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This programme was launched in 1992 to give an operational dimension to the ILO's action to combat child labour, which had until then been concentrated on setting of international standards and supervising their application. The Government of Germany was the first donor to the programme, which started with six participating countries. Today the number of donors to the programme has increased to 25, supporting programmes in some 75 countries. IPEC works in several ways, via:
- country-based programmes, which promote policy reforms and put in place concrete measures to end child labour;
- international and national campaigning intended to change social attitudes and promote the ratification and application of ILO Conventions; and
- in-depth research, legal expertise, policy analysis and programme evaluation carried out in the field and at the regional and international levels.
 The political will and commitment of national governments to address the problem of child labour - in alliance with employers' and workers' organizations, NGOs and other actors of civil society - is the foundation of IPEC's action. Since its inception, IPEC programmes in the participating countries have had considerable impact in removing hundreds of thousands of children from the workplace and raising general awareness of the scourge of child labour. Many of the examples given in boxes in this Handbook relate to results that have been achieved at the national or local levels with the cooperation of IPEC.
In January 2000 the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) of the International Labour Organization (ILO) launched a three year Project "Street Children of St. Petersburg: from Exploitation to Education".
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What are time-bound programmes?
Upon ratification of Convention No. 182, member States are required to put in place national laws, policies and programmes to fulfill their commitment to prohibit and eliminate the worst forms of child labour. IPEC is assisting countries to meet this obligation through programmes that formulate concrete policies and actions to eradicate the worst forms of child labour within a specified period of time.
The aim of such programmes is to sharpen the focus on areas where coordinated measures can make a swift, sustainable and tangible difference to the situation of children engaged in the worst forms of child labour. The involvement of all forces in society in a given country or region in such time-bound programmes is essential to their success. Time-bound programmes include the development of a monitoring and evaluation system, including targets and indicators, for assessing the impact, cost-effectiveness and sustainability of the programme. They are designed in such a way as to be closely linked to overall national development policies and strategies, particularly with regard to poverty reduction, education and employment promotion.
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IPEC works with local partner organizations - public or private - in the countries concerned to develop and implement measures which aim at:
- Preventing child labour;
- Withdrawing children from hazardous and abusive work, and providing alternatives to them and their families; and
- Improving working conditions as a transitional measure towards the complete elimination of child labour.
The adoption and already widespread ratification of Convention No. 182 has resulted in a new strategy for IPEC - time-bound programmes. The ILO cooperates closely with other international organizations - particularly with UNICEF - in these programmes.
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Other examples of cooperation
ILO/IPEC provides particulars on its child labour activities to the Commission on Human Rights. At its 57th Session, the Commission adopted resolutions on Traffic in Women and Girls (no. 2001/48) and on the Rights of the Child (No. 2001/75) which both called for an early ratification of ILO's Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention.
ILO/IPEC actively participates in high-level meetings in the UN system, making technical contributions to, for example, the World Education Forum (Dakar, 2000), the Millennium Summit (New York, 2000), the World Conference against Racism (Durban, 2001) the 2nd World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (Yokohama, 2001), and the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children (New York, 2002).
The Global Compact is a value-based platform, bringing together representatives of business as well as international labour and civil society organizations, to help build the social and environmental pillars required to sustain the new global economy and make globalization work for all the world's people. The UN Secretary-General has asked world business to uphold nine principles, one of which is to promote the effective abolition of child labour. ILO/IPEC has made technical inputs into the review of company policies under the Global Compact.
ILO-ILEC has launched in the subregion a two year project "Combating Child Labour in Central Asia - Commitment becomes Action (PROACT CAR Phase III), funded by the German Government (August 2010 - December 2012).
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