Harvesting the Future - Jasmine in Egypt (ACCEL Egypt)

After calculating what constitutes fair compensation for workers, based on current practices, previous studies, and international standards, FLA introduced a fair compensation methodology paper and is working with the project partners to implement it. FLA also developed multiple document resources, including a living wage paper, to provide partners with research-based recommendations for supporting a living wage for workers. The team also launched financial education and economic empowerment programs for jasmine pickers and workers. Economic empowerment activities have included:

• Providing training on entrepreneurial and life skills to 353 pickers and farmers (298 women and 55 men) across four villages, supporting a total project target of 1,200;
• Providing training on financial literacy to 293 pickers and farmers (241 women and 52 men), supporting a total project target of 1,200; training included access to financial services, such as assistance opening 253 Meeza card (an electronic prepaid card) accounts and 17 savings accounts, and securing four microloans; and
• Creating two village savings and loan accounts (VSLAs) within two supply chains, supporting a project target of five VSLAs.

The HTF team facilitates community-awareness sessions and works closely with national child protection committees to secure remediation and rehabilitation support for affected children. In addition, FLA worked with NGOs to facilitate key activities. The Ministry of Social Solidarity (MOSS) is piloting a one-night childcare facility for the children of local workers. Plan International NGO was selected for scaling up educational opportunities and apprenticeships, child educational and recreational activities and awareness session clubs, and community mobilization, and strengthening local child protection systems (case management, psychological support, and referrals). Activities to address child labor included:

• Providing community awareness sessions on child labor to 620+ individuals and farmers;
• Offering sessions to 66 children (29 girls and 37 boys) through the ILO’s SCREAM Program (Supporting Children’s Rights through Education, the Arts and the Media);
• Hosting train-the-trainer sessions on SCREAM to 15 local trainers (11 women and four men); and
• Enrolling 885 children in recreational activities twice per week during the 2024 harvest.

Improving monitoring systems for child labor in jasmine fields

To ensure safe working conditions during the jasmine harvest, the project trained 26 monitors embedded within local jasmine suppliers’ teams. The monitors, who cover 21 villages and more than 150 hectares, visit farms at night, when jasmine is picked, and identify, refer and case-manage any children working in the fields. Monitoring activities included:

• Visiting more than 22,000 pickers during the 2024 harvest, comprising 700 daily visits, or 5,000 visits per week;
• Profiling 18,822 pickers and identifying 16,311 children across three supply chains;
• Identifying 1,634 farms as medium-risk areas for child labor;
• Detecting two child labor cases: one within the supply chain (which was remediated internally by a processor) and one outside the scope of the processors’ supply chain; and
• Providing awareness sessions to 21 night monitors (four women and 17 men).

Improving occupational health and safety (OHS) for workers

In cooperation with local partners, FLA has distributed personal protective equipment, including headlamps, waterproof boots, and aprons, to over 7,500 jasmine pickers. The project also has launched medical support initiatives, with 23 medical convoys and mobile clinics in 22 villages, to provide essential medical examinations, surgeries, and health awareness sessions.. OHS activities included:

• Providing OHS training to 78 pickers (53 women and 25 men);
• Delivering personal protective equipment (PPE) to 11,340 workers, including headlamps, waterproof boots and waterproof aprons;
• Serving 14,289 men, women, and children with medical care across 10 specialties;
• Performing 122 surgeries; and
• Proving health awareness sessions to 7,196 individuals (3,098 men and 4,098 women).

Effective advocacy and stakeholder engagement remain critical to ensuring that national efforts to eliminate child labor are coordinated, visible, and sustainable with ministries including The Ministry of Labour (MoL) playing a central role in leading these efforts, including convening the National Steering Committee, guiding policy dialogue, and activating child labour units across governorates.

The Ministry of Social Solidarity (MoSS) complements these efforts by providing social protection services and supporting vulnerable families, while the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) ensures coordination on child rights and child protection policies at the national level. In addition, the Ministry of Education and Technical Education (MoETE) contributes by promoting access to education, integrating awareness activities in schools, and facilitating summer programs in targeted communities in addition to other key ministers. Together, these line ministries ensure a coordinated, multi-sectoral response to eliminate child labour and improve conditions for families in the jasmine supply chain.

Based on this:

• A draft of the Labor Code aimed at enhancing child protection in the workplace, developed through tripartite social dialogue among the Egyptian government, employer organizations, and workers’ organizations, is already under discussion in the Egyptian legislature; and
• FLA and the ILO, in collaboration with Egypt’s National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, have developed a manual outlining standard operating procedures (SOP) for identifying, referring, and managing cases of child labor. A partnership with a local financial institution has also been established to aid jasmine pickers’ access to essential financial services.

In addition, project partners have delivered on a number of key awareness-based activities, including:

• Providing 1,100 community members, including pickers and collectors, government-run awareness sessions; these included an introduction the SOP to combat child labor;
• Holding training sessions for 23 participants (16 men and 7 women) from the National Steering Committee, representing seven key ministries and agencies and the smallholder association, to improve the quality and frequency of reporting, strengthen the referral mechanism, and integrate jasmine in national progress reporting; and
• Hosting two National Steering Committee meetings with governmental agencies committing to focus efforts in the target area.

Moving forward, HTF – Jasmine in Egypt (ACCEL Egypt) will expand efforts to develop summer activities for children; facilitate access to childcare services and education; continue to provide economic empowerment and financial inclusion opportunities; and continue awareness-raising activities throughout the community.

Project partners celebrated two key pieces of legislation, which supports Egypt’s efforts to strengthen child labor protection, responsible business conduct, and due diligence across agricultural and other supply chains. 

 In 2025, Egypt issued Labor Code No. 14, removing previous exemptions for pure agricultural work – meaning that child labor in agriculture is now subject to labor inspections, alongside other sectors.  

This was followed by Ministerial Decree No. 50 in 2026, which updates the rules governing how children are employed and trained. It also defines occupational safety and health requirements and expands the types of work prohibited for children, including hazardous activities and exposure to dangerous machinery, chemicals, biological agents, excessive temperatures, radiation, and work at heights. 

Importantly for Egypt’s agricultural sector, the decree updates the rules on exposure to direct sunlight and heat, allowing adolescents of legal working age to do agricultural work while prohibiting exposure to direct sunlight during the hottest hours (10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. in summer and 12:00 p.m.- 4:00 p.m. in winter). In addition, children can only be trained and work for a total of six hours with at least one hour break and must not work between 7:00 p.m.-7:00 a.m.   

The government developed the decree through social dialogue with employers’ and workers’ organizations in alignment with international labor standards, including ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor.  

Two key pillars of the project include promoting living wages among jasmine pickers and advancing community members’ economic empowerment. Using ILO tools, including GET Ahead and financial literacy training, the project equips families, particularly parents of at-risk children, with the skills needed to establish and sustain income-generating activities. Trainers act as mentors, guiding participants through business development and financial planning over three to six months so parents can apply their learnings, access financial services, and reduce reliance on child labor. Achievements have included:

 Entrepreneurial and financial support: 

• Provided training on entrepreneurial and life skills to 1,113 pickers and farmers (1,056 women and 57 men) across seven villages, supporting 1,835 children.  
• Provided training on financial literacy to 1,061 pickers and farmers (999 women, 62 men). 
• Provided community members with access to 2,847 financial products, including 2,590 prepaid cards, 38 savings bank accounts, and 16 microloans. 
• Formed eight village savings and loan accounts in five villages with participation from 172 families.  
• Supported 301 small businesses. 
• Provided vocational training to 412 adults (295 women and 117 men). 
• Supported 6,300 beneficiaries in enrolling in a government social protection program (Takaful and Karama), resulting in 5,715 individuals receiving cash assistance and 585 beneficiaries receiving in-kind assistance.  

Reports from community members: 

• 420 individuals reported improvements in their household economic conditions, including repaying loans, covering school tuition fees, building savings, and meeting other essential household expenses.
• These same individuals, supporting 261, children reported that their improved economic situation enabled them to withdraw or prevent their children from engaging in the worst forms of child labor. 

To prevent and remediate the child labor, the project applies a multi-tiered rehabilitation model centered on direct child support, safe early childhood care, and community mobilization. The ILO’s SCREAM program provides child-friendly summer facilities and vocational pathways for adolescents. The project offers night-care facilities for children whose mothers work in jasmine picking, and local committees have strengthened their referral pathways for social protection, education, and child protection services. Achievements have included: 

• Established/supported seven safe spaces for children across villages.  
• Facilitated 2,659 children attending summer schools during the 2024 and 2025 harvests. 
• Provided 902 children (503 girls, 399 boys) with SCREAM programs and 180 children (97 girls, 83 boys) with sports tournaments.  
• Engaged 346 children (193 girls, 154 boys) in afterschool learning activities.  
• Delivered 28 psychosocial support sessions through home visits; case workers conducted 270 home monitoring visits.  
• 901 farmers and pickers (824 women and 77 men) across jasmine-producing communities, received awareness sessions which impacted behavioral at the household level.  
• Formed two community committees to promote child protection and responsible labor in the jasmine supply chain. 
• Held capacity-building trainings for processors and night monitors on the ILO’s Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (FPRW). 

The project implements a targeted capacity-building program for processors to strengthen HRDD systems across their own operations and supply chains. This includes following up on corrective actions and implementing a community-based grievance mechanism accessible to pickers and jasmine farmers. The project also supports direct improvements to working conditions, including distributing PPE to workers and hosting occupational health and safety (OHS) trainings. As a key accomplishment, the project provided medical care to 19,983 individuals from 2024-2026 alone, including access to medication, eyeglasses, health awareness sessions, and surgeries. Achievements have included: 

Improving occupational health and safety for workers 

• Provided 15,000 pickers with headlamps. 
• Provided 9,000 pickers with waterproof boots.
• Provided 10,000 pickers with waterproof aprons/coats. 
• Delivered OHS train-the-trainer sessions to 43 night monitors and field staff (12 women and 31 men). 
• Delivered OHS training to 123 farmers and pickers (50 women and 74 men). 

The project strengthens community-based child protection by engaging parents, employers, community leaders, and service providers in awareness sessions, while improving access to public services such as health and social insurance. Child protection committees and community committees monitor children’s education and rehabilitation, and the project is planning to pilot a Child Labour Monitoring System with national and community actors. Achievements have included: 

Improving monitoring systems for child labor in jasmine fields 

• Hired 12 nighttime monitors and mobilized 40 monitors across four processors to check fields for child labor. 
• Monitors conducted 1,094 daily visits (6,071 visits per week) throughout the 2025 harvest, observing 22,000 pickers. 
• Profiled 22,000 pickers and identified 3,515 children across four supply chains. 
• Night monitors identified 37 cases of child labor and referred 25 children to the child helpline through remediation processes, resulting in 32 child labor cases referred in the area. 

Implementing initiatives to reduce child labor 

• Supported five national and local initiatives to reduce child labor in targeted districts and the jasmine supply chain, benefitting 11,062 families. 
• Coordinated government-run awareness on child labor sessions for 1,600 community members, including pickers and collectors. 
• Introduced of SOPs to combat child labor, which include referral mechanisms and government services.  

Conducting research and joint actions 

• Developed two legal and policy gap reports on child labor in agriculture.  
• Completed five periodic reports with the National Steering Committee on how to improve monitoring and child protection. 
• Held five meetings with governmental agencies to increase commitments to decrease child labor in jasmine communities. 
• Conducted 14 coordination meetings and joint actions with the Ministry of Labor’s Combating Child Labour Unit related to the jasmine supply chain.  
• Trained 315 participants (180 men, 135 women) from the National Steering Committee, representing nine key ministries and agencies on topics including child labor referral and case management.