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Technical Cooperation Project Summary

Project Title

Regional Program on the Prevention and Reintegration of Children Involved in Armed Conflicts in Central Africa (Phase I)

ILAB Program

Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking

Region/Country

AFRICA/Burundi, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda

Project Duration

September 2001 – June 2003 [CLOSED]

Fiscal Year & Funding Level

FY2001: $312,812

Problem to be Addressed

It is estimated that 120,000 children between 7 and 18 are currently participating in armed conflict across Africa. They are used as porters, messengers, spies or armed combatants. Girls are extremely vulnerable: they are kidnapped and used as sexual objects and can also end up on the front lines. These children suffer serious physical, social and psychological abuses. They are often orphans or their family ties were destroyed; they sometimes commit atrocities in their home villages as part of their “training.”

Targets
  • Partner organizations participating in the country review and the national workshops. (In Phase II, the project will directly benefit children under the age of 18 who are at risk and those who were recruited in armed forces in their respective countries.)

Project Objectives

Development Objective: To contribute to the effective abolition of the use of child soldiers that is considered on of the worst forms of child labor through the following two immediate objectives:

  • At the end of the program, the knowledge on the situation and needs of children involved in armed conflicts in four countries of Central Africa would have been enhanced.
  • At the end of the program, capacities of governmental and non-governmental organizations in Central African countries to tackle the problem of child soldiers would have been increased and a common strategy for action would have been identified.

Summary of Activities

  • Appraisal of the problem and existing responses;
  • Identification of a strategy for concerted action.

Partner Organizations

Executing Agency
International Labor Organisation’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC)

Implementing and Collaborating Agencies
FAFO Institute for Applied Social Sciences, Advisory Multi-Disciplinary Team (EMAC); ILO Area Office (AO); United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); International Organization for Migration (IOM); Save the Children; Anti Slavery; United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Contact Information

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

(202) 693-4843