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Technical Cooperation Project Summary

Project Title

National Program on the Elimination of Child Labor in ghana

Region/Country

AFRICA/Ghana

Project Duration

August 1999 – October 2003

Fiscal Year & Funding Level

FY 1999: USD 650,703

Problem to be Addressed

Although surveys indicate that approximately 7.8 percent of 7 to 14 year olds and 31.5 percent of 15 to 19 year olds are economically active, only 59 percent of all children ages 7 to 19 attend school regularly. Children not attending school may be involved in hidden work activities not captured by surveys. Economic necessity leads many children who work to drop out of school to support themselves and their families. Many children also become disenchanted with the formal school system and prefer to work.

Results

The project withdrew 1,687 children and prevented another 461 children from “Trokosi” (female servants that serve at fetish shrines) in the Akatsi District; domestic work in the Kumasi Metropolis of the Ashanti Region; the informal tourism sector in the Cape Coast and Elmina townships; and “Kayaye,” or fosterage, in Tolon Kunbungu District of the Northern Region.

Project Objectives

To contribute to the progressive elimination of child labor in Ghana, focusing on the worst forms of child labor as a priority, in line with the recently adopted ILO Convention (No. 182) on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, 1999.

Immediate objectives:

  • Strengthen the capacity of the government to combat and prevent child labor in Ghana; and
  • Implement pilot programs to directly improve the situation of 2,000 formerly working children, and indirectly benefit a larger group of working children and their families.

Summary of Activities
  • Formed a National Steering Committee;
  • Worked with the government, workers and employers groups, NGOs, and academia partners to develop a comprehensive national policy and plan of action to combat child labor, with a focus on the worst forms of child labor;
  • Established a child labor unit within the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare;
  • Strengthened and harmonized national legislation on exploitive child labor in terms of education and social welfare;
  • Promoted the revision of labor laws to specifically address the protection of children from exploitive work and strengthened enforcement mechanisms;
  • Established monitoring mechanisms at the community level and developed a tracking system for child workers who directly benefit from IPEC programs;
  • Linked a limited number of families of working children with income generating assistance programs; and
  • Raised awareness in Ghanaian society of the dangers of exploitive child labor, harmful traditional practices, the value of education, and the development needs of children.

Grantee

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

Implementing partners

Ministries of Employment and Social Welfare, Education, and Justice; local government; National Development Planning Commission, Ghana National Commission on Children; Ghana Statistical Service; the Ghanaian Agricultural Workers’ Union; The National Employers Associations; University of GHANA; TV3; African Center for Human Development; UNICEF; UNDP; UNESCO; UN-AIDS; International Needs; Youth Development Foundation; Ghana NGO Coalition on the Rights of the Child; and RAINS.

Contact Information

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

(202) 693-4843