"NAP 1: 2009-2025" under review- Deputy Minister Baba Jamal The Deputy Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Baba Jamal says the first National Plan of Action on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (NAP 1: 2009-2025) is currently under review. Mr. Jamal, said this at the launch of this year’s World Day Against Child Labour (WDACL) in Accra. He said the National Plan of Action Against Child Labour (NAP 2: 2016-2010), is currently at its final stages of completion and being designed to build on the gains made, utilizing good practices and lessons learned to address the challenge of child labour in a more effective and sustainable manner. He said (NAP 2: 2016-2010) would give attention to the need to mobilize more resources, focus attention in local communities and strengthen education outcomes so that children would be enrolled and retained in schools. He said the design and programming of (NAP 2: 2016-2010) were informed by recommendations from the review of NPA 1 and the recent Child Labour Report on the survey conducted as part of the Ghana Living Standards Survey Round 6 as well as national policy objectives in the present National Development Policy Framework. Mr. Jamal gave the assurance that NAP 2 would be implemented with more vigour, using the tools of effective monitoring and accountability and within a robust frame of collaboration and co-ordination among partners. He noted, however, that even though the key tasks for eliminating child labour rested with government, effective action required collaboration between government and agencies, including labour inspectorates, national social partners, business and workers’ representatives in enterprises. A a representative of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Ghana, Laliana Razafindrakoto, in her contribution, said progress on the elimination of child labour required effective governance, social dialogue and collaboration, and commitment and co-ordination among stakeholders. Ms. Razafindrakoto commended Ghana for its efforts, since 2002 to address the challenge of child labour as well as its accelerated efforts to share its own experiences among the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member states. She said the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights provided that Governments had the duty to protect children against the violation of their rights while enterprises had a corporate responsibility to respect children’s rights, including combating child labour in their respective sectors or supply chains, with victims having the right to immediate access to effective remedy and better alternatives to child labour. She pledged the continuous support of ILO in all efforts at eradicating child labour by supporting mechanisms for increased compliance with national legislation and respect for internationally-recognized human and labour rights. Ms Razafindrakoto disclosed that ILO had just begun the implementation of a project in Ghana that aimed to convene stakeholders to develop and implement strategies to reduce child labour and improve working class conditions in artisanal and small-scale gold mining. The project, she said, was in recognition of the urgent need to facilitate dialogue around key emerging issues among stakeholders and a renewed effort to support the implementation of NPA. In a statement, Nana Asante-Bempong, representing the Ghana Employers Association (GEA) disclosed that GEA had collaborated with commercial oil palm and rubber plantations to address the issue of child labour in the supply chains. Nana Asante-Bempong said GEA had organized activities for out growers, smallholders, agents and contractors which benefitted from companies such as the Benso Oil Palm and Twifo Oil Palm Plantations, Norpalm Ghana Ltd., Ghana Oil Development Company and the Ghana Rubber Estates Ltd. Furthermore, she said GEA had worked with the Ghana Cotton Company Limited’s sites in Tumu, Bolgatanga and Tamale to address child labour in the Cotton industry, and also worked with the Council for Indigenous Business Association (CIBA) to address child labour issues in the informal sector of the economy. GEA, she added, had also assisted and encouraged many of its member companies to adopt codes of conduct for responsible business to address core human rights, labour and environmental issues within the supply chain. Nana Asante-Bempong, therefore, urged the private sector to disclose their efforts to address child labour in the supply chains. WDACL was launched by ILO in 2002 to focus attention on the global extent of child labour and the action and efforts needed to eliminate it. Each year on June 12, WDACL brings together governments, employers and workers organizations, civil society, as well as millions of people from around the world to highlight the plight of child labourers and what can be done to help them. WDACL 2016 is being observed on the theme: ‘End Child Labour in the Supply Chain in Ghana—Together We Can’, with the aim of promoting awareness and action to end child labour in supply chains and to call on those countries that have not yet ratified the ILO Convention on Child Labour to do so. The focus of this year’s WDACL was informed by the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (the MNE Declaration) which makes it clear that all enterprises have the responsibility to obey national law and to contribute to the realization of all fundamental principles and rights at work, including the elimination of child labour as defined in ILO Convention Number 138 on Minimum Age and Number 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Work. Even though, according to the World Bank, the incidence of child labour, globally, decreased from 25 per cent to 10 per cent between 1960 and 2003, the total number of child labourers still remains high, with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and ILO acknowledging an estimated 168 million children aged 5–17 worldwide, being involved in child labour in 2013. With 168 million children still in child labour, worldwide, all supply chains, from agriculture to manufacturing and from services to construction, run the risk that child labour may be present. And in Ghana the latest Child Labour Report, released by the Ghana Statistical Service in 2014 and supported by ILO, indicates that 21.8 per cent of children aged 5-17 years (about 1.9 million) are still engaged in child labour while about 14 per cent (14.2 per cent) of children covered in the survey (about 1.2 million) were engaged in hazardous forms of child labour in the country. Activities marking WDACL 2016 in Ghana are being organized by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations. SOURCE: ISD