ILO Accel Africa project supports the drafting of the Nigeria Alliance 8.7 communication strategy in Lagos
The workshop gathered approximately 40 participants who are Members of the Alliance 8.7 Technical Committee and are members of one of the three identified Priority areas.
The ILO office, through the Free Movement & Migration in West Africa project with funding from the European Union and the ECOWAS Commission, with support from the ACCEL Africa project, IOM and UNODC organized a four-day technical workshop to develop a communication framework for Alliance 8.7 in Nigeria and finalize the draft Alliance 8.7 Road Map.
The workshop gathered approximately 40 participants who are Members of the Alliance 8.7 Technical Committee and are members of one of the three identified Priority areas. Members of the Technical Committee includes government officials; representatives of UN agencies, international organizations and CSOs; and representatives from employers and workers’ organizations.
In 2017, at the fourth Global Conference on the Sustained Eradication of Child Labour held in Buenos Aires, the Government of Nigeria made a commitment to join Alliance 8.7 as a Pathfinder Country. The Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment formally confirmed this commitment in a letter to ILO dated May 21, 2018. As a “Pathfinder Country”, Nigeria expressed its wiliness to try new approaches to ensure the achievement of SDG 8.7 and accelerate efforts commensurate with the urgent timeframe.
To operationalize this commitment, the Government of Nigeria, through the support of ILO, established the Alliance 8.7 Technical Committee and appointed the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and Employment as Mr. Alliance. The membership of the Technical Committee is drawn from Ministries, Agencies and Departments, United Nations Agencies, Civil Society Organisation, Private Sector and Social partners in Nigeria (full list of Technical Committee members attached). The Technical Committee is Chaired by Mr. Alliance – the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and Employment and Co-chaired by UNODC while ILO serves as the Secretariat. The Technical Committee which primary role is to guide the systematic and phased deployment of Alliance 8.7 Thematic Areas in Nigeria has held six meetings to date.
Nigeria has signed, ratified and domesticated a number of United Nations and ILO Conventions that are instrumental in the fight against forced labour, child labour and trafficking in persons, including the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its supplementary Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, the Convention on the rights of the child, the Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour and the Minimum Age Convention and the Africa Charter on the rights and Welfare of the child.
Despite these efforts, in Nigeria, the National Bureau of Statistics 2017 survey report states that about 50.8 per cent of Nigerian children, ages between 5 and 17, are involved in child labour.
Nigeria has also been identified by several reports as a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking, and a source country for men and boys subjected to forced labor. Women and girls are victims of domestic servitude and sex trafficking, and boys are victims of forced and bonded labor in street vending, domestic service, mining, stone quarrying, agriculture and begging.
According to ILO estimates, 168 million children worldwide are still engaged in child labour with about half in hazardous work and other worst forms. An estimated 21 million people are engaged in forced labour, more than half of whom are women and girls, including 5.5 million children. These figures embody the challenge that remains in order to reach Target 8.7 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, universally adopted by all 193 UN Member States.
Further reports from ILO and IOM indicates that in the world:
The workshop gathered approximately 40 participants who are Members of the Alliance 8.7 Technical Committee and are members of one of the three identified Priority areas. Members of the Technical Committee includes government officials; representatives of UN agencies, international organizations and CSOs; and representatives from employers and workers’ organizations.
In 2017, at the fourth Global Conference on the Sustained Eradication of Child Labour held in Buenos Aires, the Government of Nigeria made a commitment to join Alliance 8.7 as a Pathfinder Country. The Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment formally confirmed this commitment in a letter to ILO dated May 21, 2018. As a “Pathfinder Country”, Nigeria expressed its wiliness to try new approaches to ensure the achievement of SDG 8.7 and accelerate efforts commensurate with the urgent timeframe.
To operationalize this commitment, the Government of Nigeria, through the support of ILO, established the Alliance 8.7 Technical Committee and appointed the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and Employment as Mr. Alliance. The membership of the Technical Committee is drawn from Ministries, Agencies and Departments, United Nations Agencies, Civil Society Organisation, Private Sector and Social partners in Nigeria (full list of Technical Committee members attached). The Technical Committee is Chaired by Mr. Alliance – the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and Employment and Co-chaired by UNODC while ILO serves as the Secretariat. The Technical Committee which primary role is to guide the systematic and phased deployment of Alliance 8.7 Thematic Areas in Nigeria has held six meetings to date.
Nigeria has signed, ratified and domesticated a number of United Nations and ILO Conventions that are instrumental in the fight against forced labour, child labour and trafficking in persons, including the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its supplementary Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, the Convention on the rights of the child, the Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour and the Minimum Age Convention and the Africa Charter on the rights and Welfare of the child.
Despite these efforts, in Nigeria, the National Bureau of Statistics 2017 survey report states that about 50.8 per cent of Nigerian children, ages between 5 and 17, are involved in child labour.
Nigeria has also been identified by several reports as a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking, and a source country for men and boys subjected to forced labor. Women and girls are victims of domestic servitude and sex trafficking, and boys are victims of forced and bonded labor in street vending, domestic service, mining, stone quarrying, agriculture and begging.
According to ILO estimates, 168 million children worldwide are still engaged in child labour with about half in hazardous work and other worst forms. An estimated 21 million people are engaged in forced labour, more than half of whom are women and girls, including 5.5 million children. These figures embody the challenge that remains in order to reach Target 8.7 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, universally adopted by all 193 UN Member States.
Further reports from ILO and IOM indicates that in the world:
- More than 40million people are in modern slavery
- More than 24 million in forced labour
- More than 15million in forced marriage
- About 16million in forced labour exploitation
- More than 4million in forced sexual exploitation