Child Labour in Emergencies: Introducing the New Interagency Toolkit

The Toolkit, produced by the Child Labour Task Force, co-chaired by Plan International and the ILO, was launched in November 2016 during the Annual Meeting of the Alliance in Geneva.

News | 03 February 2017
Since the launch of the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Emergencies in 2012, the Child Labour Task Force of the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (formerly the global Child Protection Working Group) has promoted the use of the standards and provided technical support to organisations and humanitarian responses using them.

The Child Labour Task Force, co-chaired by Plan International and ILO in the meanwhile continued its efforts to give child protection and humanitarian practitioners a user friendly tool to implement child labour programmes in line with those standards. This culminated in the production of the Child Labour in Emergencies: Introducing the New Interagency Toolkit, which was launched in November 2016 during the Annual Meeting of the Alliance in Geneva.

During 2017 this toolkit is being shared and used in order to gather feedback on it’s content, format, and usability, to ensure it meets the needs of humanitarian child protection practitioners in the field and others who wish to design and implement responses to child labour in humanitarian contexts.

The primary purpose of this guidance is to support child protection programme managers and advisors to:
  • Set priorities, design strategies and implement activities to address and prioritize child labour interventions as a life-saving activity;
  • Coordinate with humanitarian, government and development actors across sectors to address child labour in emergencies as part of a systems strengthening approach to reach the most vulnerable children;
  • Strengthen situational analysis to improve the understanding of the present and future risks if there is no intervention;
  • Ensure no harm is done during emergency responses: Set priorities, design strategies and implement activities to do no harm and prevent child labour and its worst forms worsening.

Webinar to introduce the toolkit

The Child Labour Task Force plans to hold a webinar to introduce the tool it to potential users and practitioners. The webinar will be held on Wednesday 15th of February 2017 at 8am (EST)/2pm (CET) and will introduce the toolkit and its key features/guidance, as well as the piloting process. There will be field examples of how the toolkit has been applied, and a discussion / Q&A, which we hope will generate lively dialogue and encourage actors to use and mobilise support for good practice:
  • Introduction to the toolkit and pilot process (Alyson Eynon)
  • Plan International using the toolkit to design assessment methodology (Lotte Claessens)
  • Using the toolkit to develop coordinated interagency and multi-sector strategy (Alyson Eynon)

There will be for discussion, so participants are encouraged to come with their questions, challenges and own experiences to share. The webinar will be held in English.