Abuja, 28 July 2022 – Recent ILO and UNICEF joint research on The role of social protection in the elimination of child labour: Evidence review and policy implications , reveals that 1.5 billion children worldwide, aged 0-14, receive no family or child cash benefits while more than 160 million children – that’s 1 in 10 children aged 5-17 – are still engaged in child labour, and progress has stalled since 2016. (ILO, UNICEF 2022 ). We must act now!

With view of the above and in observance of the 2022 World Day Against Child Labour, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands have organised a media engagement on the theme, "Universal Social Protection To End Child Labour".

The event was honoured with the participation of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, and other stakeholders. The Country Representative of ILO, Ms Phala Vanessa, disclosed that the UN Labour Organisation had finalised the National Policy and Action Plan on the elimination of child labour in Nigeria. This engagement served to promote and support the role of the media in the fight against child labour in the country.

Working with tripartite partners and a wider range of stakeholders the Dutch Government funded ACCEL Africa Project works to support vulnerable Nigerian children and their families. Concentrating on those children currently engaged in the Cocoa and Gold Mining value chains, and who are exposed to constant dangers and occupational hazards.

Nigeria one of the ACCEL Africa beneficiary countries is constantly working to improve social protection coverage in the country, but challenges remain. For example, the latest ILO Social Security Inquiry (2019) showed that the coverage of children is low, standing at 12 per cent of those that benefit from the Home-Grown School Feeding programme, with no income support in the form of child or family benefit.

Some of the additional, Government Social Protection Programmes aimed at eliminating Child Labour in Nigeria include:

• The implementation of the National Children School Feeding Programme (NCSFP)
• The implementation of a programme to provide food to children, aiming at increasing their health and wellbeing and providing livelihood opportunities to cooks and farmers.
• The Fight Poverty programme (incl. Conditional Cash-transfer, Trader moni, Npower)
• The Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP)
• The Technical Vocattowardducation and Training for the Youth
• The provision of soft loans for small and medium-scale enterprises.
• The Digital Skills Acquisition, Entrepreneurship, Employability and Leadership (DEEL) programme.

During the event, the ILO encouraged the Government of Nigeria to continue working on increasing investments in social protection through:

• Improved Fiscal Space for Social Protection
• Improved legal framework to make the right to social protection a reality for all Nigerians including children.
• Establishment of universal child and family benefit
• Extension of social protection to the informal and rural economy. This is important in reducing child labour as the issues are more prevalent in the rural sector.

The ILO has also made an open call to the media to actively participate in the fight against child labour and contribute to showcasing the challenges that children and their families face to access decent livelihoods and work opportunities.

Furthermore, during the event, Dr Chris N. Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment of Nigeria, thanked the good work that the media is doing on reporting on Child labour issues and urged them to continue sharing on matters related not only to child labour but also forced labour, human trafficking and modern slavery.

The event culminated with a Road Walk, during which participants increased awareness of Child Labour and demonstrated their commitment to leaving no one behind.