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Technical Cooperation Project Summary

Project Title

Support for the Preparation of the Mali Timebound Program

Region/Country

Africa/Mali

Project Duration

September 30, 2006 – June 30, 2010

Fiscal Year & Funding Level

FY 2006:  USD 3,723,968

Problem to be Addressed

Over 2 million Malian children aged 5 to 14 years are child laborers. Nearly all of these children work in unpaid labor for their families.  The USDOL-funded project will supply focused support to the Government of Mali and other stakeholders in their efforts to develop and implement a Timebound Program (TBP) to eliminate the worst forms of child labor (WFCL).

Targets

The project targets 3,000 children to be withdrawn and 6,000 children to be prevented from exploitive work in agriculture, mining, the urban informal sector, domestic and commercial sexual exploitation.  A total of 8,500 children will be targeted to receive educational and/or training services. The remaining 500 children will be withdrawn or prevented from exploitive and/or hazardous work through the provision of other non-education related services. These services will include skills training and income generating activities to parents of children at risk, forming producers associations (e.g. Miners associations), counseling for children, improving access to health care, recreational activities and support activities to children at risk.

Project Objectives

To contribute to the elimination of the worst forms of child labor (WFCL) and the creation of a strong social foundation for eliminating all forms of child labor in Mali.

Intermediate objectives include:

  • Enhance national capacity to combat the worst forms of child labor;
  • Promote harmonization and respect for the legal framework against child labor;
  • Increase awareness of the worst forms of child labor in Mali; and
  • Withdraw children from hazardous work and prevent children from entering exploitive child labor in agriculture, domestic work, mining, the urban informal sector, and commercial sexual exploitation.

Summary of Activities
  • A National Timebound Program (TBP) umbrella framework for the elimination of WFCL will be produced and validated by the Government of Mali;
  • Integrate Child Labor issues into the Mali Poverty Reduction Program;
  • Reinforce an inter-sectoral steering committee to oversee, monitor and coordinate the implementation of the national TBP umbrella framework;
  • Train staff of key ministries and partner NGOs at the central and regional levels in needed technical and management skills;
  • Harmonize legal texts (labor code, regulations) with the relevant national and international instruments;
  • Train and network key opinion leaders (journalists, religious leaders, community leaders);
  • Design and implement public awareness-raising campaigns;
  • Improve mechanisms for improving access to education.  Project will carry out an educational needs assessment of children in WFCL and children at risk to determine their requirements for direct access to the education system, transitional education, or vocational training; and
  • Prioritize interventions that address the specific needs of vulnerable children, as identified in consultation with national and regional education authorities, and use results to design pilot direct action programs.  The project will then execute direct action programs that providechildren with educational alternatives as a means for withdrawing and preventing their involvement in WFCL.
  • As of February 28, 2009, 6,518 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

Ministries of Labor, Education, Promotion of Women, Children and the Family; local authorities, Employers and Workers organizations; Non-Governmental organizations and community-based groups; UNICEF, UNDP and other international organizations.

Contact Information

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

(202) 693-4843