ECOWAS Commission validated the report of the evaluation of the Regional Action Plan (RAP) for the elimination of child labour, especially the worst forms in West Africa from the 21st to 22nd of October 2020.

Cognisant of the challenges of child labour in the region, ECOWAS Ministers in charge of labour and employment in 2012 adopted the ECOWAS Regional Action Plan (RAP) for the elimination child labour, especially the worst forms (2012-2015). The goal of the Regional Action Plan was to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in West Africa by 2015, while working towards its complete eradication in the long term.

Following the expiration of the plan in 2015, the ECOWAS Commission launched an assessment to evaluate the measures and actions taken by the Member states as part of the implementation of the plan.

The report of the findings of the assessment was the focus of the two-day virtual meeting with ECOWAS Member states child labour focal points, representatives of workers and employers organisations, CSOs, media, and development partners (ILO, UNICEF, ICMPD and IOM).

The objective of the meeting was to review the report of the evaluation of the ECOWAS Regional Action Plan (RAP) for the elimination child labour, especially the worst forms (2012-2015) with a view to defining the key strategic pillars and priorities for a new regional action plan.

In her welcome address, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Social Affairs and Gender, Dr. Siga Fatima Jagne, underscored the importance of the meeting by highlighting that nearly 73 million children are in hazardous work that directly endangers their health, safety and moral development. In addition, she noted that about 48 million children aged 5-14 depend on labour for survival in West Africa alone.

Commissioner Jagne stated that child labour is one of the protection priorities of the 2017 ECOWAS Strategic Framework for Strengthening National Child Protection Systems to prevent and respond to violence, abuse and exploitation against children in West Africa.

She cited the ratification of the ILO Convention 138 on the minimum age for work and the ILO Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labour by all ECOWAS Member states as indication of the progress being made to implement the Regional Action Plan, and called for more urgent action by social partners and the Member states of ECOWAS to combat child labour.

‘’ I reiterate the ECOWAS Commission’s commitment to provide purposeful leadership to accompany Member states in their quest to enhance integrated and coordinated actions, and the mobilisation of the adequate resources to end child labour in the region,’’ said Dr. Jagne concluding her remarks.

The representative of the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations of Ghana, Mr. Peter Antwi, in his statement identified poverty, conflicts, political instability, weak educational systems and human capital development, as well as absence of effective child protection systems as major obstacles to the fight against child labour.

‘’I urge the Member states to create decent employment opportunities, maintain political stability and build quality educational systems for the development of the needed human capital for economic development,’’ he added stressing the need for the maintenance of peace and stability in the ECOWAS region without which children and women will bear the brunt of child labour.

Mr. Antwi also called for the strengthening of border control and the empowering of the responsible officials to ensure prevention of cross-border movement of children for child labour and its worst forms including sex trafficking.

‘’Guinea is the only ECOWAS country that has ratified and domesticated the ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), I urge other ECOWAS Member states to follow suit,’’ he concluded.

The Free Movement of Persons and Migration in West Africa (FMM West Africa), and the ACCEL Africa Project (Accelerating Action for the Elimination of Child labour in the supply chains in Africa), funded respectively by the EU and government of the Netherlands supported the evaluation and the hosting of the virtual meeting.

According to the 2017 International Labour Organisation’s Global estimates of child labour, 152 million children (64 million girls and 88 million boys) are in child labour globally.

‘’Africa witnessed a rise in child labour during the 2012 to 2016 period, in contrast to the other major regions where child labour continued to decline, despite the number of targeted policies implemented by African governments to combat child labour,’’ noted Mr David Dorkenoo, Officer-in-Charge, ILO Country Office for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and Liaison Office for ECOWAS.

He remarked distinctly that the high rate of poverty in the region is not an excuse to allow the new generation of children to miss opportunities for education and future access to decent employment.

‘’However, some of the interventions taken by the ECOWAS Commission such as the adoption of the ECOWAS Child Policy and Strategic Plan of Action (2019 -2030), and the ECOWAS Child Protection Systems Strengthening Strategic Framework approved by the Member States in 2017 are key steps in the right direction to ending child labour in the region,’’ he added.

He further commended all Member States for the ratification of the ILO Convention 182 on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour. However, he remarked that in line with the ILO goal “we must move much faster if we are to honour our commitment to ending child labour in all its forms by 2025”.

In addition, he recalled the adoption in 2012 of the Regional Action Plan by the ECOWAS Ministers in charge of Labour and Employment as indication of the commitment of governments to end child labour. The RAP outlines concrete strategies to eliminate child labour and a regional framework for the protection of children, as well as the strengthening of the ECOWAS institutional mechanism for child labour monitoring and evaluation.

Thus, the review of the findings of the evaluation of the implementation and impact of the actions enumerated in the 2012 Regional Action Plan, is an opportunity to reflect on the lessons learned and set priorities and actions that can further reinvigorate progress towards ending child labour in West Africa.

Mr. Dorkenoo concluded his remarks with a pledge of the continued support of the ILO in the elimination of child labour, and called for a renewed commitment to the protection of children in the workplace and promoting decent work for all by governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations, enterprises, Civil Society Organizations, UN agencies, and other International Organizations.

Experts adopted the report of the findings of the evaluation of the implementation of the Regional Action Plan with amendments, and made key recommendations on concrete actions that can accelerate and scale-up interventions, with additional resources at country and regional levels, so as to meet SDG 8.7 to end all forms of child labour by 2025 and forced labour, trafficking and modern slavery by 2030.