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Technical Cooperation Project Summary

Project Title

NATIONAL PROGRAM ON THE ELIMINATION OF CHILD LABOR

Region/Country

AFRICA/Nigeria

Project Duration

January 2000 – October 31, 2003

Fiscal Year & Funding Level

FY2003: USD 3,000,000
Matching Funds: USD 456,627

Problem to be Addressed

No comprehensive, systematic, integrated and reliable data on child labor exists on the magnitude and severity of child labor in Nigeria. As a result, the traditional exploitive use of children’s labor in family businesses, in agriculture and in other sectors continues without sanction.

Results

The project withdrew 1,084 children and prevented another 1,200 children from commercial sexual exploitation and head loading in Ibadan; commercial sexual exploitation and domestic work in Lagos; and working as bus conductors within Lagos Mainland Local Government Area, Lagos State.

Project Objectives

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

Intermediate objectives include:

  • By the end of the program, the Government of Nigeria will have formulated a national policy and plan of action to combat child labor. This policy commitment will have been translated into concrete measures towards the harmonization of national child labor legislation, and will have strengthened the Government’s institutional capacity to address the problem of exploitive child labor; and
  • By the end of the program, a range of pilot projects will have been implemented, improving the situation of 3,000 (ex-) child workers directly, and a larger number of children indirectly (possibly around 10,000), through a change of attitudes and perceptions about child labor in Nigerian society.

Summary of Activities
  • Withdrew child workers from hazardous work and provided them with educational alternatives;
  • Raised awareness on child labor to encourage change in social attitudes and perceptions in Nigerian society;
  • Facilitated development of a national policy and plan of action to prevent and combat child labor, and harmonization of national child labor legislation with international conventions; and
  • Strengthened national capacity to address the problem of exploitive child labor.

Grantee

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

Implementing partners

Nigerian Federal Ministry of Employment and Productivity – Child Labor Unit; Nigerian Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare (FMWASW); Federal Office of Statistics; National Planning Commission; Nigerian Law Review Commission; Nigerian Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA); National Labor Congress (NLC); Senior Staff Consultative Association of Nigeria (SESCAN);
Galillee Foundation; Women’s Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON); Human Development Initiatives; Human Development Foundation of Nigeria; The Family Craft Centre; African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN); Social Science Academy of Nigeria; InterConsult; academia; media; UNICEF; UNDP; UNESCO.

Contact Information

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

(202) 693-4843