National Programme on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Syria (Inception phase). Award no. 500794 (GLO/10/19/FRG).

Programme title: National Programme on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Syria (Inception phase) Duration: 5 months (August – December 2010 Project coverage: Syria Project language: English and Arabic Lead office: ILO Regional Office for the Arab States Collaborating ILO Department: International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) Implementing Partner and co-fonder : UNICEF and MOLSA Budget requested: US$ 244,200 Partners: MOLSA, Employers’ and Workers’ Organizations UNRWA, UNHCR The project strategy will include upstream policy-related interventions which will let the basis for further downstream service-oriented interventions. UPSTREAM POLICY- RELATED interventions: • Mainstreaming the issue of child labour into the national policy development frameworks Child labour stakeholders have a huge interest in influencing all relevant policies and plans with a view to improving their impact on child labour. The task before them is to promote the integration or mainstreaming of child labour concerns in broader policy frameworks aimed at poverty reduction, employment promotion, expansion of social protection, sectoral policies and plans, and similar policy frameworks that have a bearing on child labour. To a great extent, the solution to the problem of child labour lies in the success of such efforts. If the interventions to combat child labour are not fully integrated and budgeted in national policy frameworks, progress in reducing child labour will remain painfully slow. A “stand alone” child labour action plan would have difficulties to be materialized and be effective. It must instead be regarded as associated with, if not an integral part of broader national action plans dealing with education, poverty, social protection, health, agriculture, youth employment, and the Decent Work Country Programme. It has to be linked to, harmonised with and even mainstreamed into the broader policies and action plans to take advantage of synergies that exist and improve effectiveness. As part of this project, a mapping of the national policy development framework will be conducted. The idea is to see the possibility of integrating the issue of child labour into broader policies and plans, such as: the 11th Five-Year Plan for 2011-2015, National Education Strategy (2011-2012), Education for All Initiative, MDGs, etc. • Enhancing the capacity of the government officials, workers’ and employers’ organizations child labour issues; Capacity building activities will be carried out by empowering the ILO constituents with a firm knowledge on child labour issue and their role in prevention and elimination of child labour. The Ministry of Labour will benefit from the training of staff responsible for the Child Labour Unit, as well as from the training on labour inspection; Occupational Safety and Health, and social workers of the MOLSA Social Services Centres (which will be relevant to the programme). National employers’ organizations and trade unions will benefit from technical assistance to increase their capacity to provide services to their members to become active partners in the combat against child labour. NGO's will benefit from technical assistance to increase their capacity to provide direct services to child labourers, to raise awareness of the problems associated with child labour and to monitor their progress. The following IPEC training resource materials will be used in the training programme: a) IPEC ACTRAV manual on Child Labour and Trade Unions; b) ACT/EMP Guides for Employers on Eliminating Child Labour; c) SCREAM – Supporting Children’s Rights through Education, Arts and Media; d) IPEC CLMS Guidelines; IPEC Handbook on Labour Inspection; IPEC Training Manual on CL and agriculture; and IPEC handbook on mainstreaming Child Labour issues at the Education Sector Plans • Advocacy and Awareness Raising: general public, including the policy-makers. Raising awareness

Project symbol

SYR/10/50/FRG

Admin unit

RO-Arab States/DWT-Beirut

Start date

19/07/2010

End date

31/12/2012

Total allocation

253050

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

253050

Development Partners

Germany, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

Country/Countries

Syrian Arab Republic

Outcomes

Child Labour