CLEAR project is funded by the United States Department of Labor and provides a channel for ILO and its constituents and other stakeholders to find a suitable mechanism to eliminate Child Labour prioritizing its worst forms across the country. The project in Sri Lanka is a component of the CLEAR global strategy which provides technical support to help reduce worst forms of child labour in 11 selected countries across Asia, Africa, and South America.

The Chief Guest at the consultation was Mr. Gotabaya Jayaratne, Secretary, Minister of Labour and Trade Union Relations who briefed the stakeholders on the value of this project and requested all partners to provide their fullest cooperation to this multi-stakeholder initiative. The ILO Geneva technical team were also present on this occasion and provided initial technical advice on the CLEAR project strategy and expected outcome that added value to the consultation.
Mr. Arulsamy of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and Mr. Leslie Devendra of the Sri Lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya (SLNSS) , recognized the necessity for this initiative whilst the Employers Federation of Ceylon (EFC) representative pledged the EFC’s full support through its regional network to support the project in their downstream activities. The tripartite constitutes also contributed their valuable inputs to the consultation assuring the Ministry of their active engagement as responsive partners, contributing support to the project to implement it effectively and smoothly.

The ILO Country Director, Donglin Li, reiterated that the ILO has actively promoted policies and provided assistance to the country to eliminate Child Labour prioritizing to eliminate worst forms of child labour by 2016 and this project will continue its support towards this goal whilst also keeping in mind the goal to eliminate all forms of child labour by 2025 in line with Sustainable Development Goal 8 target 8.7.