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Technical Cooperation Project Summary

Project Title

Creating the enabling environment to establish models for child labor free areas in Kenya: support to the implementation of the national action plan for the elimination of the worst forms of child labor with special focus on agriculture and older children

Region/Country

AFRICA/ Kenya

Project Duration

September 30, 2009 – July 31, 2013

Fiscal Year & Funding Level

FY 2009:  USD 4,600,000

Problem to be Addressed

Kenyan children primarily work in agriculture on mixed farms and, to a lesser extent, on tea and sugar plantations.  Children also work in the production of coffee, flowers, maize, miraa, rice, sisal, and tobacco.  To date, Kenya has implemented five USDOL-funded child labor programs.  The project will enhance the Government of Kenya’s efforts to combat child labor by supporting the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) and the Decent Work Country Program.

Targets

A total of 8,155 children under the age of 18 years will be targeted for withdrawal (3,700) and prevention (4,455) from exploitive child labor through the provision of direct educational services.  The project will use an integrated area based approach to combat any and all worst forms of child labor within the districts of Kilifi, Kitui, and Busia, creating child labor free zones.  A special emphasis and focus will be given to child laborers in rural areas, especially in agriculture, and to children aged 15-17.  The project will reintegrate and repatriate, where appropriate, children rescued from trafficking and forced child labor, including commercial sexual exploitation.  The project will also provide 1,000 families with access to socio-economic programs, skills development training, employment creation schemes, and access to micro-credit.

Project Objectives

The project aims to reduce the incidence of the worst forms of child labor in Kenya.

Immediate objectives include:

  • Strengthen and enforce national policies, programs, and legislation on child labor to ensure coherence and the effective implementation of the National Action Plan.
  • Create effective models with documented processes to establish child labor free zones using an integrated area based approach (IABA) in three districts.
Build the capacity of tripartite partners (employers’ and workers’ organizations), key role players (parents and guardians of targeted children), and other stakeholders (national and local government) so they can support the implementation of the National Action Plan to combat child labor.

Summary of Activities
  • Support the Ministry of Labor’s implementation of the National Action Plan (in collaboration with social partners).
  • Create a child labor free zone model with documented good practices.
  • Support awareness raising activities about child labor among parliamentarians, political leaders, decision-makers, and other stakeholder groups. 
  • Train the Child Labor Division within the Ministry of Labor to identify central government funding sources to support youth employment training and the elimination of child labor.
  • Create a network of trained child labor focal points within government departments and social partner organizations on the enforcement of child labor laws and regulations.
  • Provide technical assistance to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics to incorporate child labor data collection in future national surveys.
  • Conduct local labor market analysis to improve existing vocational training programs.
  • Assist local structures to establish community-based child labor monitoring systems and design effective direct action programs to withdraw and prevent 6,700 children from exploitative child labor.
  • Collaborate with the International Agricultural Partnership in Kenya to develop joint project actions targeting children engaged in agriculture. 
  • Conduct a “national costing study” to estimate the cost of eliminating WFCL by 2015.
  • Provide technical support to employers to protect 300 youth workers from exploitative labor.

Grantee

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

Implementing partners

Ministry of Labor, Ministry of National Planning and Vision, Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Affairs, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology, Ministry of Agriculture, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Information and Communication, Employers’ and Workers’ Organizations

Contact Information

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

(202) 693-4843