The first agreement was signed with the Fondation pour le Développement Communautaire, FDC, a local organization specialized in tackling child labour, promoting education, vocational training, and health and social protection. This partnership aims to withdraw at least 300 children from child labour in the cotton, textile and garment value chain in the Boucle du Mouhoun, Centre and Hauts-Bassins regions and to rehabilitate them through short-term vocational training.

As part of the implementation of this agreement, the selection of 300 child beneficiaries of this program was realized during a workshop held in Bobo Dioulasso on 26 and 27 August 2021.

This selection, based on the identification of children in the cotton fields carried out by FDC officers, was facilitated by the commitment and strong involvement of the representatives of the cotton producers' cooperatives, the regional directorate of labour and social protection, the provincial directorate in charge of social action, and the regional directorate of youth and youth entrepreneurship of said regions.

The second agreement, with the No-Biel association, has similar objectives in the southwestern region of the country. No-Biel is an association that promotes local development in the South-West region, notably in the areas of the fight against child labour, the promotion of health, water, hygiene and sanitation as well as the economic development of households.

The workshop to launch the project activities in this region took place on 30 June 2021 in Gaoua, and was marked by the presence of the Secretary General representing the Governor of the region as well as all key stakeholders (local authorities, representatives of cotton producers and other actors of the fight against child labour).

"The ownership of the project by the stakeholders in the region is crucial to achieve the objectives set," said Gregoire Yameogo, national coordinator of the CLEAR Cotton project in Burkina Faso.

Thanks to the CLEAR Cotton project, children withdrawn from the fields will benefit from short modular training courses in the region's most promising sectors. These include training in solar electricity, dyeing, soap making and small cattle breeding. The proposed training courses were identified thanks to an analysis of economic opportunities in the region.

The distribution of children by type of training will take into account the will of the children who are identified. The training offer may also be adjusted according to partnership opportunities with training centres and other stakeholders in the region.

These vocational training opportunities for children aged 14 to 17 complement the accelerated education offer already implemented in the Boucle du Mouhoun region by the project for children aged 9 to 13.
In order to contribute to the prevention of the phenomenon and with a view to sustaining the results achieved, the project will also support the establishment of protection networks and community-based remedial mechanisms in the region.

Co-funded by the European Union, the German Cooperation and the ILO, and implemented by the ILO in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the CLEAR Cotton project aims to combat child and forced labour in the cotton, textile and garment value chains in Burkina Faso, Mali, Pakistan and Peru.