ILO Supports Review of Monitoring Tool for the National Action Plan for The Elimination Of Child Labour In Nigeria.

The ILO Abuja office, in collaboration with the Child Labour Unit (CLU) of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment in commemoration of 2017 World Day Against Child Labour organized a workshop for the National Steering Committee on Child Labour (NSCCL). The purpose of the workshop was to review the developed draft reporting template for the National Plan of Action (NAP) on the elimination of child labour. In 2012, the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria adopted the National Policy on Child Labour and approved the National Plan of Action (NAP) on the elimination of Child Labour 2013-2017. To support implementation of the Action Plan and data collection, the ILO at the request of the CLU provided support for the development of a reporting template to enable appropriate stakeholders report on their interventions in the elimination of child labour.

The workshop also developed questionnaires to be used to gather information at the planned outreach, for children who are victims of conflict and disaster currently living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, scheduled for the 6th of July, 2017. This is to collect information on the vulnerability of the child labour victims found at the camp and it will also inform further support to be provided for them.

The workshop was successful and resulted in a final draft reporting template ready for validation by the general NSCCL on the 4th of July 2017. The technical review meeting was attended by representatives of the ILO and the NSCCL sub-committee set up to review the reporting Template consisting of relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Nigerian Government including the Federal Ministry of Labour & Employment.

In his remarks, the Desk Officer for Child Labour at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr. Ajuwon Dauda Adeniyi, representing the chairman of the NSCCL, expressed appreciation to the ILO for consistent and persistent moral, technical and financial support in the elimination of child labour in Nigeria. He reiterated the objectives of the meeting and the essence of the reporting template for gathering statistics and data which is of immense value for both national and international discourse. He concluded by appealing to stakeholders not to relent on their efforts to eliminate child labour. ‘We are preserving the society by preserving the children’ he said.

The Director, ILO Country Office Abuja, Mr Dennis Zulu, commended the members of the NSCCL subcommittee present at the review workshop on their commitment, and contributions. He further explained that the tool was vital for tracking the progress made on work being done to eliminate child labour in the country as many initiatives were not being effectively and efficiently reported.

“It is very important to validate the reporting tool and commence effective use of the tool” Mr Zulu said. He further stated the importance of distinguishing between child work and child labour so perpetrators do not go unpunished under the guise of mistaking child labour for child work. He concluded by reaffirming ILO’s commitment to support the MDAs in the fight against child labour so that every Nigerian child gets to live an exciting life- Decent life for the Nigerian child.