children aged 5-17 per household was 2.2. The population
aged 17 years and below comprised 59.1% of the survey population, while those aged above
18 comprised 40.9%. Children between ages 5 and 17 years, who are primary targets of
child labour, comprised 42.3% of the survey population. Under-five children comprised 16.8
percent of the population. The proportion of child headship (child headed households) was
found to be low in all the districts surveyed.
Prevalence and Types of Child Labour
- Prevalence of Child Labour
The study found that the overall weighted prevalence of child labour (outside the household
and in the household) is 87.1% in Mchinji, 91.1% in Ntchisi and 93.3% in Rumphi. The
weighted prevalence of child labour in tobacco growing was 54% in Mchinji, 55% in Ntchisi
and 39.8% in Rumphi. By gender, the weighted prevalence of child labour in tobacco
growing was 55.5% for males and 52.4% for females in Mchinji, 59.6% for males and 50.6%
for females in Ntchisi and 43.5% for males and 35.7% for females in Rumphi district. In all
three districts, child labour in tobacco growing was higher for males than for females.
- Children’s Engagement in Economic Activities
Child labour outside the household and not related to tobacco growing (engagement in other
economic activities) was 26.9% in Mchinji, 31.6% in Ntchisi and 47.1% in Rumphi. By
gender, child labour outside the household and not related to tobacco growing was 23.1% for
males and 30.7% for females in Mchinji, 24.3% for males and 38.6% for females in Ntchisi
and 43% for males and 51.4% for females in Rumphi. Overall, female children worked more
outside the household in non-tobacco growing related labour. Child labour outside the
household and not related to tobacco included the selling of small merchandise, working in
the field on other crop types and the like.
- Children’s in Engagement in Non-Economic Activities
Child labour resulting from children working more than 28 hours a week on household chores
was 6.3% in Mchinji, 4.6% in Ntchisi and 6.4% in Rumphi. By gender, it was 5.5% for males
and 7.1% for females in Mchinji, 5.1% for males and 4.0% for females in Ntchisi district and
5.6% for males and 7.2% for females in Rumphi district.
The data shows similar work rates for male and female children in household chores.
- Summary
The study found that tobacco growing was the biggest contributor to child labour in Mchinji
and Ntchisi and other work outside the household was the biggest contributor to child labour
in Rumphi. P-values much lower than 0.05 provides evidence to suggest that the difference
in prevalence of child labour between districts is highly significant. The table below
summarises the baseline findings on child labour.

Weighted Prevalence of Child Labour: Proportion of Children Participating in Child
Labour
Tobacco Other Household Total Weighted n# of
Related Economic chores (%) children aged 5-17
District & Activities Activities (28+ hrs per
years
Gender (%)
(%) week) (%)
Mchinji 54.0 26.9 6.3 87.1 3,789
Male 55.5 23.1 5.5 84.1 1,925
Female 52.4 30.7 7.1 90.2 1,864
Ntchisi 55.0 31.6 4.6 91.1 1,229
Male 59.6 24.3 5.1 89.1 604
Female 50.6 38.6 4.0 93.1 625
Rumphi 39.8 47.1 6.4 93.3 845
Male 43.5 43.2 5.6 92.3 444
Female 35.7 51.4 7.2 94.3 401
- Qualitative Findings
Qualitative interviews with children and other focus group members in the surveyed districts
revealed that the most common types of child labour were in agriculture, domestic child
labour and cattle herding. Children employed in domestic activities were reported to also
engage in other work for their employers, including selling items in the street and working on
tobacco farms.
Other types of child labour identified were Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children
(CSEC), goat herding (seasonally), gambling, operating pool tables, street vending including
at night, bicycle transporting (kabaza), carrying heavy loads (transport, cooked foods to
market), video shop work, restaurant work, brick moulding, wheelbarrow pushing, transport
call boys (call for customers when busses arrive), on board bus helpers, money changing,
charcoal making, pimping and errand running at night, forced marriages including abduction,
and quarrying. One practice noted in the data was that some parents give their children a
portion of land to plant their own crops. What they harvest from that plot of land they are
allowed to use to pay for their schooling. In one case a boy had a ½ hectare of tobacco and
was doing all the work by himself. and probably impacting on his school attendance!
Focus group members in all three districts stated that school going children were often
absent from school on market days to help their parents to sell items. Such children may
help with sales but also help setting up the stalls of non-relatives. Some children reported
that, despite the work that they have done for others they were sometimes not paid and, in
some instances, beatings were reported. Despite several visits to the Mchinji Chipata border
no children were found to be exchanging money although this may be attributed to three
recent police searches in the area.
The qualitative research also included the recording of children observed working while the
research teams were travelling through the research sites. One third of the children directly
observed were seen working in tobacco growing or harvesting/processing. Nearly one third
were observed working as cattle herders and far fewer were observed doing other
agricultural work, domestic or other types of work. This data should be interpreted with
caution as some types of child labour are more hidden than others.
It is, nevertheless, noteworthy that more children were seen working in tobacco than in other
forms of agriculture. One third to almost one half of the children were estimated to work in
tobacco growing. In Rumphi about one in ten children was thought to do cattle herding while

in Ntchisi the proportion was about one in three children and in Mchinji one in five. In all
three districts about one in ten children - slightly more in the case of Rumphi - were thought
to be victims to the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) at least part time.
Focus group members indicated that CSEC is quite visible in public areas and bars.
Education and the Child
- Literacy Rate
The baseline findings show that about 31.3% of children (5-17 years of age) in Rumphi,
27.4% in Mchinji and 33.2% in Ntchisi were able to read. Similar percentages of children
(31.5% for Rumphi, 27.1% for Mchinji and 31.8% for Ntchisi) were able to write. The
weighted literacy rates for children interviewed in the research areas in Ntchisi and Rumphi
was higher than in Mchinji. As expected, older children possessed better reading ability than
the younger ones. More girls (8.6% for Rumphi, 3.3% for Mchinji and 6.3% for Ntchisi) aged
between 5-9 years are able to read than boys (1.1% for Rumphi, 2.5% for Mchinji and 3.3%
for Ntchisi) across the study areas in the three districts. A similar trend was found for other
age categories. These same trends were also found for their ability to write.
In the Mchinji study areas, however, more children were able to read within the age category
of 14-17 years, than those Rumphi and Ntchisi. As expected, the ability to read was found to
be is much lower in the younger children (aged 5-9 years), but rapidly increased as children
graduated from aged groups 5-9 years to 10-13 years old. This is the period when learners
are promoted to senior primary school (Standard Six), but it is also typically the age at which
the school drop-out rate increases for both boys and girls.
- School Attendance
In terms of school attendance, the weighted percentage of all children aged 5-17 years
interviewed and currently attending school (at the time of the survey) was the highest in the
Rumphi study areas (94.9%) followed by those in Mchinji (87.2%) and Ntchisi (82.4%) study
areas. Ntchisi had the highest percentage of school going age children that were not in
school during the current academic school year (17.6%) compared to Mchinji (12.8%) and to
a lesser extent, Rumphi (5.1%). The out-of-school children are more vulnerable to
exploitative labour practices.
In both Mchinji and Ntchisi about a quarter (29.0% for boys and 23.7% for girls) in the Ntchisi
study areas and approximately one fifth (21.6% for boys and 15.3% for girls), for those in
Mchinji study areas in the age category 5-9 years were not in school. Across the three
districts the trend is that more boys than girls within this age group were not in school. For
the children aged 5-17 years old who were not in school, the survey asked if they had ever
been to school. Overall, across the study areas, 60.4% had never attended school at all.
Ntchisi had 64.8%, Rumphi had 58.1% and Mchinji had 57.7% who had never been at
school. More boys than girls (63.7% vs. 56.5% respectively) were likely to have never
attended school
-Absenteeism from School
Children who were attending school were asked if they had been absent from school any day
of the school week prior to the interview. Across the study areas, 38.7% of children of both
genders had been absent from school for at least one day. 3 In Rumphi, 40.8% had missed at
least one day, while in Mchinji and Ntchisi, those that missed at least a day were 38.4% and
3 Confidence intervals=35.2% and 42.3%

37.6% respectively. In all research areas, children in the age group 5-9 years were more
likely to miss school than those in the older age groups. In all age groups, girls were more
likely to miss school days than boys-possibly because girls more than boys work to support
their mothers in domestic chores. About 47.1% of girls of all age groups missed school days
in Rumphi, compared to 35.1% for boys. In Mchinji, absenteeism was similar for girls
(39.4%) and boys (37.4%). In Ntchisi, it was 39.0% for girls and 36.0% for boys,
respectively.
The average weighted number of school days missed in the past seven days was 2.0 for
Rumphi, 1.9 for Ntchisi and 2.2 for Mchinji. These days represent almost half the school
week of 5 days. Missing school days can result in poor performance of children during
exams or weekly tests, which may de-motivate learners from remaining in school. Such
learners are at increased risk for dropping out of school.
- Age of school enrolment
The- baseline findings show that about 42.5% of all learners that were attending school
begun their schooling when they were six years old. In Rumphi, about 53.4% begun their
school at the official age of six years, compared to Mchinji (34.2%) and Ntchisi (47.8%).
Across study areas, 26.6% started school below the official age while 31.9% started later
than the age of six years. About 40.1% of boys and 42.8% of girls enrolled for the first time in
Standard 1 at the correct official age of six years. About 25.8% of boys and 27.2% of girls
enrolled below the age of five years, while the remaining number of children (34.1% for boys
and 27.2% for girls) enrolled at an age older that the official admission age. Boys tended to
start school at an older age than girls.
- Learner teacher Ratio & School Drop-Out Rate and Age
The learner teacher ratio is a strong determinant of the teaching environment at school. The
ratio was highest for Mchinji at 90:1, followed by Ntchisi at 76:1, representing 49% and 26%
above the national standard respectively. The ratio for Rumphi was 59:1, slightly below the
national standard ratio of 59:1.
For those children in primary school who at some point attended school but had dropped out,
the study results indicate that the average school drop-out age for both boys and girls was 11
years for those in the Mchinji study areas, 12 years for those in the Ntchisi areas and 11
years for boys and 12 years for girls respectively in the Rumphi research areas. According
to the education management information system (EMIS) of 2009 the greatest number of
children who dropped out of school from the three surveyed districts, did so due to family
responsibilities Family responsibilities included work to support parents, agriculture,
involvement in care and support of family members and many other roles that children play
at home. The problem was most prominent in Ntchisi and Mchinji, where it accounted for
about 49% and 45% of drop-outs in contrast to to 23% for Rumphi.
Household Economy and Livelihoods
- Agriculture
Agriculture is the backbone of the economy of Malawi and reports indicate that the sector
provides livelihoods to over 85% of the population that live in the rural areas. This is also
true for the districts included in the baseline study. The baseline study found that agriculture,
especially crop production sales, was mentioned as the main source of livelihoods for 75.0%
of the households interviewed across all survey areas.

Compared between districts, about 88.1% of households in surveyed areas in Ntchisi
depended on agriculture (both crops and livestock), much more so than in surveyed areas of
Mchinji (69.0%) and Rumphi (66.6%). Almost all households (97.1%) in the surveyed areas
planted some crops in 2009/10 season. The main crops that the all households in the
surveyed areas grow for food are maize (96.1%) and tobacco and groundnuts as commercial
or cash crops. Almost all sampled households (96.1%) in all the three districts grew maize
(Ntchisi at 98.9%, Mchinji, 95.2% and Rumphi, 94.1% respectively). The high dependence
on agriculture for livelihoods may also explain why child labour is high in the surveyed areas.
It can be argued that maize production is also a commercial crop, at least for the 32% of the
baseline study households that had sold some of the maize to earn income. The production
of maize, which is often grown in association with tobacco, should also be monitored,
especially in the context of how maize-based farming systems influence child labour.
Tobacco was grown by 40.6% of all households, with 43.1% grown in Rumphi, 49.0% in
Ntchisi and 34.8% in Mchinji.
The baseline data also showed that livelihoods in these tobacco growing areas are too
dependent on agriculture, which is also mostly rain-fed. Livelihood diversification is limited.
This makes households particularly vulnerable to poverty in times of drought, other natural
disasters or when crop prices, including tobacco, are poor. Such conditions can facilitate
child labour. Furthermore, tobacco growers do not have any influence in setting prices in the
open market and this is heavily driven by the volume and quality of tobacco during picking
season.
- Coping Strategies
The study also found that ganyu (casual labour/piece work) was an important livelihood
strategy and 7.2% of households in all study areas depended on it as their main source of
livelihoods. Experience with local communities in Malawi often shows that when parents
undertake ganyu, they often involve their children to complete the work quickly or undertake
ganyu farming chores to earn more income or food. Children who are supporting their
parents in ganyu production often are absent from school during these days. During the
peak of the lean period of the year (January to February), where food shortages are at the
peak, more ganyu is taking place to enable households to earn money or food.
- Asset Ownership
Using asset ownership as a proxy for poverty, the baseline revealed that poverty is very high
amongst interviewed households. About half of all (49.0%) households in all three districts
owned a bicycle. Mchinji and Rumphi had similar percentages of households that owned a
bicycle (51.8% and 50.9% respectively). In the Malawian context, a bicycle is a major form
of transport and at community level, a household without a bicycle is generally viewed as
poor. The percentage of households that had a mobile phone was reasonable (36.7%
across surveyed areas) with the highest coverage being recorded in the study areas in
Rumphi (66.5% of all household had a mobile phone), followed by Ntchisi (33.0%) and then
Mchinji (29.1%). The greatest number of respondents who had their own land was the
highest in Ntchisi (90.5%) followed by Rumphi (85.6%) and to a lesser extent, Mchinji
(73.6%). About 51.5% of households had a radio, with 62.9% of households in Rumphi, and
53.8% in Ntchisi and 46.2% in Mchinji respectively.
Of all the households interviewed, about 79% owned a parcel of land. Overall, the baseline
study found that 67.7% of the households interviewed from the three districts owned at least

a species of livestock. Amongst all the three districts, Rumphi had the highest percentage of
people owning livestock (78.6%), while the proportion of people owning livestock in Ntchisi
was slightly lower (71.5%) whereas in Mchinji, only 61.3% of respondents reported owning
livestock.
Using criteria such as ownership of assets, qualitative wealth ranking exercises indicated that
about 70% of the community inhabitants are considered to be poor, about 20% middle class
and 10% comparatively wealthy.
- Availability of Staple Food
Overall weighted results showed that 44.6% of all households in the study that grew some
crops still had some maize in their storage. More households had maize in their storage in
Ntchisi (53.1%), than in Rumphi (52.3%) and to a lesser extent, Mchinji (36.6%). About
28.3% of the households interviewed at the time of the survey could not afford to eat what
they normally eat at least once during the past 7 days prior to the survey. During times when
they did not have their own-grown staple, 49.4% of households depended on purchases,
28.6% relied on ganyu, while 27.9% received food in kind for labour they provided and 10.1%
supplemented with winter cropping as coping mechanisms.
Health, housing and water issues
- Availability of Local Health Services
Health services in the three districts are provided by government, the Christian Health
Association of Malawi (CHAM), the private sector, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs)
such as Banja La Mtsogolo and Population Services International, traditional healers and
birth attendants. The district hospital is the main referral health facility at district level.
Findings of the baseline study indicate that the referral system in all the survey districts is
very poor and is constrained by a lack of human, physical and financial resources. The
numbers of medical staff are low and there are not enough ambulances in each of the district
hospitals to cater for the high demand from the different health centres in the district. It was
reported during the interviews that there are normally long queues of patients in different
health centres waiting for referrals.
From information obtained from key informants at district level, the most common disease
affecting children in Mchinji was malaria accounting for about half of all children who fall ill, in
Rumphi (where most common illness was considered pulmonary) more than half of all
children are affected by a chronic cough, while in Ntchisi the most common illness is malaria
accounting for about two fifths of all the children (40%) who fall ill.
Qualitative interviews found that child labourers are normally subjected to health hazards that
could easily make them sick and would require frequent treatment especially from the district
hospital. Girls are also vulnerable to falling pregnant and may not be able to access better
delivery services at a referral hospital. In view of this it would be better to train Traditional
Birth Assistants to assist the very poor and vulnerable people who face the barriers of
considerable distances to reach health centres, including child labourers.
- School Health Check-Ups
The study found that the overall weighted percentage of children that received a health
check-up was 50.4% in all surveyed areas in the three districts. In Mchinji the weighted

percentage was 46.3%, in Rumphi (59.4%) and in Ntchisi (52.7%). In Rumphi 59.4% of boys
and 58.9% of the girls reported to have received the health school check-up. In Mchinji,
47.1% of the boys and 47.0% of the girls versus 52.7% of the boys and 53.0% of the girls in
Ntchisi reported to have received the school health check-up.
School health check-ups are important to children as it can lead to early detection of some of
the common child diseases. Working children who do not attend school are excluded from
this health service. Children withdrawn from child labour and reintegrated in to school will
benefit from this service - a practice that will mean having healthier children in our society.
Health Hazards Common amongst Children Working in Tobacco Growing
Through a range of discussions and interviews the study findings revealed some of the
health hazards common amongst children working in tobacco growing. These included
exposure to fumes, working with dangerous tools, exposure to insect bites and many others.
Overall the weighted percentage of those working children that reported being exposed to
dust or fumes in all the three districts was 37.0%. In terms of gender, the weighted
percentages of those children interviewed who were working and reported that they were
exposed to dust or fumes in Rumphi was 33.8% of boys and 33.8%% of girls, in Mchinji
36.2% were boys and 36.2% were girls while in Ntchisi 40.8% were boys and 40.8% were
girls.
The overall weighted average of those that reported being exposed to extreme cold or heat
in all the three districts was 24.7%. In Rumphi district the weighted percentages of the
children interviewed who were working and reported that they were exposed to extreme cold
or heat were 22.5% boys and 22.5% girls, in Mchinji those exposed to extreme cold or heat
comprised 25.1% boys and 25.1% girls while in Ntchisi the percentages were 25.6% boys
and 25.5% girls. The overall weighted percentage of the children that reported being
exposed to dangerous tools (knives) in all the three districts was 19.1%
The most common equipment used was a hoe. This was reported by 81.0% of boys and
66.5% of girls in Rumphi; 84.8% of boys and 75.0% of girls in Mchinji; and 81.0% of boys
and 73.5% of girls in Ntchisi respectively. Using hoes is not only dangerous, but also is
inefficient as one requires a lot of time to till a unit piece of land compared to motorised or oxdrawn
equipment.
- Housing
In terms of ownership of the house, which can a proxy for whether a household is mobile or
not and in some cases a proxy for levels of poverty, the study found 83.7% of the
respondents in all the study areas in the three districts reported that the house they were
living in was owned by a household member.
In terms of type of construction material, which is a major proxy for poverty, the study found
that 42.8% of all respondents reported that their main house wall was made of burnt bricks.
In Rumphi the percentage of households that had their main house wall made of burnt bricks
were higher at 64.5%, followed by Mchinji at 47.0% and 21.3% in Ntchisi. Those who
reported that their houses were made of un-burnt bricks constituted 21.5% in total and about
42.5% of all main houses were palm/bamboo/grass thatched.
- Sources of Energy

In terms of sources of energy, the main source of energy for cooking is firewood and is used
by over 95.4% of all the households interviewed. Traditionally it is women and girls who
fetch firewood and when there is deforesation, women and girl chidren are forced to travel
long distances and carry heavy headloads of firewood, resulting in child labour amongst girls.
Although not much variance, more households used firewood in Ntchisi (97.8%), than in
Mchnji (96.0%) and Rumphi (95.0%).
Electricity connectivity in Malawi is very low, with only about 6% of households being
connected to the national grid. In rural areas the problem is worse. The main source of
energy for lighting across the study areas in the three districts was dry-battery operated
Chinese torches (58.4% of households). Those who used paraffin for lighting represented
18.3% of all households included in the study, with 21.0% for Mchinji, 16.7% for Rumphi, and
14.7% for Ntchisi
- Water and Sanitation
The baseline study sought to gather information on the types of toilets people were using to
get an understanding of the sanitation situation in surveyed households. The percentage of
households included in the study that had no toilets and were using the bush was highest in
Mchinji at 9.8%, followed by Ntchisi at 3.0% and Rumphi at 1.9%. In all the three districts
2.9% of all the respondents were using flush toilets, with Rumphi registering 9.0%, Mchinji,
2.0% and 1.0% for Ntchisi.
In terms of access to portable water, Ntchisi had the highest percentage of households using
boreholes at 57.3%, followed by Rumphi and Mchinji at 57.0% and 44.8% respectively.
Overall, 20.1% of all households used unprotected dug wells as a source of drinking water
with the highest prevalence in Mchinji at 30.7%, followed by Ntchisi at 11.4% and then
Rumphi at 5.9%.
Mobility and Child Labour
- Country and District of Origin
The study found that 99.7% of those interviewed were of Malawian origin, 0.2% were of
Zambian origin, and 0.1% were of Zimbabwean origin. Within those of Malawian origin, the
study was interested in establishing their districts of origin as a proxy for internal migration or
movement as these districts may act as supply districts for labour migration including child
labour.
In Rumphi, those originally from Mzimba district were 13.4%, followed by those from Chitipa
(4.1%) and Phalombe at (2.7%). Mzimba and Chitipa districts share borders with the
Rumphi district. In Mchinji, 11.4% of households came from Lilongwe, followed by those
from Mangochi (2.7%) and then Dowa (2.3%). In Ntchisi, 1.6% of households came from
Dowa, 1.1% came from Nkhotakota and 0.7% from Lilongwe. There is less migration into
Ntchisi than into the other two districts as historically Ntchisi had had limited economic
activities, poor accessibility and is labelled as undeveloped.
- Children’s Living Arrangements
The baseline found that the majority of children (68.4%) stayed with both their biological
parents. In Ntchisi, children are more likely to be living with their parents (71.9%) than in
Mchinji, (68.1%) and Rumphi (64.6%). As explained earlier, Ntchisi is not as accessible as
the other two districts, so the likelihood that children can be staying away from parents is
lower. Fathers alone tend not to live with their children, even if they have a step-wife. Most

of the burden of care is therefore with women and the elderly. About 2% of children are
staying with non-relatives.
- Freedom of Movement
The baseline study also gathered information about whether children who were not living with
their parents, were freely able to visit their parents. The study revealed that most children
(85.7%) in the study are able to visit their parents: about 90.1% reported so in Rumphi,
83.0% in Mchinji, while 88.2% in Ntchisi indicated that they free to visit their parents. For
those children who reported not being able to visit their parents, long distances were
reported as the main reason why most of them (reported by 50.7%) were not able to visit
their parents while 19.2% of the children were not allowed to go.
- Child’s Last Place of Residence
About 68% of the overall children who were not staying with biological parents came from
within the region of study and about 9% came from other districts. In Rumphi, 67.3% of the
children who were not staying with biological parents came from within the Northern Region
and 7.7% came from outside the Northern Region. Some were more transient (14.7%) and
came from within the Northern Region, while 5.1% were transient and came from other
regions and another 1.3% came from outside Malawi.
Policy and Legal Framework
- Policy Framework
The study found that in general Malawi has sufficient policies and legal instruments to deal
with child labour. However, implementation of these instruments is a major challenge due to
capacity constraints.
Important instruments frameworks include the Millennium Development Goals, the Malawi
Vision 2020, the Republican Constitution, the Malawi Employment Act, Child Care,
Protection and Justice Act, the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy and the National
Plan of Action on Child Labour. There are also many sectoral polcies that support
interventions against child labour.
In addition to policies and legislation, there are many public, private and civil society groups
that are working together to fight against child labour. These include most of the tobacco
regulators, producers and buyers of tobacco in the country.
The lead Ministry is the Ministry of Labour which is being supported by many of the key
development partners in the sector such as the International Labour Organisation and
UNICEF. There are also many development partners working in sectors such as health,
agriculture and food security, water and sanitation and education among others.
Awareness, Knowledge and Capacity to Address Child Labour
The study noted that knowledge and awareness pertaining to Malawi laws and regulations on
child labour are very weak in all three districts, at both district and community levels. Child
Labour Committees at community level are not available, not well-established or nonexistent.
Related committees, such as child protection and community policing are disjointed
and weak due to limited capacity and understanding of the concept of child labour. Most of
these committees do not have child labour in their terms of reference.

It was therefore not surprising that many individuals included in the focus groups key
informant interviews have a very narrow understanding of child labour. They tend to know
that it is illegal for children to work but are not able to differentiate between child work and
child labour. In many communities, parents and other adults asked questions such as, “Do
they really have to make these rules so that children do not learn any work. What kind of
future citizens will they be?” or, “What do you mean, we should not train our children?”

Proposed Recommendations
As outlined in the terms of reference the recommendations should provide guidance to the
formulation of the CLEAR Change programme. The listed recommendations represent
actions that could be included in the programme. The recommendations emerge from the
baseline study findings, from literature and experiences of other child labour programmes in
Malawi and beyond.
Overall Recommendations
Preventive measures such as better access to schooling and other basic social
services combined with mechanisms to reduce vulnerability to child labour, are
particularly important to prevent children at risk of involvement in child labour through
strong partnership with key stakeholders in the industry.
Remedial schooling and other “second chance” learning opportunities should be
provided to children already harmed by exposure to child labour. Better formal
workplace inspection instruments, together with expanded grassroots level
monitoring, are needed to guide “direct action” to remove and rehabilitate children
from unconditional worst forms of child labour. The Ministry responsible for labour
inspection will therefore need to be on the ground and need to be supported to
achieve the desired results. Political commitment is needed to ensure that child
labour is mainstreamed into broader development plans and programmes such as the
District Implementation Plans. The National Steering Committee or National
Programme of Action Taskforce should be formed to, among others, coordinate
implementation of activities aimed at eliminating child labour.
Direct action is needed to ensure the removal, recovery and reintegration of working
children whose rights are most compromised, i.e., those facing the greatest degree of
hazard and/or exploitation. This refers, first and foremost, to children in Worst Forms
of Child Labour such as CSEC and those in hazardous forms of work.
Poverty eradication programmes must be mainstreamed in the fight against child
labour. HIV/AIDS and gender mainstreaming including child and human rights
mainstreaming must not only receive attention, but must be funded to sufficient levels
if underlying causes of child labour are to be eliminated.
Specific Recommendations
RECOMMENDED
FOCUS AREA
INTERVENTIONS PER IDENTIFIED
A: Withdraw and Prevention
In liaison with parents, government officials and local leaders,
the programme should withdraw children engaged in CSEC
related to tobacco growing, early marriages and cattle herding
and ensure that they are enrolled or re-admitted in schools,
wherever that is possible or engage in vocational training
programmes.
Establish community-based Anti-Child Labour Committees and
link these to Child Protection Workers and Community Policing
Institutions and provide mandate and capacity for withdrawing
and handling children in child labour
Develop clear and transparent monitoring systems to track
project children but also to monitor impact on changes in
awareness at a broader community, district and national level.
Ensure that the systems allow for sharing of information
POTENTIAL TARGET
GROUPS
Children already in child
labour, particularly those in
hazardous forms
Community leaders
Children engaged in child
labour

RECOMMENDED INTERVENTIONS PER IDENTIFIED
FOCUS AREA
amongst key stakeholders at community, district and national
level.
Design reintegration methods based on experience in Malawi
and elsewhere of children withdrawn from trafficking related
child labour, with a primary focus on education for school age
groups.
Continue and strengthen operation research on issues such as
child labour, cattle herding and children with disabilities, issues
pertaining to patrilineal vs matrilineal systems and how they
influence child labour and effective methods to decrease the
trafficking of children into child labour in source districts. This
should also include research on tobacco production methods
that decrease dependence on child labour.
Promote the establishment of community-based functioning
victim drop-in centres. These should be linked to Victim
Support Units, where they are available.
B: Education Enrolment, Retention and Attainment
Implement child, teacher, community and parent mobilisation
on the importance of education for both boys and girls. Need
identified to work with parents, teachers and local leaders to
ensure that household responsibilities do not deter children
(particularly girls) from education.
Provide support for improving infrastructure in schools
including renovations of schools, adding classrooms, and staff
quarters. However, these should be accompanied by strong
mobilisation of school catchment population to send and retain
children in school (particularly girls).
Establish and support existing ECD Centres and ensure that
they have integrated child labour and growth monitoring
indicators. .
Provide special education support for OVC (including learners
with learning difficulties) and assist these learners to access
education bursaries at district level.
Provide functioning and sanitary water and sanitation facilities
in schools to create a conducive learning environment for
learners with a focus on the female learner.
Replicate successful systems from ICLEP project on
pedagogical training for teachers, teaching material supplies,
etc.
Implement summer vacation bridging courses for children
reintegrating into education.
Provision of school kits (supplies, uniforms, hygiene products)
to children to be withdrawn or prevented from child labour.
Some children who are at less risk may receive a basic kit
while others receive a full kit.
Vocational and skills training should focus highly on improving
child-friendly agricultural/horticultural and livestock raising
skills. Skills training for which local markets are limited should
be avoided.
POTENTIAL TARGET
GROUPS
Children engaged in child
labour
Children herding cattle,
children with disabilities
etc.
Community leaders
Parents, teachers, children
and local leaders
Parents, teachers and local
leaders
Children below age 6
Secondary school learners
(age14-17)
Girls and boys
Teachers
School going age children
that dropped out of school
School going children,
especially Standard 5 and
above
Children that are not able
to go back to school (age
14-17)
Vocational and skills training courses should include education Children that are not able

RECOMMENDED INTERVENTIONS PER IDENTIFIED
FOCUS AREA
on some basic business management skills such as simple
accounting and marketing.
Develop special vocational training/skills training for children
age 12-15.
Integrate vocational skills training for older youth and young
community adults in all infrastructure development efforts
(schools building, boreholes, etc.)
Attach and increase boarding school options for victims of child
labour withdrawn and at risk children from poor (source)
districts.
Pair project children with older youth who can mentor them.
Provide the mentors with special kits containing materials such
as awareness raising T-shirts and hygiene supplies. Provide
certificates for successful mentors.
Provide Role Models for both boys and girls. Use FAWEMA
tactics of getting role models at national level to have talks in
communities and schools to motivate children in education.
C: Poverty Reduction, Livelihoods and Food Security Improvement
Mobilise communities to diversify their income sources so that
they do not just depend only on tobacco and maize for their
livelihoods: i) Promote diversification of crop production and
could include promoting small-scale irrigation, horticultural
gardening and school gardening and growing of drought
resistant crops; ii) Learn from other projects that have
promoted income generating activities.
Study labour saving methods such as using neem tree
products, notably neem oil, for desuckering and introduce in
project areas. Integrate in government, ARET and NASFAM
extension work.
Introduce Village Savings and Loan schemes amongst women.
Rotating self financing loan schemes have proved to be very
effective amongst women.
Advocate for improved working conditions and contracting
arrangements for tenants. Include issues such as: i) need to
have written contracts; ii) need for landlords to provide food
until harvest; iii) need for landlords to provide land for tenants
to grow their own food; iv) need for tenants to send their
children to school and not be involved in tobacco growing
work; and v) the need for regular inspections by Government.
In districts, such as Mchinji where there is a Social Cash
Transfer Programme, establish links between the programme
and children engaged in child labour. The project should
facilitate access by children affected by child labour to the
national or district bursary schemes and other social support
programmes.
The project should pay special attention to ensure that
woodlots are established in or near to communities.
POTENTIAL TARGET
GROUPS
to go back to school
Children that are not able
to go back to school
Children that are not able
to go back to school
School going children
withdrawn from child labour
Any child between 5 and
17
School going age groups
Households with children in
or at risk of child labour
Households with children in
or at risk of child labour
Women within households
that have children in or at
risk of child labour
Tenants, landlords and the
Labour Inspectorate
Households with children
involved in child labour

RECOMMENDED
FOCUS AREA
INTERVENTIONS PER IDENTIFIED
D: Awareness Raising and Advocacy
Children’s legal rights to education in the context of child
labour should be enhanced.
ECLT partners should build the capacity of girls to be more
assertive and are able to resist the pressures put to them by
their families to work at the cost of their education.
Implement a multi-track and multi-message mass media
campaign with the involvement of civil society, employers and
workers organisations which should include: i) awareness
raising on child labour in tobacco growing; ii) CSEC’ iii) cattle
herding; iv) the need for education; v) impact of early
marriages; vi) trafficking of children for child labour; and vii) the
popularisation of legislation related to child labour.
Awareness raising in project communities should also include
a component on natural resource management, including
deforestation issues.
Use existing and innovative mass media channels, including
radio, television, mobile phones, bill boards, community radios,
church groups, mosques, local traditional functions and others
depending on target audiences.
Communication should be delivered in a non-threatening
manner. The physical, emotional, moral, economic and other
aspects of child labour should be emphasised.
Advocate for i) increased funding of labour departments at
district level and ii) the finalisation of the list of harmful
practices and the National Registration System at national
level.
E: Capacity Strengthening and Institution Building
At national level, there is need to strengthen the capacity of the
Child Labour Unit of the Ministry of Labour and the National
Child Labour Network in collaboration with other partners such
as the ILO. This is important to promote ownership and
sustainability of the programme.
Provide support on advocacy to ensure the formal adoption
and implementation of key policy and legislative frameworks
including the National Action Policy and Plan on the elimination
of child labour; the Tenancy Bill; the List of Hazardous Work as
well as for Education Reform to include compulsory primary
education.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and respective
District Councils, establish and strengthen District Child Labour
Committees, particularly n Ntchisi and Mchinji where they have
just been formed. Ensure DEC Members are involved.
Establish community based Child Labour Committees and link
them to Village Development Committees and Community
Policing Forums. Provide committees with incentive packages
such as T-shirts, bicycles, calendars (child labour information,
education and communication (IEC materials). Develop a
POTENTIAL TARGET
GROUPS
Children and their
households, communities
Girl child
Whole community , civil
society, employers and
workers organisations
Communities and related
government ministries
Communities, policy
makers, children, teachers,
and many more depending
on the type of message
Ministry of Labour, Child
Labour Unit
Ministry of Labour and the
Child Labour Unit
DEC Members
Child Labour Committees,
Child Protection Workers,
Child Protection
Committees

RECOMMENDED INTERVENTIONS PER IDENTIFIED
FOCUS AREA
performance-based system and award good performance
(such as committee that withdraws more children or prevents
child labour gets a bigger incentive). Include training for village
heads and community child labour committees on child labour
issues.
When Local Government Elections are held and Councillors
are in place, design a training programme on child labour and
assign specific roles for them. This will contribute significantly
to sustainability. When councillors are in place, the
programme should facilitate formulation of local by-laws that
should prohibit child labour.
Provide training for Industrial Relations Court officials,
magistrates, prosecutors, labour offices and lawyers on legal
child labour issues. Include review of legal framework and
application of laws. Training of magistrates in project districts.
Training of customary justice system suppliers on child labour
issues.
Create a mass of capacity by strengthening the capacity of
agricultural extension workers of government, ARET, NASFAM
and other agencies with extension workers on child labour
issues.
Ensure that advocacy and awareness raising and capacity
building includes attention to child labour in the overall
development context as a distinct issue but still linked to other
types of development efforts.
F: Health, Water and Sanitation
Implement household and school-based water and sanitation
programme, which includes i) provision of safe water in
schools, hygiene; and ii) sanitation awareness in the
communities. This should also include school health check-
ups.
Implementation educational and awareness activities on
health, nutritional and dietary diversification for the
communities.
Provide assistance to link of community water and sanitation
committees to agencies that can provide effective training on
roles and responsibilities.
In collaboration with Ministry of Health and the Ministry of
Gender, Children and Community Development, promote and
implement growth monitoring through ECD centres. Train
health extension staff on child labour and the impacts it has on
child health and growth.
Establish referral systems between primary health and
secondary health services for children involved in child labour,
including those in CSEC.
Advocate for healthy and safe conditions within the workplaces
of children 14 and 17 years of age who are not able to return to
school.
POTENTIAL TARGET
GROUPS
Local Councils
Court officials, magistrates,
prosecutors, labour offices
and lawyers
Extension workers
Schools, children in school
and communities
Schools
Community Water
Committees
Child Labour, ECD
Committees and Health
Extension Workers
Child Labour Committees
Employers and employees