Training for Palm Oil Smallholders in Malaysia to Prevent Child and Forced Labour and to Create Safer Workplaces

Photo: participants of a recent workforce management training with support from Lidl and in collaboration with WWF-Malaysia and WildAsia

The Child Rights Action Hub in Malaysia is busy at work to advance its mission of preventing and remediating child labour in the palm oil work through local collaboration and capacity building. Recently, the Action Hub team conducted a workforce management training for palm oil smallholders to strengthen child rights protection and promote responsible recruitment and fair employment practices.

The training conducted on September 11, 2025, in Tawau, Sabah, was supported by Lidl, one of the leading food retail companies in Europe, and an entry-level partner of the Child Rights Action Hub. The session aimed to help smallholders prevent child and forced labour, reduce gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) risks, and create safer, more respectful workplaces. The World Wide Fund for Nature Malaysia and Wild Asia also played a key role by mobilising participants, including independent producers and cooperative members. Both organisations continue to serve as project partners to conduct risk assessments and other initiatives to strengthen child rights and workplace protections.

Participants showed tangible progress. Post-training results showed an increase in understanding of child labour definitions and legal working hours, as well as a stronger capacity to identify and prevent forced labour risks. Many participants already had solid baseline knowledge of gender and GBVH concepts, but improvements were seen in recognising gender-based harassment at work, reflecting a deeper, practical understanding of how to promote safe workplaces.

The training also led to concrete next steps. Participants developed action plans to review policies and SOPs, establish child labour indicators for social audits, and conduct internal awareness sessions on grievance handling and workplace safety.

Photo: participants of a recent workforce management training with support from Lidl and in collaboration with WWF-Malaysia and WildAsia

As one participant shared:

“GBVH is a whole new experience for me—and a real eye opener. The module on child labour was also awesome and very useful for raising awareness within communities.”

Through partnerships and hands-on training like this, the Malaysia Action Hub continues to empower local actors to identify, prevent and remediate child labour.

Want to learn more or get involved? Please contact us.