Futuros Brillantes: Project to Reduce Child Labor and Improve Labor Rights and Working Conditions in Honduras
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The Problem
In Honduras, more than 370,000 children are economically active. Families often lack adequate educational and livelihood opportunities, which can push children to engage in child labor. To improve the economic situation of children and families, the Ministry of Labor needs to improve its capacity to identify and use all available tools to help ensure remediation of labor law violations related to freedom of association and the rights to organize and bargain collectively.
Our Strategy
The first objective of Futuros Brillante is to reduce child labor and improve labor rights in Honduras, particularly in agricultural areas of southern Honduras and in the San Pedro Sula area. The second objective is to work with the Honduran Government, industry, and other stakeholders to build the STSS’ capacity to identify and use all available tools to help ensure remediation of labor law violations related to freedom of association and the rights to organize and bargain collectively in the maquiladora sector.
Intermediate Objectives:
- Provide formal or non-formal educational or vocational training services to children and youth
- Provide households economic strengthening services
- Establish Workers’ Rights Centers
- Train and build the capacity of Honduran labor inspectors to identify and document violations of labor rights, including of the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining and to use all available tools to help remediate these violations
Summary of Activities:
- Building inspector capacity to identify and detect labor law violations, in particular child labor and other violations of labor rights
- Providing specialized training on freedom of association, organizing, and collective bargaining
- Providing a specialized training program on child labor and targeted inspections on child labor
- Raising awareness of these issues
- Establishing youth banks
- Linking adults to alternate formal education system or with the government’s adult and child literacy program
Targets:
Futuros Brillantes is working to reduce child labor and improve labor rights in Honduras, particularly in Valle, Choluteca, Intibucá, Atlántida, La Paz, and in the San Pedro Sula area. The project works with the Honduran Government, industry, and other stakeholders to build the Ministry of Labor’s capacity to help ensure remediation of labor law violations related to freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively. The project is targeting 5,850 children and youth as well as 1,787 households.
Results
- More than 6,000 children and youth have enrolled in formal and non-formal educational services with the project’s support in collaboration with local implementing organizations.
- The project determined which livelihoods services were appropriate based on market studies and in collaboration with local organizations. These livelihoods services will reach 1,800 families
- In collaboration with the STSS, Futuros Brillante trained 170 labor inspectors on issues of child labor, worker rights, and occupational safety and health, including COVID-19 prevention.
- The project developed an e-learning platform for trainings for the STSS. The project is also in the first phase of an electronic case management system for the management of labor cases.
- Grantee:
- World Vision
- Implementing Partners:
- CASM and Caritas
- Contact Information:
- GlobalKids@ILAB.dol.gov / Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT)
- Tags:
- Child Labor
- Coffee
- Northern Central America
