Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labour in West Africa and Strengthening Sub-Regional Cooperation through ECOWAS –II

Executive Summary This project, “Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labour in West Africa and Strengthening Sub-Regional Cooperation through ECOWAS II” (WA-ECOWAS II) aims to contribute to ongoing efforts by national governments, employers and workers’ organizations, civil society and community based organizations as well as the Executive Secretariat and other institutions of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in West Africa. The International Labour Organization/International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (ILO/IPEC) will intervene in collaboration with project partners to prevent and withdraw 4,000 children from engaging in the worst forms of child labour in artisanal mining and stone quarries in Benin and Nigeria and in cocoa production in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. In addition, it will implement programs designed to enhance the livelihoods of 3,000 families of project direct beneficiaries. It will likewise build the capacity of the ECOWAS Executive Secretariat and other institutions to assist its 15 member states to address child labour more effectively by creating mechanisms for monitoring implementation of sub-regional child labour related policies and plans, network policy makers and policy implementers and improve information management including mechanisms for sharing good practices. The proposed project will be implemented by ILO/IPEC over 36 months with a requested budget of US $ 5 million. The project expands and extends work currently underway since October 2009 in the United States Department of Labour (USDOL)-funded ILO/IPEC project “Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labour in West Africa and Strengthening Sub-Regional Cooperation through ECOWAS phase I” (WA-ECOWAS I) and complements strategies and activities planned in another USDOL-funded ILO/IPEC project “Towards child labour free cocoa growing communities through an integrated area based approach” to be initiated in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire concurrently with this project. In this project, WA ECOWAS II, ILO/IPEC will initiate direct action programmes to combat the worst forms of child labour in the artisanal mining sector in Benin and Nigeria. In the artisanal quarries that dot south and central Benin, children commonly help their families collect, break, sort and transport granite blocks, stones and loads of sand. The work is hard, injurious to the health and safety of the children and often prevents them from attending school. In some communities to be targeted by the project, children as young as ten years old leave Benin unaccompanied by their families to work in stone quarries in southwest Nigeria. There is likewise evidence that young children may be trafficked internally in Benin to work in stone quarries. Because of the attention that has been given to the problem of Beninese children from Zakpota Benin working in stone quarries in Abeokuta, Nigeria since the two countries signed an Memorandum of Understanding on trafficking in 2005, the numbers of children working in quarries appears to have been drastically reduced but local authorities report that they observe children from Benin working in other sectors indicative of a possible displacement effect. The project proposes to address the displacement issue by targeting Beninese children working in quarries as well as other activities defined as the worst forms of child labour in the targeted border areas in Nigeria including markets, plantations, domestic service and street-vending. Preliminary data indicates that small numbers of children from other countries in West Africa and some Nigerian children are also engaged in these activities and if found, will also be targeted for withdrawal. The ILO/IPEC supported activities planned in this project will strengthen the capacity of ILO tripartite constituents and other relevant partners in Benin and Nigeria to enhance and implement national policies, plans and bi-lateral

Project symbol

RAF/10/53/USA

Admin unit

DWT/CO-Dakar

Start date

31/12/2010

End date

31/03/2014

Total allocation

5000000

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

4826808

Development Partners

USA, United States Department of Labor, Bureau for International Labor Affairs, Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking

Country/Countries

Africa - regional

Outcomes

Child Labour