Eliminating child labour in West Africa and strengthening sub-regional cooperation through ECOWAS (ECOWAS II)



In the artisanal quarries in both south and central Benin, children commonly help their families collect, break, sort and transport granite blocks, stones and loads of sand. In some communities children as young as ten years old leave Benin unaccompanied by their families to work in stone quarries in southwest Nigeria. ILO-IPEC aims to initiate direct action programmes to combat the worst forms of child labour in the artisanal mining sector in Benin and Nigeria. Planned activities in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana will supplement direct interventions at the community levels that have been initiated in the WA ECOWAS I project.

The ECOWAS II project aims to contribute to ongoing efforts by national governments, employers and workers’ organizations, civil society and community based organizations as well as the Executive Secretariat and other institutions of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in West Africa.


Achievements

Highlights

  • A total of 1321 out of 2310 children have been prevented from child labour.
  • In October 2010, the Executive (Cabinet) of Ghana approved the National Plan of Action on Child Labour (NPA) upon submission of a memorandum by the Minister for Employment and Social Welfare (MESW). In this context it called for continued clarity between acceptable and unacceptable work of children with due consideration to the national cultural environment.
  • Ghana’s NPA, was formally launched during the 2011 WDACL.
  • Côte d’Ivoire adopted a new NPA (2012-2014). On Wednesday, March 28, 2012, the national Monitoring committee and the inter ministerial committee against trafficking, exploitation and child labour organized, in the presence of other stakeholders, organized the official validation of the new national plan of action against trafficking and the worst forms of child labour in Côte d'Ivoire (2012-2014). This action plan aims to reduce significantly the worst forms of child labour by 2014.
  • The 4th Meeting of the Standing Committee for the monitoring of the Cooperation Agreement between the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire and the Republic of Mali, in the fight against cross-border child trafficking, was held in October 2011.

Resources

  1. Instructional material

    Good practices and lessons learned on the elimination of child labour in Ghana - ECOWAS projects' experiences

    11 August 2015

    The objectives of the GP and LL documentation is to enable sharing of practices that significantly contributed or have the potential to contribute to efforts at eliminating child labour and which could inspire other on-going and future interventions.

  2. Instructional material

    Bonnes pratiques et leçons apprises sur l'élimination du travail des enfants en Côte d’Ivoire - Expériences des projets CEDEAO

    24 June 2015

    La documentation des bonnes pratiques, leçons apprises et enseignements des projets ECOWAS doit permettre de disposer d’un recueil de bonnes pratiques, leçons apprises et enseignements tirés en matière de lutte contre les pires formes de travail des enfants en Afrique de l’Ouest.

  3. Instructional material

    Good practices and lessons learned on the elimination of child labour in Nigeria - ECOWAS projects' experiences

    24 June 2015

    This ECOWAS projects' document is a collection of good practices and lessons learned which should allow to fight against the worst forms of child labor in West Africa.

  4. Instructional material

    Bonnes pratiques et leçons apprises dans l’élimination du travail des enfants dans les mines et carrières artisanales du Bénin

    01 July 2014

    Dans une dynamique de durabilité et de consolidation des acquis des moyens de prévention et de lutte efficace contre le travail des enfants dans les mines et carrières au Bénin, cette brochure nous présente les quatre bonnes pratiques issues de la mise en œuvre du projet ECOWAS II identifiées.