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Technical Cooperation Project Summary

Project Title

Country Program for Combating the Worst Forms of Child Labor in Panama (Phase II)

Region/Country

THE AMERICAS/Panama

Project Duration

September 15, 2006 – September 15, 2009

Fiscal Year & Funding Level

FY 2006: USD 1,600,000

Problem to be Addressed

Many children in Panama who are members of indigenous groups or living in rural or poor urban areas do not attend school. Lack of land, migration and poverty push many of these children to work in potentially hazardous occupations, such as harvesting sugar cane, at an early age.

Targets

The project aims to withdraw 750 children from exploitive rural and informal urban work and prevent an additional 750 from becoming engaged in such activities in urban areas of Santiago de Veraguas, West Panama City and the rural areas of districts of Nole Duima and Muna, in the Ngöbe-Buglé Demarcation (Chiriqui).

Project Objectives

Development Goal:
To contribute to the elimination of the worst forms of child labor in Panama through the following two immediate objectives:

  • Build on the experiences and lessons learned of the first phase to help national institutions to implement the National Plan of Action for the Elimination of Child Labor; and
  • Withdraw 750 children and adolescents from exploitive labor in rural and informal urban work and prevent an additional 750 from becoming engaged in such activities through the provision of basic education and other services.

Summary of Activities
  • Provide technical assistance to the National Committee for the Eradication of Child Labor and the Protection of Working Adolescents, (CETIPPAT) to effectively serve as an inter-institutional coordinating body;
  • Monitor the implementation of the National Plan and the country’s progress towards the elimination of child labor;
  • Build the individual capacity of the national institutions that are members of the CETIPPAT to effectively design, implement and monitor programs to prevent and eliminate child labor;
  • Provide technical assistance to the national institutions responsible for improving the enforcement of pertinent laws and regulations; and
  • Continue to implement demonstrative pilot programs to provide hands-on, practical experience to key national institutions.
  • As of February 28, 2009, 1,605 children have been withdrawn or prevented from exploitive child labor as a result of this project.

Grantee

International Labor Organization’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC)

ImplemeNTING PARTNERS

Casa Esperanza, Fundación para el Desarrollo sostenible de Panamá – FUNDESPA

Contact Information

Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking (OCFT)

(202) 693-4843