One of recommendations from SMERU's Diagnostic Study on Child Labour in Rural Area, with Special Emphasis on Tobacco Farming which was commissioned by ECLT Foundation in 2016-2017, is the need of comprehensive interventions involving all stakeholders to tackle child labour in agriculture. Meanwhile, the National Consultation Meeting on Building Child-Friendly Agriculture towards a Child Labor-Free Indonesia in 2022 which took place on August 29-30, 2017 in Jakarta came up with a recommendation to form a formal partnership as the best way to tackle child labour in the agricultural sector by involving government, NGOs, farmers / laborers' associations and private sector.
Based on the need for comprehensive and sustainable interventions that involve all relevant stakeholders in tackling child labour in agriculture, the Ministry of National Development Planning / Bappenas together with stakeholders convened a joint meeting on 18 October 2018 in Jakarta to establish a Partnership for Action against Child Labour in Agriculture (PAACLA). This meeting was held with the aim at building mutual understanding regarding the proposed partnership concept and seeking for feedbacks from stakeholders about their roles and responsibilities. The establishment of this partnership is a comprehensive and long-term step in tackling child labour in the agricultural sector.
The meeting on October 2018 was an initial meeting for stakeholders at the national level to jointly formulate the partnership design. In her remark, Ms. Mahatmi P. Saronto - Director of Manpower and Expansion of Employment Opportunities, Bappenas expressed her supports to the partnership formation to respond to child labour sectoral intervention and she hopes that PAACLA can contribute significantly to the tackling of child labour in Indonesia. Meanwhile, ECLT Director emphasized the need to build multi-stakeholder partnership which is supported by all parties and help coordinate the program interventions with supports of resources and information. In the meeting, participants deepen their understanding of PAACLA concept, roles and functions of partnership and brainstormed ideas on future actions to tackle child labour in the agricultural sector. Group discussions were held to explore the basic rules and what was needed for the partnership to function effectively.
Discussions during the meeting brought up various insights related to child labour in agriculture such as the involvement of children in this sector is temporary activities and just to assist with their parents' works, the need to expand facilities for after school activities such as sports facilities, library and others that can help develop children's creativity and can help provide additional educational activities for children. Other insights brought up included the challenges faced by farmers in finding youth who would like to continue farming activities in the regions and that involvement of the local government and village government were needed to provide facilities for children's activities in the villages. With regards to PAACLA membership, it was considered important to invite ministries and other institutions such as the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of National Education, and other business sectors to join PAACLA. With regrads to strategies to withdraw child labourers, it is said that it might include direct interventions, and not just limited to awareness raising activities. These various opinions were important to note in strengthening the future roles of PAACLA Indonesia in tackling child labour in agriculture.
At the end of the meeting, the stakeholders agreed to a joint commitment to establish a partnership for integrated and sustainable actions against child labour in agriculture sector (PAACLA Indonesia). To ensure that national level commitment can be translated into real actions for children in the community, it was agreed that the Ministry of National Development Planning / Bappenas would serve as the National Coordinator of PAACLA Indonesia while to support the works of PAACLA Indonesia, JARAK (NGO Network for the Elimination of Child Labour) was trusted to serve as the National Secretariat of PAACLA Indonesia.