When development comes between “social” and “network”

“At first I thought it was just like Facebook. Then I realized it’s something better, something more meaningful. One that could actually change the way we fight child labour. That and its ability to act as a social network like Facebook.” This is what Nancy Macaraeg of the Quezon Provincial Child Labor Committee (PCLC) commented about the Child Labor Knowledge Sharing System or now known to be just CLKSS (pronounced as “clicks”).

Envisioned to be the go-to site for anybody who looks for data related to child labour in the country, CLKSS is geared towards the direction of wider membership and advocacy by the Knowledge Management Sub-Committee of the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC). Such sub-committee has also established branding, thus, the popularization of the sub-committee’s identity as CLKSS-Comm.

CLKSS was launched on April 14 with the ceremonial sign-up by the ILO Country Director Lawrence Jeff Johnson and Assistant Secretary Teresa Soriano of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). Since then, more than 200 individuals have followed suit and signified their commitment and support to share and data relevant to child labour through the CLKSS portal.

The system is housed and managed by the DOLE-Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns. Since the launching, several trainings have been conducted for the NCLC, PCLC and the Regional Child Labor Committee (RCLC).

Key features of the system include repository of programmes, services, partners, resources, events, and news, all related to child labour. There is also a discussion board and bookmarking of site contents to Facebook and Twitter. The most interesting function however, is a built-in reporting of child labour incidences. Such child labour cases then go through a referral system among NCLC members.

For programme partners, the visibility to the bigger scheme against child labour is equally important. “It’s a good thing that we are now able to report our accomplishments to other partners and see what we can learn from each other’s experiences in running the child labour program,” said Cyre Cabredo, the Child Labor Focal Person of the Department of Labor and Employment Region V.

Indeed, CLKSS is in some way similar to Facebook where you share ideas and information to a certain social network or group of your choosing. With CLKSS however, the network of people that continue to build it is a network united by a common goal: to end child labour.

Mr Cesar Giovanni Soledad

IPEC Programme Manager
ILO-International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour
+63 2 580 9946 or 580 9900
Email