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Technical Cooperation Project Summary

Project Title

Countering youth and child labor through education in Sierra leone and Liberia

Region/Country

AFRICA/Sierra Leone and Liberia

Project Duration

September 30, 2005 – June 30, 2010

Fiscal Year & Funding Level

FY 2005: USD 6,000,000
Matching Funds: USD 855,854
FY 2009: USD 300,000

Problem to be Addressed

Child labor is prevalent in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Many children are employed in family businesses, subsistence farming, street trading, and domestic work. In both countries, children are trafficked from rural to urban areas and to diamond mining areas for purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor. Following years of civil war, Sierra Leone and Liberia face massive infrastructure damage, teacher shortages, large numbers of youth who have missed years of schooling, and the challenge of reintegrating refuges, internally displaced persons, and former child soldiers. Causes of exploitive child labor include a lack of data on the problem; weak national institutions; and a lack of access to quality basic education and non-formal education opportunities.

Targets

The project targets 8,243 children for withdrawal and 21,647 for prevention from child soldiering and other worst forms of child labor. In Liberia, the project targets children from Lofa, Nimba, and Montserrado counties and in Sierra Leone, it focuses on children from Freetown, Kono district, and Tongo fields.

Project Objectives

To contribute to the sustainable elimination of exploitive child labor in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Intermediate objectives include:

  • Increase enrollment in educational services for children engaged in or at risk of engaging in exploitive child labor;
  • Increase retention in and completion of educational services; and
  • Strengthen national and local systems for monitoring and supporting education and eliminating exploitive child labor.

Summary of Activities
  • Conduct a baseline study on exploitive child labor, and publish and disseminate the results;
  • Improve school access through activities such as providing tuition vouchers or scholarships, initiating school health activities, and promoting family income generation;
  • Improve school quality through activities such as improving basic infrastructure, providing school supplies, strengthening curricula, and supporting continuing education for teachers;
  • Provide non-formal education programs for children who have missed the opportunity to participate in formal schooling;
  • Target communities, parents, and government officials with awareness-raising activities on topics such as child rights, child labor issues, and the protective function of education; and
  • Assist local partners with developing individual child tracking and project monitoring systems, including self-evaluation tools.
  • As of February 28, 2009, 29,890 children have been withdrawn or prevented from exploitive child labor as a result of this project.

Grantee

International Rescue Committee in association with the Organization for Children and Adolescent Mothers, African Network for the Prevention and Protection of Children against Abuse and Neglect, Save the Children of Africa Fund, and Community Action for Rural Development.

Implementing partners

Government agencies at local and state levels and community-based organizations.

Contact Information

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

(202) 693-4843