Group Task Force on Child Labour and Education for All

The Global Task Force on Child Labour and Education for All (GTF) is an inter agency partnership endorsed and launched during the Education for All High-Level Group meeting held in Beijing in November 2005.

The core members of the GTF partnership are the ILO, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, UNDP, Education International and the Global March against Child Labour. The governments of Norway and Brazil have also joined the GTF bringing important perspectives to its work.

The establishment of the GTF reflects international concern that child labour is an obstacle to the achievement of EFA goals. The international community's efforts to achieve EFA and the elimination of child labour are inextricably linked. As long as child labour continues to prevail in many developing countries, the international community will find it difficult to achieve the education-related Millennium Development Goals and the EFA goals.

The overall objective of the GTF is to contribute to the achievement of the EFA goals through the elimination of child labour. The GTF is a partnership to assist developing countries in this endeavour. Its main strategy is to mobilize political will and momentum towards mainstreaming the issue of child labour in national and international policy frameworks contributing to the EFA objectives. This strategy will be pursued through:

  • strengthening the knowledge base on child labour and education linkages
  • advocacy and social mobilization
  • programme support
  • promoting policy coherence
  • developing partnerships

Partner organizations