She Thrives: Reducing Child Labor in Ethiopia’s Agricultural Sector using a Gender-Focused Approach

Results

She Thrives Results as of April 2024

1. She Thrives is enhancing financial stability in rural communities and reducing reliance on child labor by helping households diversify income sources and increase savings. The project provides training on money management, establishing village savings and loans groups, and advanced business entrepreneurship to women and adolescent girls. For agricultural investors, it offers skills training on improved practices to increase production, market access, and commodities diversification. In its initial phase, the project has trained over 1,300 women small-scale farmers.
2.  The project registered 450 adolescents into government affiliated Technical Vocational and Education Training Centers (TVET). Of those registered, 357 adolescent girls graduated from an array of technical professions such as Agro-Processing, Woodwork, Food Preparation, Animal Production, Hairdressing, and Plant Science, Natural Resource and Crop protection. Many of these girls will now begin formal jobs, start their own businesses, or work with Master Craftsperson’s to expand their skills further. As a result, many will now be able to contribute to their household income enabling a younger sibling to return to school or not engage in child labor or allow a caretaker to reduce long working hours to make ends meet.
3. She Thrives has provided leadership and life skills training for a total of 4,047 adolescent girls aged 15-17 with little education or employment skills in the South and Oromia regions. This comprehensive training fostered independence and resilience, builds essential life skills, including decision-making, goal setting, self-confidence, and communication skills. Girls are anticipated to apply these acquired skills in future endeavors, contributing to their personal growth and overall well-being.
4. She Thrives enrolled over 1,000 children into the Accelerated Education Program (AEP) enabling children ages 10-14 to return to school. Many of these children had large gaps in education and were engaging in child labor instead of going to school. Linking children to bridge educational programs such as AEP reduces the risk of drop out and failure to catch up. To date, the Project has successfully integrated 843 (613 female, 230 male) AEP graduates into the mainstream schooling curriculum. Imperative to the AEP success is supporting students with school feeding programs. Many children have little access to food especially during school hours, and families have little funds to spare to support school attendance. Without the help of the project and the AEP, many of these children would remain engaged in child labor with limited schooling. Many leaving school at 6 years old, some never attending.
5. The Ministry of Women and Social Affairs convened 50 state and non-state actors to create the first national coordination platform for child labor. This followed their commitment to She Thrives to develop a national multi-stakeholder platform to better address child labor issues.
6. She Thrives established child labor committees in 48-project implementation kebeles in collaboration with Labor and Social Affairs Office (LSAO), Women and Children Affairs Office (WCAO), Education Office, Enterprise Office, Agriculture Office, and Justice sector. These committees will advocate for a child-labor-free community at their kebele and act as a bridge between the government, community, and the project.