Eliminating child labour in West Africa and strengthening sub-regional cooperation through ECOWAS (ECOWAS II)

When:	31 December 2010 - 30 April 2014
Development partner(s):	United States, Department of Labor
Budget:	US$ 5,000,000
Reference:	RAF/10/53/USA
Contact(s):	[email protected]

In the artisanal quarries in both south and central Benin, children commonly help their families collect, break, sort and transport granite blocks, stones and loads of sand. In some communities children as young as ten years old leave Benin unaccompanied by their families to work in stone quarries in southwest Nigeria. ILO-IPEC aims to initiate direct action programmes to combat the worst forms of child labour in the artisanal mining sector in Benin and Nigeria. Planned activities in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana will supplement direct interventions at the community levels that have been initiated in the WA ECOWAS I project.

The ECOWAS II project aims to contribute to ongoing efforts by national governments, employers and workers’ organizations, civil society and community based organizations as well as the Executive Secretariat and other institutions of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in West Africa.

Achievements

Highlights

A total of 1321 out of 2310 children have been prevented from child labour.
In October 2010, the Executive (Cabinet) of Ghana approved the National Plan of Action on Child Labour (NPA) upon submission of a memorandum by the Minister for Employment and Social Welfare (MESW). In this context it called for continued clarity between acceptable and unacceptable work of children with due consideration to the national cultural environment.
Ghana’s NPA, was formally launched during the 2011 WDACL.
Côte d’Ivoire adopted a new NPA (2012-2014). On Wednesday, March 28, 2012, the national Monitoring committee and the inter ministerial committee against trafficking, exploitation and child labour organized, in the presence of other stakeholders, organized the official validation of the new national plan of action against trafficking and the worst forms of child labour in Côte d'Ivoire (2012-2014). This action plan aims to reduce significantly the worst forms of child labour by 2014.

The 4th Meeting of the Standing Committee for the monitoring of the Cooperation Agreement between the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire and the Republic of Mali, in the fight against cross-border child trafficking, was held in October 2011.

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