Combating Trafficking in children for Labour Exploitation in West Africa

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION CODEV TECHNICAL COOPERATION Project Document / Summary Project Outline PRODOC / SPROUT TEMPLATE Title: Sub regional project on Combating Trafficking in children for Labour Exploitation in West Africa Countries covered: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, and Togo Duration: 20 months (May 1st 2008 – December 31st 2009) Budget requested: DKK 15,100,000 (US$ 3,152,401) Executive summary: Project strategy (Activities will be developed around six main strategies): 1. Strengthening the capacity of government, employers and workers organizations as well as regional institutions such as ECOWAS to scale up or replicate withdrawal and prevention activities using the good practices developed by IPEC/LUTRENA 2. Strengthening the implementation of bi and multilateral cooperation agreements: the project will continue to assist with the sustaining of bi and multilateral cooperation agreements it helped put into place 3. Expanding the reach of child labour and child trafficking legislation enforcement by assisting national ministries and social partners to put in place implementation and law enforcement mechanisms against child trafficking 4. Expanding the impact of child labour and child trafficking legislation by assisting authorities and social partners to put in place monitoring mechanisms to identify, protect and/or refer children at risk 5. Increasing the availability of data on trafficking trends and prevention efforts through documentation and reporting systems 6. Improving the knowledge base on child trafficking through targeted research and the facilitation of a sub-regional network of experts for exchange and dissemination of learning Development objective: To contribute to the reduction of the incidence of trafficking of girls and boys for labour exploitation in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Togo and Senegal. Immediate objectives / Project Outcomes 1. At the end of the project, the capacity of government, employers and workers organizations as well as regional institutions such as ECOWAS to implement model interventions of the project will have been strengthened 2. At the end of the project, local, national and regional frameworks will have been strengthened to ensure more effective implementation and enforcement of child labour and child trafficking legislation 3. At the end of the project, knowledge on the trafficking of girls and boys, especially on the demand side of trafficking will have been enhanced Direct Beneficiaries Girls and boys at risk constitute the most important beneficiaries of the project. Since the nexus of push and trigger factors is complex, standard criteria for identifying children at risk are not being set. Instead, the local NGOs associated with the project will be trained to be alert to the various “symptoms” that indicate that a child could be at risk. Information exchanged at regular meetings of the partners within the referral system will allow this perception to be refined on the basis of the cases encountered. A network of community-based local vigilance committees (LVC) in each country will be reinforced in high-risk areas based on research already conducted in the first phase of the project. The preventive work will target a total of 3.000 girls and boys, through the provision of educational or training services (direct actions- educational and training services: establishment of school based monitoring system by school management committees) Child victims of trafficking The project will contribute to strengthening existing structures, and to improving the capacity of staff to provide counselling, vocational guidance and skills training. Children of compulsory school age who come from the high-risk areas in which community-based vigilance team are operational, will be referred to these and will receive transitional education to prepare for reintegration into schools, if these exist or,

Project symbol

RAF/08/50/DAN

Admin unit

DWT/CO-Dakar

Start date

01/05/2008

End date

31/12/2009

Total allocation

2785295

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

2785295

Development Partners

Denmark, Danish International Development Agency

Country/Countries

Africa - regional

Outcomes

Child Labour