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Technical Cooperation Project Summary

Project Title

Combating Exploitive Child Labor Through Education in Niger

Region/Country

AFRICA/Niger

Project Duration

September 30, 2004 – September 26, 2008

Fiscal Year & Funding Level

FY 2004: USD 2,000,000

Problem to be Addressed

Approximately 70 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 14 years in Niger are economically active. Child labor is prevalent in agriculture, mining, and meat packing and processing. Trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children also occur, although information is limited on the extent of the problem. Causes of exploitive child labor include a lack of data on the problem; weak national institutions; a lack of public awareness on the problem of child labor and the benefits of education; and a lack of access to quality basic education and non-formal education.

Results

The project withdrew 804 and prevented 6,347 children from exploitive work in sectors including mining, domestic servitude, hazardous forms of agricultural work, and cattle breeding activities. Additionally, the project increased access for children at 115 public schools, and raised awareness of the worst forms of child labor, child rights, girl’s education, and HIV/AIDS in 151 villages.

Project Objectives

To contribute to the elimination of the worst forms of child labor in Niger by increasing the participation in appropriate education programs of children who are at risk or involved in exploitive child labor in the Dosso, Maradi, and Tillaberi regions.

Intermediate objectives include:

  • Strengthen national education and child protection institutions in combating child labor through research and awareness raising;
  • Mobilize communities to take actions aimed at reducing child labor and promoting education;
  • Improve access to relevant, quality, formal education systems for children at risk or involved in exploitive child labor; and
  • Provide children above the age for acceptance to formal primary education, who are at risk or involved in exploitive child labor, access to relevant, quality, non-formal education programs.

Summary of Activities
  • Conducted a national baseline study on exploitive child labor and trafficking, and published and disseminated the results on a national level;
  • Assisted the Government of Niger to develop a national action plan aimed at reducing child labor;
  • Targeted communities, parents, and extractive industry employers with awareness-raising activities on topics such as child rights, girls’ education, early marriage, and HIV/AIDS;
  • Utilized participatory approaches to help communities identify and overcome the barriers to children accessing appropriate education programs (including training for school management committees and school parents associations);
  • Improved school quality through activities such as, improving basic infrastructure, providing school supplies, strengthening curricula, supporting continuing education opportunities for teachers, and promoting vocational and life-skills training;
  • Improved access to education through activities such as, facilitating the receipt of birth certificates, promoting school gardens, initiating school health activities, and promoting family income generation;
  • Provided transitional education for children engaged in child labor; and
  • Provided non-formal education programs for children who have missed the opportunity to participate in formal schooling.

Grantee

Catholic Relief Services

Implementing partners

Catholic Mission in Maradi, Equipes de Jeunes formateurs et Animateurs pour le Développement, Government of Niger, Plan International, World Food Program, World Vision, and Group d’Appui a la Scolarisation des Femmes

Contact Information

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

(202) 693-4843