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The ILO estimates that 218 million girls and boys work as child labourers in the world today. They work because the poverty of their family situation requires it, because adequate and affordable schooling is not available and because social norms deem it to be acceptable. At the same time, child labour persists not only because children supply their labour but also because plantations, farms, factories, businesses and households generate a demand for such labour. The successful elimination of child labour worldwide requires efforts to tackle simultaneously this complex set of supply and demand factors.
In the global fight against child labour, employers can and do play a fundamental role at different levels. At the workplace, they can refuse to hire children or, if child labour already occurs, they can remove the children making sure this is done in a responsible manner. In the case of adolescents, they can reduce the risk from hazards at the workplace. At the political level, employers and employers' organizations can lobby for effective training and education systems. They can also help raise public awareness and change attitudes towards child labour.
ACT/EMP Programme on Combating Child Labour
Since 2004, the ILO Bureau for Employers' Activities (ACT/EMP) has been running a technical cooperation programme, funded by the Norwegian Government, aimed at building the capacity of employers and their organizations in combating child labour. The programme facilitates the networking and exchange of good business practices in addressing child labour through regional and interregional conferences, national workshops and information and knowledge sharing. Much emphasis is given to bipartite and tripartite initiatives in the programme, both on the national and interregional level, and there is a strong focus on the gender dimension of child labour.
Country-level projects are also being implemented in partnership with national employers' organizations in 9 different countries: Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, Mali, Malawi, Moldova, Mongolia, Uganda. These projects target, in particular, the agricultural sector where most child labour is found.
The ACT/EMP programme works closely with and complements the ILO International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).
For more information please contact Ms. Anne-Brit Nippierd, Programme
Manager, ILO Bureau For Employers' Activities (ACT/EMP), Tel: +41 22 799
8575, E-mail: nippierd@ilo.org
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