YOUTH AND CHILDREN RIGHTS SHIELD

(YOCRIS)

PROJECT EVALUATION REPORT

“ENHANCING COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN

RESPONSE TO CHILD LABOUR”

31ST DECEMBER 2007

Youth and Children Rights Shield (YOCRIS)

P. O. Box 180
Dedza
Malawi
Tel/Fax : +265 1 223 745
Mobile : +265 9 511 879
E –mail: yocris1@yahoo.com
YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I EVALUATION SCOPE
II TOOLS AND LIMITATIONS
1.0 INTRODUCTION
2.0 BACKGROUND INFORMATION
3.0 PROJECT DESIGN
4.0 ANALYSIS OF PLANNED ACTIVITIES, PLANNED OUTPUTS AND
ACHIEVED OUTPUTS
5.0 ANALYSIS OF IMPACT AT OUT COMES LEVEL
6.0 PROJECT STRATEGIC ACHIEVEMENT
7.0 OVERALL ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE PROJECT
8.0 CHALLENGES
9.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
10.0 CONCLUSIONS

Written By Ephraim Banda 2

YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

I EVALUATION SCOPE

Objectives of the study

The evaluation was called for specifically to achieve the following objectives:
 To assess how the project has performed pragmatically and ascertain whether
there is any impact created.
 To review the reporting system, identify gaps and proposed reporting system
in relation child rights issues

Period
The Evaluation schedule lasted for (3) three weeks begging from the day when
the contract was signed (14th December 2007) to the day of submission of final
report.

Mode of working
 A working calendar for 15 days was drawn and shared with YOCRIS.
 The consultant drew the study tools
 A project officer from YOCRIS was attached to work together with the
consultant for the community related work

Expected out put

1 comprehensive report of the project performance
Proposed Reporting system in relation child rights issues

Written By Ephraim Banda 3

YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

II TOOLS AND LIMITATIONS

The following are the tools which were development and used during the
evaluation:
1. Focus Group Discussions (FGD)
The discussions were done with the following groups:
 Men
 Women
 Boys
 Girls

2. Semi Structure Interview (SSI)

 The semi-structured interviews were done with the following cadres:
Community Child Protection Committees
 Village development Committees

3. Key informant Interview (KII)

The following groups of key informant were interview
 Parents of child labourers
 Group Village heads
 Children withdrawn from Child labour
 Executive Director –YOCRIS

4. Seasonal calendar

5. Busometer

Written By Ephraim Banda 4

YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Youth and children rights shield (YOCRIS) has been implementing project that
aimed at protecting child rights through prevention and monitoring of child labour
related issues. The project was implemented in the area of traditional Authority
Kachere in selected four Village development Areas ;

Chikufikani Village Development Committee

Kapesi Village Development Committee

Mnjonja Village Development Committee

Chimalira Village Development Committee

The project was funded by NORAD through Human Rights Consultative

Committee (HRCC) HRCC-NORAD Basket fund to total funding of
MK2,496,970.00 (US$18,000.00). The implementation of the project started from
August 2006 and was expired to end September 2007.

Written By Ephraim Banda 5

YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

2.0 Background information

Child Labour is one of the worst forms of Child abuse. According to the
International Labour Organization (ILO), Child labour remains a serious problem
in the world today. Malawi is one of the countries where child labour is being
practiced. Many children are being trafficked or voluntarily leaving the rural
setups migrating to other rural set ups and urban areas where they are engaged
in child labour. Dedza district is one of the districts, which has high numbers of
children being trafficked to districts within Malawi and tobacco estates in
Mozambique and Zambia where they are engaged in child labour as domestic
workers or estate workers. Such children drop out of primary schools willingly or
forced by their parents to go to urban areas and estates where they are
employed to suffice their family income.

According to The Malawi 2002 Child Labour survey, they are 1.4 million child
labourers. 734,845 of the child labourers aged 5-17 and are in agriculture.
288,341 children aged 1-17 are in hazardous labour. 603,780 child laborers are
in community, social and personal services sector. 26.5 % of child labourers
never attended school: while, as 53 % did not complete junior primary school
(ILO, 2002).

Desk review carried out by YOCRIS at Dedza Labour offices in January 2005
indicate that quite a number of children between the ages of 8-17 are going out
of their villages to places where they are engaged in child labour. For instance in
Mcheneka Village alone, 142 children as of February 2005 were engaged in
different forms of child labour in the urban and rural areas. Out of the 142
children, 61 were girls whilst 81 were boys. In Mfutso village within the targeted
area, 107 children by February 2005 had gone to places where they are engaged
in child labour. Out of these children 53 were girls and 54 were boys. Statistics at
Dedza District labour Office indicate that on average most of villages supply
about 70 Children to Child labour. A sample survey in 6 primary schools in the
targeted area shows that there is a considerable drop out of pupils and is linked
to child labour related issues.

Causes of Child Labour

Child labour is caused by a number of factors and below are some of them:
Lack of preventive, monitoring and reporting mechanism on the issues to do with
child rights abuse, Lack of coordination in combating child labour activities, Lack
of awareness of children rights on the part of children themselves makes it
difficult for children themselves to claim and defend for their rights, Lack of
awareness on the effects of child trafficking and child labour, Lack of child rights
knowledge in totality, Low community participation in combating child labour,
Lack of understanding of rights-based approach and Poor economic growth

Written By Ephraim Banda 6

YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

3.0 PROJECT DESIGN

Project Goal
To contribute towards reduction of child labour in the area of Traditional Authority
Kachere in Dedza by July 2007

Project purpose
To create a society where communities collaborate in the prevention of child
labour and other child rights violations.

Specific Objectives

Specifically, the project intends to achieve the following objectives:

1. To reduce child labour by 10% April 2007
2. To increase community participation and district coordination in
preventing, monitoring and reporting of child labour by March 2007.
3. To enhance the capacity of YOCRIS in advocating for the elimination of
child labour by July 2006

Target Groups
a. Children
b. Parents
c. Local Leadership
d. Local Governance Structures
e. Target area

Implementation Strategies
Advocacy
Research
Capacity building
a. Community level
b. Institutional level

Activities
In order to successfully achieve the outlined goal and objectives , the had the
following activities.:

a. Pre-consultation meeting with concerned communities

b. Stakeholders’ orientation and formation of district child labour forum
c. Baseline survey
d. Train of district master trainers of child labour
e. Train ADC, VDCs on child rights, child labour , monitoring and reporting of child
rights abuses and formation of community child labour monitoring committees
f. Follow up on the formed child labour committees

Written By Ephraim Banda 7

 YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

g. Traincommunity child labour monitoring committees

h. Production of IEC materials
i. Conduct community debates
j. Conduct child rights awareness campaigns
k. Monitoring And Evaluation

Written By Ephraim Banda 8

ANALYSIS OF PLANNED ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVED IMPLEMENTS OUT PUTS
No 4.0 Activity
Planed ANALYSIS OF PLANNED ACTIVITIES,
Planned Actual outputPLANNED
OutOUTPUTS
Come AND ACHIEVED
CommentOUTPUTS
Out Put
1. Pre-consultation 5 meetings 5 meetings Mobilized community The activity done as planned and achieved
meetings with conducted leadership support the intended result.
concerned towards the project
communities implementation.
2. Baseline survey One report One report Established analysis of Activity done as planned
produced produced the real situation on the
extent on child labour
issues in the project
implementation area.
3. Train district trainers 15 trained 15 trained The trainers were the The training for trainer provided room for
of child labour trainers one engaged in train. sustainability and expertise in the area of
(TOT) They also continue training in relation to Child labour.
training other up to know
4. Train ADC on child 30 trained 50 trained ADC Mobilized support from The out put is more that the actual out
rights, child labour ADC members the ADC planned showing some room for continue
monitoring and Members Created sub committee consolations with the beneficiaries.
reporting on Child labour
5. Print and distribute 1000 fliers 1000 fliers The T-Shirts ands Fliers The number of 150 T-shirts against 51
IEC materials printed printed and are spreading the Villages appeared not to be enough as
Print 150 T- distributed messages and bring many people continue to ask for T-shirts up
Shirts 150 T-Shirts project visibility to now. n
printed and
distributed
6. stakeholders 1 meeting 1 meeting Establishment of the The child labour committee changed its
orientation and 30 members conducted district child labour name to child protection committee. The
formation of district oriented 30 members committee started process of the establishment took look to
child labour forum oriented come to final stage due to politics which
was within the district assembly
7. Conduct Child labour 4 meetings 4 meetings The meeting provided The activity was done as planned though
committee meetings room for information the last meeting was done very late
sharing December 2007 instead of September
2007. the reason given was that this
activity was meant to be completed with
funds fro the YOCRIS which would be later
refunded by MHRRC. However the funds
were not ready at the time they need to use
according to sourced information at
YOCRIS
8. train VDC on child 80 VDC 152 members The committees have The number of VDC members trained was
rights, child labour members trained been able to implement higher than planed which was to the
monitoring and trained Child labour the skill and knowledge advantage of the project.
reporting 4 child committees gained during the
 YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

5.0 ANALYSIS OF IMPACT AT OUT COMES LEVEL

Out comes Indictors Cumulative Progress

Reduced child labour # of children with drawn 104 children withdrawn from cattle herding
by 10% # of children enrolled back in 165 children (76 girls and 89 boys) withdrawn from household
school a result of this project chores work
# of children whose working 78 boys withdrawn from farming
condition have improved 28 withdrawn out side Dedza
29 girls withdrawn from child Prostitution (the girls were
trafficked from other district)
81 Children (18 girls and 63 boys) Back to school
178 children (127 boys and 51 boys) have had their working
conditions improved to meet minimum standards
(683 children befitted from the project)
Increased community Extent to which the committees There is high level of community participation and
participation and district and members of the community coordination in dealing with child labour issues as observed
coordination on child involve themselves in dealing with during the focus group discussions.
labour and other child issues of child labour.
rights violations
Enhanced Capacity of Improved delivery of services • 1 person prosecuted and was successfully sentenced for
YOCRIS in advocating Improved capacity child labour and YOCRIS won the case
for elimination of child • One project staff recruited to manage the project
labour • The project contributing to the administration costs
• At the time of evaluation YOCRIS was busy at police
spearheading prosecution of two people suspected of
recruiting children at bar girls (prostitutes) at Chimbiya
trading center

Written By Ephraim Banda 10

6.0 PROJECT STRATEGIC ACHIEVEMENT

1. To enhance the capacity of YOCRIS in advocating for the elimination

of child labour by July 2006

This is one of the strategic objectives the project wanted to achieve. The project
has achieved this strategic objective as follows:

1. Recruitment of project officer (a project officer was recruited and

specifically was responsible for implementing this project Mr. Mosses
Busher)
2. Administrative Support The project some contributed towards rental
payments, salaries for staff , communication and electricity bills
3. The project provides some resources for monitoring though the amount
was very low as compared to the area and distance of the project area.
4. The project provided training for trainers of child labour issues which also
included members of staff from YOCRIS. As a result of this training there
was an increased knowledge on Child labour issues

Case studies to show increased knowledge and improved capacity learn from
news cuttings

Girls who were rescued from employment Child prostitution: More information on the news cuttings
YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

Written By Ephraim Banda 12

YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

At the time of this study (DECEMBER 2007) YOCRIS was in Court with two
people who had also employed girls as child prostitution.

Written By Ephraim Banda 13

 YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

2. To increase community participation and district coordination in

preventing, monitoring and reporting of child labour by March 2007.

This is another strategic objective the project planned to achieve. In the selected
area where this project was implemented there is improvement in terms of
community participation and coordination in dealing child labour issues. The
graph below demonstrates:

Table 1: Graphic representation of community participation trends in all the VDCs

100
90
Level of 80
Participation in 70
% Before
60 Project
50
40 In the course
of the Project
30
20 At the end of
10 the project
0
Kapesi Chikufikani Mnjonja Chimalira

The graph above shows the trend of community participation and coordination in
preventing and monitoring child labour at three levels. The fist level is where it
was measured before the beginning of the project while the middle bar it at the
middle of implementation and the lat bar very tall it is at the end of the project.

Table 2 Matrix representation of community participation trends in all the VDCs

in numerical forms

Kapesi VDC Chikufikani Mnjonja Chimalira

VDC VDC VDC
Before Project 10% 19.5 % 12% 10%

In the course of 50% 67% 70% 75%

the Project
At the end of the 80% 85% 90% 92%
project

Written By Ephraim Banda 14

YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

Case studies of community participation and coordination at both district and

community level

 Establishment of community child protection committees (4)

 Facilitation of the creation of district child protection committee being
chaired by YOCRIS and District Social welfare office as the secretariat.
 Partnership in child labour issues organizations with the district (recently
operation YOCRIS did in December on owners who employed girl children
as bar girls involved Labour district office , YOCRIS and Police)
 Increased community awareness on child labour issues
 Creation of bylaws for people who come to collect labourers in T/A
Kachere area by the Area Development Committee.
 Bylaws in there area of TA Kachere relating people who come to collect
children to and work outside the district whether in their own or in the
company of adults.

By laws:
1. Any vehicle that comes in T/A Kachere to collect labourers should come
through the District labour office where they should be given letter of
authority to take labourers to where every they want to go with them.
2. Having collected the letter from the district labour officer they should go
through the T/A’s office where they should be given letter of authority from
the T/A to go to the villages to collect people.
3. Having arrived in the villages before start taking people they should first
report to Village head and show the village head the letter of authorization
they got from the T//A .
4. Upon leaving they should bid bye to the village head who together with the
Child protection committee inspect the vehicle to check if there are no
children aboard.
5. Any child should be told to disembark from the car if found.
6. Any family who has children in their company should also be told to
disembark from the car.
7. On the way back from the village the vehicle should pass through the T/A
who should also verify that in the car there are no children whether on
their own or in the company of their parents. Any one who also at T/As
office is believed to be a child is forced to disembark from the car. Then
the T/A gives the owner of the car a letter that he has to take with him to
labour office indicating that very thing is okay.
8. Any car that come to the T/A or Villages without authorization letter is sent
back to the district labour office.

Written By Ephraim Banda 15

3. To reduce child labour by 10%

The project has achieved tremendously its intended goal in relation to reduction of child labour overall it has reduced child
labour in the selected four Village development Committees with average over of 81%.

Table 3: Matrix showing the number of children who re engaged in child labour at the beginning of the project, mid way
implementation and at the end of the project. The totals give an overall decrease of 81% of children engaged in child
labour
Before The Project After 7 Months After 14 months
Kapesi Village Development Committee 86 42 24
Chikufikani Village Development Committee 187 78 32
Mnjonja Village Development Committee 273 157 49
Chimalira Village Development Committee 264 111 42

Table 4: Linier graph showing impact performance of the project emerging from Table 3.
YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

Project Impact Perfomance Assessment

Children engaged in
300
250
child labour

200
150
100
50
0
Before The Project After 7 Months After 14 months
Project Span

Kapesi Chikufikani Mnjonja Chimalira

Table 5: Bar chart showing numbers of children withdrawn from various forms of child labour and others that have gone
back to school as a result of the project.

Children Saved by the Project

50
40

Children30
Withdrawn20
10
0
Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

Written By Ephraim Banda

Cattle herding 17
Household chores Farming
withdrawn out side Dedza Child Prostitution Children Back to school
Improved condition of services
YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

Table 6: Matrix showing numbers of children withdrawn from various forms of child labour and others that have gone back
to school as a result of the project.

Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Total
Cattle herding 0 0 6 10 15 21 18 3 0 14 0 0 17 104
Household chores 0 0 23 12 32 11 17 10 13 4 34 9 0 165
Farming 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 23 11 31 0 78
withdrawn out side Dedza 0 0 2 7 3 9 0 0 0 0 0 7 0 28
Child Prostitution 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 3 0 4 0 2 13 29
Children Back to school 0 19 0 19 0 34 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 81
Improved condition of services 4 3 12 2 11 17 43 17 18 23 16 12 0 178

Written By Ephraim Banda 18

7.0 OVERALL ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE PROJECT

1. Established community structures (community child protection committees) to coordinate in

preventing, monitoring and reporting of child labour related issues at community level.
2. Improved coordination dealing child labour issues.
3. District coordination structure for child protection issues beyond child labour (district child
protection committee being chaired by YOCRIS and District Social welfare office as
secretariat)
4. Reduced the number of children engaged in child labour. the Table below shows number of
children serviced by the project in each area

Cattle herding 104

Household chores 165
Farming 78
withdrawn out side Dedza 28
Child Prostitution 29
Children Back to school 81
Improved condition of services of children working to meet minimum standards 178

5. Enhanced capacity for the community structures (village development committees, (child
protection committees an to deal with child labour issues capacity increased knowledge and
skills.
6. Increase knowledge and awareness on what continues child labour among the members of
the community in the targeted 4 VDCs (Chimalira, Chikufikani, Kapesi and Mnjonja)
YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

8.0 CHALLENGES
The following are major challenges the project faced

8.1 Monitoring
a. Inadequate Monitoring visits.
The project proposed to have approximately 400 visits is its entire project period. However
there are about 56 visits made to monitor project progress.

YOCRIS management retaliated that inadequate monitoring visits were as a result of little
amount of fuel allocated to monitoring as compared to the distance covered during
monitoring because the project was being implemented in an area that was about 70
Kilometers from Dedza Boma. However because of the good monitoring tools the
organization has been able to capture a lot of data.

b. Little follow ups on issues.

Because of the few visits made to the field there was little follows ups from YOCRIS office
to the field in terms of issues. One monitoring visits would was programmed to include a
number of villages and this never provided ample time for the organization to exhaustively
follow up on some issues. However the issues were being addressed by the child protection
committees which form strength of the project in terms sustainability. Some of the issues
were followed up using telephones and this was expensive on part of the implementing
organization.

8.2 IEC materials

a. Inadequate T-shirts.
Almost every Child protection committee complained that the T-shirts distributed were not
enough. The feeling was that it would be better if half of the village had received T-shirt
because those also remind the community the present of the project. Of paramount
importance the committees suggested that at least every member of the committees should
at least have received a T-shirt. The project printed 150 T-shirts were used as awards
during awareness campaigns

8.3 Project coverage area

a. Request to extend the coverage area.
The project was planned to cover 4 VDCs in the first year of implementation. However the
committees report that they have had pressure from their neighboring VDCs to extend the
implementation of the activities to the near VDCs. The challenge is that the VDCs which
extended their services to other VDCs had very large distance to cover. Since such VDCs
were not planed to be covered in the project activities in those other VDCs were done
haphazardly facilitated by the VDCs which were trained.

8.4 Refusal of re admission of entry into primary schools

Some schools refused to readmit some children who were withdrawn from child labour the
reason being that they were seeking fro admission at the time when the schools were in the
middle of the school calendar.

Written By Ephraim Banda 20

YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

8.5 Alternative to child labour as a source of income.

The project did not provide an alternative to households that used children as their source
of income. The project should realize that some children engaged in child labour because
there are orphans or their parents were not able to provide them with necessities.

Written By Ephraim Banda 21

YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

9.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
The following are major challenges the project faced

9.1 Monitoring

Inadequate Monitoring visits.

It recommended that in future projects YOCRIS should adequately budget for monitoring. A
proper number of visits per month must be derived at to ensure that there are enough follow
ups on issues that require follow ups.

9.2 IEC materials

Issues of T-shirts in a number of projects always become a hot issue as every one would
want to get a T-shirt. With limited funding produce T-Shirts must be prudently distributed. In
future projects, T-shirts must be first distributed to key structures such as community
structures that are directly linked to the project and others later.

9.3 Project Extension

The committees indicate that there is need to have replicated in other VDCs . However the
following has to be taken into consideration if plans are underway to replicate the project in
other areas.
1. The VDCs where this project was being implemented should not be abandoned.
2. There is need to come up with follow up projects that would sustain children withdrawn
from the labour to as to ensure that children withdrawn do not go back to child labour.
3. Future projects of child labour should propose to include initiatives that will provide
alternatives to child labour for the families that are prone to have their children engaged
in child labour.

9.4 Refusal of re admission of entry into primary schools

The community structures must be linked which school management committees and
Primary Education Advisors for proper guidance on issues of re admission.

Written By Ephraim Banda 22

YOCRIS - CHILD LABOUR PROJECT END REPORT

10.0 CONCLUSIONS

“ENHANCING COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN RESPONSE TO CHILD LABOUR” project has

been implementing well though gaps identified in areas of monitoring. Overall the project
performance has been satisfactory. The project ha s benefited children who were exposed to child
labour and can continue to benefit more. There is need to have the project continued but inkling
new aspects that can maintain the children withdrawn from child labour.

Written By Ephraim Banda 23