Eliminating child labour in Lusophone countries

When:	31 December 2010 - 31 December 2012
Development partner(s):	United States, Department of Labor
Budget:	US$ 500,000
Reference:	RAF/10/55/USA
Contact(s):	[email protected]

The Supporting actions to meet the 2015 targets to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in Lusophone countries in Africa through knowledge, awareness raising and South-South cooperation ("Lusophone Project") is to support actions to meet the 2015 targets to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in Portuguese-Speaking African Countries (PALOP) or Lusophone countries in Africa through knowledge, awareness-raising and South-South Cooperation.

This is a project aiming to contribute to speed up the place of the child labour eradication in Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe, by supporting the development, revision or strengthen the PALOP’s National Action Plans (NAP) and the establishment of consultations mechanisms to address the child labour issue.

The Lusophone Project has been developed in the spirit of South-South and Triangular Cooperation involving the Brazilian and the United States Governments. This joint commitment dates back from 2007 when both Governments supported a "study tour" to Brazil of high level representatives from Governments, employers’ and workers’ organisations and civil society from Angola and Mozambique. Thereafter, a series of activities involving all the lusophone countries, notably in the context of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP), constituted in the building blocks to this Project that has as the cornerstone the sharing of knowledge based on the Brazilian experience.

Therefore, taking into account the recommendations of the 2010 ILO Global Report on child labour to focus action in Africa (IPEC's "Focus on Africa" Strategy); and considering that the Brazilian constituents have continuously shown the will to share their good practices with other countries, the Lusophone Project has been drawn as catalyst tool to contribute to the establishment and implementation of national policies, having the CPLP as a political platform.

In this context, the Project will endeavour efforts to, in close collaboration with the constituents in all the countries, consolidate the knowledge base sharing Brazilian good practices and possibly identify policy and legislation gaps; strengthen capacity building of institutions for addressing child labour through social dialogue; reinforce documentation and human resources for knowledge transfer; assist in policy development and legal reform, which should contribute to a better understand of child labour phenomenon and increase awareness within the lusophone countries in Africa.

Projects outputs

Considering the ILO tripartite social dialogue framework and aiming to support the development, revision or strengthen of the PALOP’s National Action Plans (NAP) and the establishment of consultations mechanisms to address the child labour, the project comprises the following outputs:

Output 1 Improved capacity of constituents and key stakeholders of the five PALOP countries to understand their role in National efforts to combat child labour. Output 2 National Action Plans (including, where appropriate, robust child labour sections of higher level planning instruments) developed, revised or strengthened in the five PALOP countries.

Output 3 Increased capacity of selected government institutions and social partners to advocate for prevention of child labour at the national level. Output 4 Strengthened provisions for child labour prevention within existing national legislation.

Child labour in the Lusophone countries in Africa Produced in 2012, this documentary is one of the outcomes of the IPEC Lusophone project in partnership with the CPLP in the context of South-South / triangular cooperation initiatives involving PALOP countries within the framework of the activities financed by the Governments of Brazil (ABC) and the United States (USDOL). The documentary depicts the historical contexts and current situation of child labour in the Lusophone countries in Africa. It also shows the existing legal framework and policies that are being implemented as well as action that are under development in each country, based on good practice and good international examples, it highlights the role of governments, workers and employers organisations and civil society in general. Within the context of the CPLP, the documentary was presented to Ministers and representatives of the eight member countries of the CPLP Organization during the XII Meeting of the Ministers of Labour and Social Affairs in Maputo (23 to 25 April 2013) and widely disseminated in the context of the celebrations of the World Day Against Child Labour in 2013 (12 June) in the media of all Lusophones countries in Africa.