A new project to be developed in the communities of Santa Bárbara, Comayagua and El Paraíso will seek to eradicate child labor in the country's coffee supply chain. The promoters of the initiative are the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP) and the Honduran Coffee Institute (IHCAFE).

The project, called “Addressing child labor in the Honduran coffee supply chain” / “Honduran coffee DOES comply”, will last 3 years (2018-2020) and will be implemented with the financial support of the government of the United States of America through the Department of Labor (USDOL) with an investment in the sector amounting to two million dollars ($ 2,000,000).

The objective of the project is to design and implement a social compliance system to prevent and eradicate child labor and promote acceptable working conditions for men and women in the coffee supply chain. This initiative will be executed within the framework of the strategic planning 2016-2020 of the State of Honduras, which dictates the guidelines for the prevention and eradication of child labor; and in the national strategy to combat child labor defined by the IHCAFE.

Among the results of the project, it is expected to strengthen IHCAFE's capacities to implement a sustainable social compliance system and to have new tools to address the issue of child labor in the coffee supply chain.

The presentation of the project was attended by the President of the Republic Juan Orlando Hernández, who expressed the commitment to work together to ensure that the children of Honduras remain in schools. "We are committed to accompanying this fight that is good for Honduras and good for the coffee sector," said the president.

For her part, the Director of the ILO Office for Central America, Haiti, Panama and the Dominican Republic, Carmen Moreno, said that, for the ILO, this innovative intervention is of utmost importance since it confirms the commitment of the private sector to prevention and eradication of child labor. Efforts to be made in the value chain will contribute to reaching target 8.7 of the 2030 Agenda on ending child labor in Honduras. 

The President of COHEP, Juan Carlos Sikaffy, for his part, stated that the project's issue is of utmost importance for the private sector, which is committed to the idea that the future is built by investing in children. "This (the project) is another brick in the construction of the development of the country," he said.

The event also featured the participation of the President of the Honduran Coffee Institute, Asterio Reyes, who emphasized the importance of this type of initiative, both for the future of children and for the productive sector and the country.

As reported, the implementation of the project will be carried out through coordinated work between COHEP, the IHCAFE and the active participation of the various partners identified in the coffee supply chains. The ILO will provide technical assistance, share good practices and lessons learned from other employers' organizations at the regional level that contribute to the prevention of child labor. 

The project also aims to develop a code of conduct in order to establish minimum standards governing the employment relationship between employer and worker in the coffee supply chain.

Situation 
According to the Permanent Survey of Multiple Purpose Households of 2018 of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), in Honduras 404,642 boys and girls between 5 and 17 years of age are performing child labor, 71.8% are boys and 28.2% they are girls. 

The highest prevalence of child labor is found in rural areas with 68.4%, while the remaining 31.6% is in urban areas. 

According to this survey, the child population that is employed is mainly grouped in the activities of agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing (50.5%), wholesale / retail trade (20.1%), manufacturing industry (10.6%) and construction (3.0%).

Find more information about the project here .