The project contributes to the promotion of decent work in Jordan by building and applying the critical knowledge needed to inform the policy choices to combat child labor and forced labor and to support measures to address these challenges. In support of this effort, the project applies a three-tier approach: Capacity Building; Enhancing the Knowledge Base; Mainstreaming of child labor issues into National Policy Development Frameworks, including responding to the Syrian refugee crisis.

National context

Jordan has ratified both ILO Conventions C138 and C182 and forced Labour Conventions C29 and C105. In 2011, the Government adopted a National Framework to Combat Child Labour. A National Child Labour Database has been developed to identify information specific to child labour that links the three main ministries: Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Social Development, and Ministry of Education. A second National Child Labour Survey was carried out in 2015-2016. A new updated version of the Child Labour Monitoring System is currently being piloted and will be launched with the new policy framework related to the Juvenile Law under revision.

Based on observations of child protection workers and agencies in Jordan, it is believed that the number of working children has continued to increase since 2016.

With the onset of the COVID-19 health crisis and accompanying economic and employment hardship, it is anticipated that the problem of child labour may be exacerbated, particularly that most families of those children works in the Informal sector that was the hardest hit. Regional disparities make it difficult to provide a common picture of the magnitude and rends of child labour across the region, especially given the absence of overall regional estimates of child labour. The Arab region has witnessed a large wave of armed conflicts and population displacement in recent years, believed to have bought with it an upsurge of child labour – the magnitude of which is yet to be fully measured.

According to the 2016 National Child Labour Survey:

• An estimated 75,982 children, or around 1.9 per cent of children between the ages of 5 and 17, are working children, engaged in paid or unpaid employment, of whom almost 70,000 are in child labour.

Project activities

The project activities in Jordan include:

• include child labour protection for all children in relevant policies and programs;
• strengthen ability of Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Social Development to address child labour, especially in communities most affected by the Syrian refugee crisis;
• improved knowledge base on child labour and its worst forms.

Key achievements

• Upgrade to CLDB to include more actors from the government or civil society including a web-based mobile application that will allow citizens to report cases of child labour to expand outreach.
• Built capacities of 18 service providers to include child labour programs into their mandates to be an integral part to referral mechanisms envisaged into the national e-CLMS.
• The direct intervention model of comprehensive services was provided for the identified working children and their families was replicated into other areas in Jordan and the Middle East.
• Supported national efforts to reform the Juvenile law No. 32 for the year 2014 in line with ILS, including developing practical mechanisms in the form of By-Laws pertaining to articles 34-37 and enhance the capacities of main government and civil partners to analyse and present their own recommendations.
• Built the capacities of more than 150 staff on the hazards of child labour and its consequences within the framework of the OSH and child labour manual formulated in 2017.
• Expanded knowledge base on child labour through the RA on child labour in Agriculture sector. Analytical report to the national child labour survey findings carried out in 2016.
• A closing online workshop (14 December 2020) collected and shared examples of ongoing good practices addressing child labour within the region. This exchange of information highlighted examples from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Syria amongst others and is available as a reference tool.

Partners

Al-Moasasah Al-Arabia Liltanmia, Al-Mustadama Co. (RUWWAD), Family and Child Protection Society (FCPS).

Target beneficiaries

To protect 700 children, half of them Syrians, from early entry to labour market or withdraw them from the worst forms of child labour, and to provide their families with comprehensive services in coordination with UN agencies and local organizations.