CAPSA Partners' regional knowledge sharing and closeout conference

As part of the project closure, CAPSA Project Organised a Regional Knowledge Sharing and Closeout Conference at Sawela Lodges, Naivasha, Kenya November 12th to 14th 2024. The conference focused on project successes, lessons learned and sustainability strategies for Kenya and Uganda.

The project close-out conference provided a platform for the project beneficiaries, partners and the project team in Kenya and Uganda to share their experiences on what has worked well, the lessons learned and successful interventions with the aim of the governments of Kenya and Uganda, social partners and CSOs carrying forward the good practices and lessons learned to sustain the momentum of scaling up implementation of the good practices.

The CAPSA Project Close-Out Event was a three-day (invite-only) conference designed to celebrate the achievements of the project and discuss the sustainability of its interventions. The event, took place between November 11th to 14th, 2024, and brought together stakeholders from Kenya, Uganda, and the East African Community to reflect on the successes, lessons learned, and future directions in combating child labour, forced labour, human trafficking, and violations of acceptable conditions of work.

Close Out Conference objectives

The CAPSA regional project closeout: Celebrating the Wins in the Fight against child labour, forced labour, human trafficking, and violations of Acceptable Conditions at work, focused on the following objectives:

1. Showcasing Achievements: This is a platform for project beneficiaries, implementing partners, and tripartite constituents to present their successes in meeting CAPSA's regional, national, and sub-national targets, and to share lessons learned in eliminating child labour, forced labour, human trafficking, and violations of acceptable conditions of work in Kenya and Uganda.
2. Presenting and Concluding Project Deliverables: Facilitate the ILO CAPSA team's presentation of the project closure report, confirming the completion of all deliverables, and formally communicate the project's final disposition and official sign-off.
3. Launching and Handover: Coordinate the launch of key project products and tools, and manage their formal handover to government officials from Kenya and Uganda.
4. Facilitating Knowledge Sharing: Promote the exchange of good practices, lessons learned, and experiences among partners from Kenya and Uganda to foster continued collaboration and mutual learning.
5. Identifying Future Support Needs: Enable the ILO HQ team and Decent Work Teams (DWTs) to engage with CAPSA project partners and tripartite constituents to identify ongoing knowledge needs and address implementation gaps, preparing for future support to the governments of Kenya and Uganda.

About the CAPSA Project

The Strengthening Capacity of Governments to Address Child Labor and/or Forced Labor, and Violations of Acceptable Conditions of Work in Sub Saharan Africa, (CAPSA) is a five-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) to enhance enforcement of the legal framework and policies pertaining Child Labor and/or Forced Labor/Trafficking in Persons, and Violations of Acceptable Conditions of Work.

This includes improvement of assistance services for victims of child labour and forced labour and strengthening partnerships to accelerate progress in addressing child labour, forced labour and violations of acceptable forms of work. The project-level objective is to strengthen the capacity of the Government of Kenya to address child labor, forced labor, human trafficking and violations of acceptable conditions of work.

To achieve its goal of building the capacity of government, CAPSA worked with both the national government through the Ministry of Labour and Social protection and county governments. The project was implemented in both Kenya and Uganda.

• In Kenya we were in 5 Counties namely: Bungoma, Kajiado. Mombasa, Kwale, Nairobi
• In Uganda we were in 7 Districts namely: Jinja, Mbale, Iganga, Bugiri, Hoima, Masindi, Kikuube

The CAPSA Project is an ILO integrated project that focuses on the four ILO fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, notably the elimination of all forms of forced labour; effective abolition of child labour; the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation and the right to collective bargaining.

The 5-year project run from 2020 – 2024, and was funded by the United States Department of Labour, (USDOL), with the goal to strengthen the capacities of the governments of Uganda and Kenya to address the elimination of child labour, forced labour, human trafficking, and violations of acceptable conditions at work.