Ghana’s experience offers a pathway to ending child labour at scale

ACCRA (ILO News) - Integrated, multistakeholder approaches that are anchored in national systems are essential to move beyond fragmented efforts and achieve sustainable results in the elimination of child labour. This was the key message from a global webinar held during the 6th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, where partners presented Ghana’s experience in implementing coordinated, area-based solutions to address child labour.

The session, titled “Integrated, Multistakeholder Partnership Solutions to End Child Labour: Ghana’s Experience and Lessons for Cross-Country Learning”, brought together governments, development partners, and international organizations to explore how integrated approaches can deliver impact at scale.

Area-based solutions grounded in communities

At the local level, Ghana’s Child Labour Free Zones illustrate how national strategies can translate into concrete change for communities.

These area-based approaches bring together local authorities, communities, and service providers to address the root causes of child labour—combining prevention, identification, and remediation within a defined geographic area.

By strengthening local governance structures and applying clear standards, these models help ensure that interventions are not only effective, but also sustainable and scalable.

The webinar highlighted the critical role of multistakeholder partnerships in achieving impact at scale.

Public–private collaboration, including joint programming and pooled financing, has enabled partners to align efforts, reduce duplication, and improve service delivery. At the same time, development actors are increasingly integrating child labour risk management into broader financing and operational frameworks.

The discussion emphasized that partnerships must reinforce government systems, and not operate in parallel, in order to ensure long-term impact.

Participants agreed that sustainable elimination of child labour depends on four key pillars:

• Strong government leadership and accountability
• Coordinated and predictable financing
• Integrated and interoperable data systems
• Effective collaboration across sectors and stakeholders

These elements are essential to move from fragmented responses to comprehensive, system-wide solutions.

Ghana’s experience offers valuable lessons for countries seeking to scale up their efforts.

The webinar concluded with a call to strengthen South–South exchange and cross-country learning, enabling stakeholders to adapt integrated and area-based approaches to different contexts and accelerate progress towards the elimination of child labour.