Urban Informal Economy (UIE) Component of the Project of Support to the Time Bound Programme towards the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour in Bangladesh

Project Summary: UIE Component The proposed TBP UIE Component builds on the experience of the pilot activities carried out under the previous Dutch-funded WFCL Project. It has the following strategies, components and targets: • Developing and establishing a joint government-community system of urban workplace surveillance (Child Labour Monitoring) through (i) organized involvement of the informal sector employers and workers, (ii) the research and development of appropriate tools and mechanisms for the regulation of child work, (iii) increased authority and mandate for local government structures (City Corporation, Municipalities), and (iv) capacity building of community-level institutions having proactive leaders; • Increasing the protection of young workers who are at risk of injury, illness or death through immediate removal of the children from either the workplace or from their exposure to the dangerous aspects. It will be facilitated by a strong social mobilization process linked up with the provision of viable alternatives (non-formal education, mainstreaming to formal education system, Skills Development Training and supervised apprenticeship schemes, family social and economic empowerment, workplace improvement, etc.) to hazardous work for child labourers, their families/guardians and employers, and the communities in which they work and reside. This process will not only lead to the withdrawal of children in WFCL but also to prevent children who are at risk of being victims of WFCL. It will subsequently be instrumental in creating “WFCL-Free areas” in the urban settings of Bangladesh; • Consolidating the models for practical, cost-effective preliminary vocational preparation, strengthening the extended vocational preparation activities to the target group of older children, and establishing employment support mechanisms for youth. • This project will target about 45,000 children (girls & boys) and will limit its coverage to Dhaka Metropolitan city, but options will be kept open to expand to the nearby smaller town, if necessary. • The strategies and projected interventions of the project are brought together in five interrelated Components of the TBP which are concerned with the urban child worker, namely: (1) Policy and model formulation, (2) Protection of child workers (3) Child worker education and preparation for future employment, (4) Prevention through social and economic development, and (5) Capacity-building for sustainability.

Project symbol

BGD/07/01/NET

Admin unit

CO-Dhaka

Start date

01/01/2007

End date

31/12/2011

Total allocation

5694330

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

5694330

Development Partners

Netherlands, Embassy in Bangladesh

Country/Countries

Bangladesh

Outcomes

Child Labour