2006 Educ Field Out of Work Into School Asia Pacific en

Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation
International
Labour
Office
OUT OF WORK
AND INTO SCHOOL

our development challenge
Publication of Project Experiences, 2001-2006
OUT OF WORK
AND INTO SCHOOL

our development challenge
Publication of Project Experiences, 2001-2006
Copyright International Labour Organization 2006

First published July 2006
Publications of the International Labour Office enjoy copyright under Protocol 2 of the Universal
Copyright Convention. Nevertheless, short excerpts from them may be reproduced without
authorization, on condition that the source is indicated. For rights of reproduction or translation,
application should be made to the ILO Publications (Rights and Permissions), International Labour
Office, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland, or by email: pubdroit@ilo.org. The International Labour
Office welcomes such applications.
Libraries, institutions and other users registered in the United Kingdom with the Copyright Licensing
Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP [Fax: (+44) (0)20 7631 5500;
email: cla@cla.co.uk], in the United States with the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive,
Danvers, MA 01923 [Fax: (+1) (978) 750 4470; email: info@copyright.com] or in other countries with
associated Reproduction Rights Organizations, may make photocopies in accordance with the licences
issued to them for this purpose.
ILO
Out of Work and Into School: Our Development Challenge
Bangkok, International Labour Office, 2006
Cover photo: ILO/Deloche P.
Back cover photo: ILO/Maillard J.
ISBN 92-2-119036-6 & 978-92-2-119036-3 (print)
ISBN 92-2-119037-4 & 978-92-2-119037-0 (web pdf )
ISBN 92-2-119038-2 & 978-92-2-119038-7 (CD-ROM)
The designations employed in ILO publications, which are in conformity with United Nations practice,
and the presentation of material therein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the
part of the International Labour Office concerning the legal status of any country, area or territory or of
its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers.
The responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles, studies and other contributions rests solely
with their authors, and publication does not constitute an endorsement by the International Labour
Office of the opinions expressed in them.
Reference to names of firms and commercial products and processes does not imply their endorsement
by the International Labour Office, and any failure to mention a particular firm, commercial product or
process is not a sign of disapproval.
ILO publications can be obtained through major booksellers or ILO local offices in many countries, or
direct from ILO Publications, International Labour Office, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland or
International Labour Organization 11th floor, United Nations Building, Rajdamnern Nok Avenue, P.O.
Box. 2-349, Bangkok, Thailand or email to bangkok@ilo.org. Catalogues or lists of new publications
are available free of charge from the above address. Or by email: pubvente@ilo.org
Visit our website: www.ilo.org/publns
Visit our project web site: www.ilo.org/apec
Design by Keen Publishing (Thailand) Co. Ltd.
Printed in Thailand
FOREWORD
As an integral part of its work for the elimination of child labour over the last decade, the ILOs
International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (ILO-IPEC) has used education and skills
training interventions extensively in its programmes and projects worldwide. In 1999, the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum issued a landmark Joint Ministerial Statement in which it called
upon its Human Resources Development Working Group to promote educational opportunities for
youth in the region as one means to eliminate the worst forms of child labour as a priority. It was
felt that if ignored, child labour could perpetuate poverty and stunt economic development in an
environment of increasing international competitiveness and interdependence. The region will not be
able to sustain growth and development if a segment of its youth cannot achieve their full potential.
Leading on from this, in October 2000, the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) organized a
conference on child labour and education which was sponsored in cooperation with the Thai Ministry
of Labour and Social Welfare, ILO-IPEC and the Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA). It was the first APEC activity to address the issue of child labour, and it looked at successful
strategies in removing children from the worst forms of child labour and providing them with
educational opportunities. APEC recognized that there was an urgent need to raise awareness of the risks
of child labour and the importance of quality education to children and their families in the affected
communities, as well as to decision-makers who formulate policies that related to child labour and
education. ILO-IPEC welcomed this chain of events, which led to the proposal to develop an APEC
regional awareness-raising campaign to use education to combat child labour, and the APEC Awareness
Raising Campaign: Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labour and Providing Educational
Opportunities was launched in 2001. The initiative aims to increase public awareness and capacity for
action in selected APEC economies, and this was accomplished through alliance building at national and
regional levels and engaging government authorities, employers and workers organizations, educators,
civil society groups and children and families from the affected communities.
Six Member Economies signed up to the initiative, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Thailand
and Viet Nam, two of which Mexico and Viet Nam were in the process of establishing their own
country programmes with IPEC at the time. Indeed, the project served as a catalyst to support the
implementation of these programmes and to carry out much needed sensitization activities to help
stakeholders and the public at large to better understand the implications of a large-scale programme of
this nature.
As it draws to the end of its second phase and we look back on the impact this relatively low-resourced,
but high-output and innovative project has had in the region and on APEC itself, we can feel secure that
appropriate regional alliances are in place and key partners are mobilized to sustain relevant activities that
use basic education and skills development to combat child labour. The project has capitalized
on enhanced awareness and established alliances to push for policy development that focuses on
improving access and quality of education to combat the worst forms of child labour. Local and
iii
national authorities are being encouraged to take an integrated approach to combating child labour,
promoting basic education and skills development as well as alleviating poverty. APEC representatives at
country level have been an important part of these efforts, and model approaches have been identified
and will be promoted within the APEC region to sustain efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child
labour through education interventions.
The end of this crucial second phase has come at an important time in ILO-IPECs history. The 2nd
Global Report on Child Labour, entitled The end of child labour: Within reach, was welcomed by
delegates to the International Labour Conference in Geneva in June this year and by the international
community generally. Progress is being made in the fight against child labour, and the figures are
steadily dropping to the extent that we feel confident enough to encourage greater support to establish
global time-bound measures to target an end to all the worst forms of child labour. Stronger
partnerships and alliances with a wide range of agencies, organizations and institutions will underpin
these global efforts, particularly in the area of policy and legislative development and enforcement.
Therefore, it has been most encouraging to see how, with limited funding but considerable political
effort and goodwill, an institution of the importance and size of APEC has reinforced its determination
to improve education and training opportunities for children and young people in the Asia-Pacific
region and to drive out the worst forms of child labour from its Member Economies.
This project would not have been possible without the significant support and efforts of the following
key actors: APEC representatives at national and regional levels, governments, social partners, civil
society organizations, children and their families, and ILO and IPEC offices in each of the countries
involved. Therefore, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to them as they all have a share in the
success of the project.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the donor, the United States Department of Labor, for its
generosity and vision in supporting this project. In addition, I would like to acknowledge the significant
amount of work put into making this initiative a success by Ms Urmila Sarkar, Child Labour and
Education Specialist, ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific who designed and managed the
project. I would also like to acknowledge the instrumental role of the project focal points in the
participating countries: Mr Patrick Quinn and Ms Dede Shinta Sudono, ILO-IPEC Indonesia;
Ms Igone Guerra, ILO-IPEC Mexico; Ms Monica Rodriguez, ILO-IPEC Peru; Ms Imelda Ochavillo,
ILO-IPEC Philippines and Ms Nguyen Thi Mai Oanh, ILO-IPEC Viet Nam. The support of
Mr Geir Myrstad as project focal point in ILO-IPEC Headquarters, Geneva should also be recognized.
Finally, I would like to thank Mr Nick and Ms Christina Grisewood for their work in putting this
publication together based on the projects experiences over the last five years.
This publication is a further step forward in ILO-IPECs sharing of knowledge and experiences in
activities to promote education and training as an intervention to combat the worst forms of child
labour. The project has achieved so much with so little and it is vital that such experiences feed future
efforts in these interrelated fields. We hope that this will continue to be an ongoing and fruitful
process and dialogue that will ultimately benefit those who need our support and commitment most
the children forced to work for their survival.
Guy Thijs
Director
ILO-IPEC
iv
CONTENTS
Executive summary
INTRODUCTION
viii
1
CHAPTER 1:
The International Labour Organization and

its work on the elimination of child labour
and promotion of education
CHAPTER 2:
About APEC
13
CHAPTER 3:
Project history
19
CHAPTER 4:
Country profiles
23
CHAPTER 5:
First phase activities by country and region
41
CHAPTER 6:
Evaluation of first phase activities at national

and regional levels
55
CHAPTER 7:
Inter-regional planning workshop
63
CHAPTER 8:
Second phase activities by country and region
67
CHAPTER 9:
Final assessment
87
CHAPTER 10:
The future
91
Bibliography
93
CD-ROM annex: Publication of Project Experiences

Brochure
Good practices compendium
Planning Workshop Report, Bangkok, 2005
Presentation to APEC HRDWG Meeting, Pattaya, 2005
Presentation to APEC HRDWG Meeting, Ho Chi Minh City, 2006
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ACLAT
ACT
ADB
ADRA-UK
AIDS
APEC
APIS
ASEAN
AVP
CBN
CEFACOM
CIDA
CLETF
COPARMEX
CPS
CROC
CTM
DAC
DCOMM
DDB
DepEd
DFID
EDNET
EFA
EI
GDP
GUF
HIV
HRD Working Group
ILAB
ILO
INEGI
IPEC
IPEC TICW
LFS
LRT
LSPN
MDGs
vi
Anti-Child Labour Award for Teachers (Philippines)

Alliance of Concerned Teachers (Philippines)
Asian Development Bank
Adventist Development and Relief Agency (UK)
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (Philippines)
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
Audio-Visual Presentation
Capacity Building Network (APEC)
Research Centre for Family Health and Community Development (Viet Nam)
Canadian International Development Agency
Child Labour and Education Task Force
Confederation of Mexican Employers
Centro Proceso Social (Peru)
Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Confederation (Mexico)
Confederation of Mexican Workers
District Action Committee (Indonesia)
Department of Communications (ILO)
Doyle Dane Bernbach (Philippines)
Department of Education (Philippines)
Department for International Development (UK)
Education Network (APEC)
Education for All
Education International
Gross Domestic Product
Global Union Federation
Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Human Resource Development Working Group
International Labor Affairs Bureau (USDOL)
International Labour Organization
National Institute of Geography, Information and Statistics (Mexico)
International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour
ILO-IPECs Mekong Sub-Regional Project to Combat Trafficking
in Children and Women
Labour Force Survey (Philippines)
Light Rail Train (Philippines)
Labour and Social Protection Network (APEC)
Millennium Development Goals
NGO
NIDA
NPM
NPSC
NSC
NYCD
PRSP
ROAP
SARS
SCREAM
SME
SOC
TBP
ULSE
UNDP
UNESCO
UNICEF
UNIFEM
UNFPA
UPE
USDOL
Non-Governmental Organization
National Institute of Development Administration (Thailand)
National Programme Manager (ILO-IPEC)
National Project Steering Committee (Viet Nam)
National Steering Committee (Thailand)
National Council on Youth Development (Thailand)
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Supporting Childrens Rights through Education, the Arts and the Media (ILO-IPEC)
Small and Medium-sized Enterprise
Survey on Children (Philippines)
Time-Bound Programme
Universalization of Lower Secondary Education (Viet Nam)
United Nations Development Programme
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
United Nations Childrens Fund
United Nations Development Fund for Women
United Nations Population Fund
Universal Primary Education
United States Department of Labor
vii
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Child labour has been a priority for the ILO and
its member States since its creation in 1919.
Among the eight fundamental ILO Conventions
that make up the core international labour
standards are two on the issue of child labour;
ILO Convention No. 138 concerning Minimum
Age for Admission to Employment (1973) and
Convention No. 182 concerning the Prohibition
and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the
Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999). These two
Conventions, together with the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child, make up the key
international mechanisms to guide the work of
the international community in preventing and
eliminating child labour.
For the past decade, the international community,
in collaboration with the ILO, has mounted one
of the largest social reform movements ever seen.
According to the second Global Report on Child
Labour prepared by the ILO in May 2006, this
work is bearing fruit. The report, entitled
The end of child labour Within reach, says
that an encouraging reduction in child labour,
especially its worst forms, is beginning to emerge
in many parts of the world. Furthermore, the
report indicates that if the current trends
continue, child labour in its worst forms may be
eliminated within the next decade.
Education is instrumental in achieving these
goals and has been central to the work of the
ILO-IPEC since its creation in 1992. Indeed,
history has shown how instrumental education
has been to the abolition of child labour,
establishing a skilled workforce and promoting
development based on principles of social justice.
In this respect, the ILO is promoting Education
For All (EFA) in the context of its Decent Work
objectives, not only as a means to combat child
labour, but also as part of its work to develop
vocational and skills training, promote the status
of teachers and uphold their individual rights
and the rights of their organizations.
viii
The past decade has witnessed the emergence of

a wide range of good practices from ILO-IPEC
projects worldwide in terms of enhancing access
and quality of education and skills training for
former child labourers and children at risk. In
order to consolidate this rapidly growing level of
practical experience and expertise and translate
this into effective support and guidance for
member States in terms of education policy
development and reform, ILO-IPEC has been
focusing increasingly on reinforcing partnerships
and networks at all levels, particularly
internationally. It is widely acknowledged that in
order to achieve the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) and EFA, the international
community has to step up its efforts to eliminate
and prevent child labour and to ensure more
effective coherence between global development
programmes and strategies. A key component of
ILO-IPECs strategy has been to reinforce
dialogue with the main international partners
sharing the related objectives of eliminating
child labour and providing education for those
who are marginalized.
Among the key initiatives of this strategic area of
ILO-IPECs work was an innovative project with
the APEC forum. The project, entitled APEC
Awareness Raising Campaign: Eliminating the
Worst Forms of Child Labour and Providing
Educational Opportunities, was launched in
2001 following a landmark APEC Joint
Ministerial Statement in 1999 which stated:
The
Human
Resources
Development
Working Group should be a forum to promote

educational opportunities for youth in the
region and should explore these and other
ways of eliminating the worst forms of child
labour. We direct the Working Group to give
priority to this issue and to implement an
activity in support of this work.
The project recognized that there was an urgent

need to raise awareness of the risks of child
labour and of the importance of quality
education to children and their families in
the affected communities, as well as to
decision-makers who formulate policies on
issues related to child labour and education. It
therefore aimed to work with APEC and
specifically its Human Resource Development
(HRD) Working Group, which is responsible
for the interrelated areas of education, training
and child labour to influence its Member
Economies to combat the worst forms of child
labour and promote educational opportunities
as part of their overall growth and economic
development strategy. Six APEC Member
Economies, comprising Indonesia, Mexico,
Peru, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam,
were included in the project as these were
countries where the problems of the worst forms
of child labour and the lack of educational
opportunities for the poorest children needed to
be addressed on an urgent basis. They were also
countries where ILO-IPEC had existing or
potential resources and partnerships.
The report sets the context of the project within
the overall framework of the ILO, IPEC and
APEC. It then focuses more closely on the
background of the project and its emergence and
implementation with the HRD Working Group
and in each of the six countries. The projects
overall development objective was to increase
public awareness in each country of the
importance of moving children out of hazardous
work and into education and to boost capacity
for action. This was accomplished through
alliance-building at national and regional levels
with key stakeholders involved in initiatives
using education to combat child labour.
The project generated a significant amount of
detailed knowledge and experience in a
relatively short space of time, from 2001 to
2006, and these achievements are reported in the
second half of the publication, looking not only
at each country but also at the impact at the
regional level. During its second phase, which
started in late 2004, the project had the
additional aims of strengthening the regional
alliance and capitalizing on raised awareness and

alliances from the first phase of activities to
push for policy development that centred on
improving access and quality of education to
combat the worst forms of child labour. Overall,
the initiative has been instrumental in building
national alliances to promote awareness and
increase the capacities of key stakeholders to take
action in the target countries. A regional
network has been established within APEC to
promote the sharing of good practices and
lessons learned. As part of its efforts to establish
a regional framework to sustain outcomes, the
project:
developed a regional communications
mechanism and created a web site;
implemented activities to engage APEC as a
regional body;
published project experiences, including the
documentation and sharing of good
practices;
researched and mapped opportunities on
decent and productive work for young
people above the minimum working age
as a strategy against the worst forms of
child labour.
The project has capitalized on partnership with
a regional economic forum, APEC, and, owing
to limited resources, necessarily focused on
leveraging the capacities of previous or ongoing
child labour and education programmes,
including ILO-IPEC Country and Time-Bound
Programmes, but also inter-regional and global
education programmes, and on sustaining these
by encouraging national ownership of the
project activities. It worked through existing
ILO-IPEC structures and networks in each
country, particularly in terms of raising
awareness among key stakeholder groups and
society as a whole, and also in terms of engaging
the commitment of these groups to tackling the
issue through education and skills training
interventions.
One of the major achievements of the project
has been the integration of child labour and
education concerns into government structures
in each country. This has been a key
ix
development as it emphasizes the political

commitment of the governments and their
partners to ensure that child labour is
mainstreamed across all relevant policy
frameworks, including education and poverty
alleviation, and the long-term sustainability of
the projects outputs. This will ensure that efforts
to enhance national development include
preventing and eliminating child labour as
a priority and that education and skills training
are considered as effective mechanisms to
support this objective.
The impact of a project of this nature will
become more apparent over time, but its
benchmark of sustainability is the way in which
it has put in place effective structures and then
ensured the maintenance of these structures
by encouraging a sense of ownership and
commitment to the elimination of child labour
through education strategies.
In the future, APEC and the ILO can consider a
more broad-based partnership on all areas of
common interest youth training and
employment, skills development, migration,
promoting broad-based participation in the
labour force towards increased productivity to
name a few. Encouraging Member Economies
to use education to combat child labour as part
of an overall growth and development strategy
should remain a key focus of this broad-based
partnership. The regional forum that has
emerged through this project can remain active
through face-to-face experience sharing
workshops, continued participation in APEC
and ILO events, development and dissemination
of publications and the web site. It is important
that the country based activities that have been
inspired by this project continue to motivate
needed policy reform and enforcement. These
activities can be showcased within APEC and
thus motivate its donor and recipient Member
Economies to contribute to the world wide
movement against child labour and in support of

Education For All.
The final project evaluation and sharing of
experiences workshop will take place from
August 8 10, 2006 in Jakarta, Indonesia. The
main purpose of the meeting is to review the
achievements and lessons learned since 2001 on
this collaborative initiative between APEC and
the ILO and its partners as well as chart a future
course of action to ensure the sustainability of
the initiatives accomplishments. This workshop
will provide an important opportunity to
exchange ideas and elaborate in more detail a
future course of action
Through the project, the foundations have been
laid in the six APEC participating Member
Economies for effective action to remove
children from hazardous work and give them a
chance to benefit from education and training
that will open the door to a better life for
themselves and their children. The ILO is
grateful to the donor, the USDOL, to APEC and
the participating constituents for making this
five year awareness raising campaign possible.
The campaign has clearly demonstrated the
potential power in using education and training
to combat the worst forms of child labour.
The regional cooperation, and the national and
local activities initiated under the project, should
not be seen as a closed chapter, but rather as the
starting point for APEC and its Member
Economies to make ever greater contributions to
the world wide movement against child labour.
Raising awareness has been the first step in
achieving the ambitious goal of eliminating child
labour. The challenge now is to ensure that such
awareness continues to translate into concrete
action.
This publication is a detailed record of the
achievements, challenges and lessons learned
over the last five years of this project.
UNESCO/Olof Sandkull
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
All over the world, children are forced into
situations of work which damage them
psychologically and physically and deprive them
of their childhood and their education. Child
labour is work carried out to the detriment and
endangerment of the child, in violation of
international and national legislation. It includes
work and activities that are mentally, physically
and socially dangerous or morally harmful to
children. Child labour can involve work that
enslaves children, separates them from their
families and condemns them and their families
to a downward spiral of poverty and deprivation.
It undermines sustainable development and
deprives countries of one of their richest
resources: human capital.
The latest estimates from the ILO in its Global
Report, The end of child labour Within
reach, published in May 2006 reveal that the
significant attention to the issue of child labour
and sustained efforts to tackle it over the last
decade or so have brought a sense of optimism to
the worldwide movement. Although the
numbers are still staggering and there is an
estimated one in seven children involved in child
labour of some form or another, the report
indicates that there is an encouraging reduction
in child labour, especially its worst forms, in
many parts of the world. Whats more, the report
says that if the current trends continue, child

labour in its worst forms may be eliminated
within the next decade.
The report indicates that the number of child
labourers globally has fallen by 11 per cent from
2000 to 2004, or 28 million fewer. There has
been an even greater decline of children in
hazardous work, 26 per cent for those 517 years
of age and 33 per cent for those in the 514 age
group.1 Latin America and the Caribbean stand
out in terms of a rapid decline of child labour,
where the number of children at work in the
region has fallen by two-thirds over the last four
years, with just 5 per cent of children aged 514
now engaged in work. In the ILOs Asia-Pacific
region,2 122 million children aged 514 are
engaged in work, 5 million fewer than four years
ago. Almost 19 per cent of Asian children in that
age group are now at work.3
This progress has not been spontaneous. It has
taken the political mobilization of workers,
employers and governments combined with the
practical action of parliaments, NGOs, local
authorities and the public at large. What is
important from here on is for the international
community to maintain its efforts in this critical
area of development and to sustain the policies
and programmes to assist working children and
There is little difference between the number of boys and girls in child labour in the 514 age group, although the proportion of boys in hazardous work
increases with age. However, this must take into consideration the fact that girls work is often hidden, unvalued and uncounted. Their work is usually in
the form of household chores, domestic servitude, agricultural work and home-based work and can leave them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Other
clandestine forms of child labour, such as trafficking into labour and commercial sexual exploitation, are not sufficiently captured by available statistics.
The Asia-Pacific region of the ILO, when referring to the Pacific, specifically includes Pacific islands, such as Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, etc. It does not
include the countries of the Pacific rim in Latin America as is the case for the geographical coverage of APEC. Latin America is a separate region for the ILO.
The regional estimates are broken down by childrens economic activity. Labour statistics produced by governments, which forms the basis of ILO child labour
statistics, counts persons who are considered economically active. "Economic activity" is a statistical concept that encompasses most productive activities
undertaken by children, whether for the market or not, paid or unpaid, for a few hours or full time, on a casual or regular basis, legal or illegal; it excludes chores
undertaken in the child's own household. To be economically active, a child must have worked for at least one hour on any day during a seven-day
reference period.
APEC Awareness Raising Campaign: Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labour and Providing Education Opportunities
Worldwide figures 2004(2000)

317(352) million
5-17 years old are
economically active
218 (246) million
child labourers
126(171) million
children suffering
from hazardous
child labour
115(145) million
children between
6-11 years
out of school
Overall reduction 2000-2004: 11%

those at risk. The role of ILO-IPEC will
underpin these renewed global efforts.
Child labour does not lift any child out of
poverty. Rather, it imprisons them in the very
trap of poverty in which they are caught. What
can contribute significantly to helping children
out of poverty is an education of high quality
and responding to their needs and expectations.
A working child may earn a small wage and it
may be enough to help a family survive. But a
small wage cannot change their world and their
future the way education has the potential to do.
History has shown how instrumental education
has been to the abolition of child labour,
establishing a skilled workforce and promoting
development based on principles of social
justice. Using education and training to combat
child labour has been central to the work of
ILO-IPEC since its creation in 1992.
It is the opportunities and experiences during

the most formative stages childhood and youth
that shape peoples access to decent work4 and
enable them to enjoy security and protection for
the rest of their lives. Education is the first step
to decent work. Employment opportunities
represent the next step. The school-to-work
transition period is very important for young
women and men. How easily and effectively they
make that leap depends on how well prepared
they are for the labour market.
Leaders within the APEC sphere believe that the
continued existence of significant numbers of
unschooled or unskilled children and young
people constitutes a major development challenge
in an environment of increasing international
competitiveness and interdependence. In addition,
aside from the obvious benefits of education and
training to a countrys development efforts,
Decent work sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives. It involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security
in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their
concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men. Decent work is
central to efforts to reduce poverty and a means of achieving equitable, inclusive and sustainable development. The ILO works to promote decent work
through its work on employment, social protection, standards and fundamental principles and rights at work and social dialogue.
Introduction
access to primary education is a childs basic

human right. The international community has
consistently articulated and reiterated this right
through national and international law,
particularly the UNs Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) and Education For All (EFA).
The importance of free basic education is central
to the ILOs Conventions on child labour.
APEC leaders have responded to both the
development challenges and human rights
demands to work harder to remove anyone
younger than 18 from the worst forms of labour.
This, they recognize, means increasing the access
of the poorest children in Member Economies to
educational and training opportunities. In 2001,
the ILO, in a unique partnership with APEC,
launched an inter-regional initiative to address
the problem of the worst forms of child labour
and the lack of educational opportunities in
Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Thailand
and Viet Nam. The initiative encourages APEC
Member Economies to use education to combat
child labour as part of their overall growth and
economic development strategies. These efforts
are beginning to bear fruit as can be seen from
the ILOs 2006 Global Report and have been
further reinforced by the successful outcomes of
this inter-regional initiative.
Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Thailand
and Viet Nam were keen to join the initiative
and made up the six participating APEC
Member Economies. The APEC Human
Resources Development (HRD) Working
Group endorsed the project, with the ILO as the
executing agency and with financial support
from the USDOL. The initiative aims to
increase public awareness of the importance of
moving children out of hazardous work and into
education and to build capacity for action. This
is accomplished through alliance building at
national and regional levels and engaging
government authorities, employers and workers

organizations, educators, civil society groups and
children and families from the affected
communities.
This report reviews the project experiences over
the last five years and considers how these
efforts can be supported, strengthened and
replicated within APEC and around the world.
In its Global Report, the ILO has urged member
States to commit themselves to setting appropriate
time-bound measures and eradicating the worst
forms of child labour on an urgent basis.
The project has facilitated the development of
models of intervention in the inter-related fields
of child labour prevention and elimination,
education and social mobilization which can be
disseminated and replicated in other countries.
In addition, these experiences have shown the
positive impact of a project of this nature can
have within larger ILO-IPEC Time-Bound
Programmes (TBP) as exist in Indonesia and the
Philippines, two of the projects participating
countries. The TBP concept developed
by ILO-IPEC is essentially a set of tightly
integrated and coordinated policies and
programmes to prevent and eliminate a countrys
worst forms of child labour within an agreed
period of time. It is a comprehensive approach
that operates at many levels and it emphasizes
the need to address the root causes of child
labour, linking action against it to national
development efforts, with particular emphasis
on economic and social policies to alleviate
poverty and to promote universal primary
education and social mobilization. The projects
flexible and constructive approach, therefore, has
enabled far-reaching and sustainable synergies to
be initiated within an enabling environment of
national development, including poverty
alleviation and education for all national plans of
action.
While not explicit within various development

frameworks, particularly the MDGs, EFA and
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), the
worldwide movement to prevent and eliminate
child labour is nonetheless as critical as the sum
of all these parts and, indeed, cuts across the
themes of them all. It is particularly closely
linked to the MDGs on tackling poverty and
extreme hunger, achieving universal primary
education and enhancing decent and productive
work for young people. Unless child labour
is given the same level of attention by the
international community, it will remain as
a significant obstacle to the achievement of any
of the goals. As long as millions of children are
forced by circumstance into situations of
exploitative and unskilled labour, they will
continue to swell the ranks of those out of
school. Therefore, a concerted and collaborative
effort needs to be made to keep the promise of
achieving the MDGs by 2015, a vital
component of which is to tackle child labour as
a matter of urgency.
An integral part of the work to support the
achievement of universal primary education and
improving youth employment by 2015 is to
reinforce partnerships among key stakeholders,
including APEC, in order to ensure synergy and

effective project implementation and use of
resources. This is the essence of the aims of
MDG 8 on establishing a global partnership for
development. The 2005 MDG Report sets as
a target to develop and implement strategies,
in cooperation with developing countries,
for decent and productive work for youth.
This cannot happen without working towards
the progressive elimination of child labour and
the achievement of nine years basic education in
these countries.
The ILO and the international community have
expressed the hope that, if the trend observed
over the last four years of decreasing numbers of
child labourers can be sustained and accelerated,
then they will be successful in consigning child
labour, including its worst forms, to history.
Given that a significant impact on child labour
has been found in the APEC region, ILO-IPEC
and its partners in this project will be focusing
close attention on programme activities and
achievements as it plans its next steps to ensure
that children can benefit from fulfilled and
happy childhoods and the prospect of decent
employment.
Chapter
ILO/Deloche P.
THE INTERNATIONAL
LABOUR ORGANIZATION AND
ITS WORK ON THE ELIMINATION
OF CHILD LABOUR AND
PROMOTION OF EDUCATION
Chapter
THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION

AND ITS WORK ON THE ELIMINATION OF
CHILD LABOUR AND PROMOTION OF EDUCATION
International Labour Organization
The ILO emerged with the League of Nations
from the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. It was
founded to give expression to the growing
concern for social reform after World War I, and
the conviction that any reform had to be
conducted at an international level. After World
War II, a dynamic restatement and enlargement
of the ILOs basic goals and principles was made
in the Declaration of Philadelphia in 1944.
The Declaration anticipated post-war growth in
national independence and heralded the birth of
large-scale technical cooperation with the
developing world. In 1946, the ILO became the
first specialized agency associated with the newly
formed United Nations (UN). On its 50th
anniversary in 1969, it was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize.
The ILO has a tripartite structure unique in
the UN, in which employers and workers
representatives have an equal voice with those of
governments in shaping its policies and
programmes. The ILO also encourages this
tripartism within its member States by
promoting social dialogue between trade
unions and employers in formulating, and where
appropriate, implementing national policy on
social, economic, and many other issues. The
annual International Labour Conference,
in which all member States are represented,
provides a forum for discussion of world labour
and social problems.
The work of the ILOs Governing Body and the

secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, is aided by
tripartite committees covering major industries.
It is also supported by committees of experts on
such matters as vocational training, management
development, occupational safety and health,
industrial relations, workers education, and
special problems of women and young workers.
Regional meetings of the ILO member States are
held periodically to examine matters of special
interest to the regions concerned.
One of the ILOs original and most important
functions is the adoption, by the annual
International Labour Conference, of Conventions
and Recommendations which set international
standards. Through ratifications by member
States, Conventions create binding obligations
to implement their provisions. Recommendations
provide guidance on policy, legislation and
practice. Since 1919, Conventions and
Recommendations have been adopted covering
practically all issues relating to the world of
work. These include certain basic human rights
(notably freedom of association, the right to
organize and bargain collectively, the abolition of
forced labour and child labour and the
elimination of discrimination in employment),
labour administration, industrial relations,
employment policy, working conditions, social
security, occupational safety and health,
employment of women and employment of
special categories such as migrant workers and
seafarers.
The International Labour Organization
Founded in 1919 following World War I

Built a social framework for peace and stability
Aims at achieving social justice through:
Tripartite structure: governments,

employers and workers
Institution building, public policies
and international labour standards
Each member State is required to submit all

Conventions and Recommendations adopted by
the Conference to the competent national
authorities for a decision on action to be taken.
The ratifications of these Conventions have
continued to increase in number. The ILO has
established a supervisory procedure to ensure
their application in law and practice, which is
the most advanced of all such international
procedures. It is based on objective evaluation by
independent experts of the manner in which
obligations are complied with, and on
examination of cases by the ILO tripartite bodies.
In 1998, the International Labour Conference
adopted the Declaration on Fundamental
Principles and Rights at Work, which reaffirmed
the commitment of the international community
to respect, to promote and to realize in good
faith the rights of workers and employers to
freedom of association and the effective right to
collective bargaining. It also commits member
States to work towards the elimination of all
forms of forced or compulsory labour, the
effective abolition of child labour and the
The ILO mandate:

Its Constitution 1919
Declaration of Philadelphia, 1944
ILO Declaration on Fundamental
Principles and Rights at Work,
1998
Its International Labour Standards
elimination of discrimination in employment

and occupation. The Declaration emphasizes
that all member States have an obligation to
respect the fundamental principles involved,
whether or not they have ratified the relevant
Conventions.
Decent employment and income
Productive, freely chosen employment is at the
core of the ILOs mandate. Without productive
employment, achieving decent living standards,
social and economic development and personal
fulfilment remain illusory. Globalization has
brought both prosperity and inequalities, testing
the limits of the worlds collective responsibility.
Even so, the ILO remains committed to
achieving full employment worldwide. Its
mission is to help people around the world find
decent work in conditions of freedom, equity,
security and human dignity. Gender equality is a
key element of the ILOs decent work agenda
and it is committed to providing research,
analysis and advice to its constituents, as well as
CHAPTER 1:The International Labour Organization and its work on the elimination of child labour and promotion of education
to such stakeholders as banking, investment,

trade and enterprise development specialists and
business managers, on how to create decent
work. This includes promoting small enterprises,
microfinance and effective training systems.
ILO core labour standards and child labour

Child labour has been a priority for the ILO and
its member States since its creation in 1919.
Indeed, ILO Convention No. 5 on Fixing the
Minimum Age for Admission of Children to
Industrial Employment was adopted in 1919
although did not come into force until 1921
and prohibited children under the age of 14
from working in this area of employment, unless
it was a family undertaking. It also required
employers in industrial employment to keep a
register of all employees under the age of 16 and
linked employment to completion of elementary
schooling. This Convention was eventually
replaced by No. 138(1973) concerning
Minimum Age for Admission to Employment,
but reveals the importance the ILO has attached
to the prevention and elimination of child
labour throughout its history.
Among the eight fundamental ILO Conventions
that make up the main platform for international
labour standards are two on the issue of child
labour. ILO Convention No. 138 aims at the
abolition of child labour, stipulating in
particular that the minimum age for admission
to employment shall not be less than the age of
completion of compulsory schooling. This is a
critical point in highlighting the integral link
between the prevention and elimination of child
labour and the need for all children worldwide
to have access to at least nine years of free,
compulsory and good quality basic education. It
reinforces the need for child labour elimination
to be closely associated to the global EFA
initiative and the MDG calling for universal
primary education.
CHILD LABOUR AND ITS WORST FORMS

The term child labour does not encompass all
economic activity of children under the age of 18.
It refers to employment or work carried out by
children that does not conform to the standards
enshrined in the ILO Conventions No. 138 on the
Minimum Age of Admission to Employment and No.
182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour. These
Conventions establish the boundaries of the work by
children that is targeted for effective abolition.
The ILO Conventions allow national authorities some
discretion in setting boundaries for childrens work.
In consultation with the social partners, governments
determine whether or not certain activities are
appropriate for a child to perform, taking into
consideration his or her age and level of maturity and
the national or local socio-economic development
context. In particular, depending on their age,
children may be allowed to carry out light work.
Convention No. 138 defines light work as work by
children above a specified age (12 or 13, depending
on whether the overall minimum age for employment
has been fixed at 14 or 15 years old) that is:
a. not likely to be harmful to their health or
development; and
b. not such as to prejudice their attendance at
school, their participation in vocational orientation
or training programmes approved by the
competent authority or their capacity to benefit
from the instruction received. (Article 7,
Convention No. 138)
Similarly, Convention No. 182 requires that national
authorities determine which occupations and
processes are hazardous for children and must be
eliminated without delay. Child labour slated for
abolition falls into three categories:
labour that is performed by a child who is under
the minimum age for that kind of work (as
defined by national legislation, in accordance
with accepted international standards) and that is
thus likely to impede the childs education and
full development; (Convention No. 138)
labour that jeopardizes the physical, mental or
moral well-being of a child, either because of its
nature or because of the conditions in which it is
carried out, known as hazardous work;
(Convention No. 182)
the unconditional worst forms of child labour,
which are internationally defined as slavery,
trafficking, debt bondage and other forms of
forced labour, forced recruitment of children for
use in armed conflict, prostitution and pornography
and illicit activities. (Convention No. 182)
ILO Convention No. 182 concerning the

Prohibition and Immediate Action for the
Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour
(1999) calls for immediate and effective
measures to secure the prohibition and
elimination of the worst forms of child labour,
which include slavery and similar practices,
forced recruitment for use in armed conflict, use
in prostitution and pornography and use in any
illicit activity, as well as work which is likely to
harm the health, safety, and morals of children.
These two Conventions, together with the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child, make up
the key international mechanisms to guide the
work of the international community in
preventing and eliminating child labour. As at
July 2006, Convention No. 182 was ratified by
161 member States and No. 138 by 146
member States, by far the fastest pace of
ratification in the history of the ILO. Out of a
total of 178 member States, a clear majority of
countries have clearly stated their opposition to
child labour practices and reaffirmed their
commitment to its elimination, particularly the
worst forms. The ILO has a strong technical
cooperation programme to back up this strong
representation of political will.
International Programme on the Elimination

of Child Labour
ILO-IPEC was created in 1992 to provide
technical cooperation to member States in
identifying and implementing solutions to the
problem of child labour. It is the worlds largest
programme on this issue. In countries all over
the world, ILO-IPEC inspires, guides and
supports national and regional initiatives to
eliminate child labour. The basis of its action is
the political will and commitment of individual
governments to address the problem. ILO-IPEC
operates a phased and multi-sectoral strategy
which motivates a broad alliance of partners to
acknowledge and act against child labour.
Sustainability is built in from the start through
an emphasis on in-country ownership.
Since it began operations, ILO-IPEC has

worked to achieve the elimination of child
labour in several ways: through country-based
programmes that promote policy reform; by
building institutional capacity and putting in
place specific measures to end child labour; and
through awareness-raising and mobilization
initiatives designed to change social attitudes
and promote ratification and effective
implementation of the ILO child labour
Conventions. Complementary to this direct
action has been substantial in-depth statistical
and qualitative research, policy and legal
analysis, programme evaluation and child labour
monitoring, which together have contributed to
the accumulation of a vast knowledge base of
statistical data and methodologies, thematic
studies, good practices, guidelines and training
materials.
ILO-IPEC works towards the elimination of all
forms of child labour, giving special attention to
children who are very young, those in hidden
work situations, girls, and children who are
particularly vulnerable. ILO Convention
No. 182 places emphasis on the rapid
elimination of the worst forms of child labour.
Partner organizations are supported in
developing and implementing measures to
prevent child labour, remove children from
hazardous work, provide for their rehabilitation
and social reintegration and offer alternatives
for them and their families. Education is
instrumental in achieving these goals and has
been central to the work of ILO-IPEC since its
creation. Indeed, history has shown how
instrumental education has been to the abolition
of child labour, in establishing a skilled
workforce and in promoting development-based
on principles of social justice.
By December 2005, ILO-IPEC was operational
in 86 countries. Its annual expenditure on
technical cooperation projects is currently
US$5560 million. Donor support has
remained firm, with 30 donors supporting the
programme. The most promising trend in child
labour programmes is the expressed desire by a

number of countries to eliminate, over a defined
period of time, all incidences of the worst forms
of child labour. This prompted the development
of the time-bound programme approach to
eradicate the worst forms of child labour in a
specified period of ten years or less. This
ambitious effort was based on strong
political commitment by the governments
involved, and ILO-IPEC is implementing a
number of TBPs at present. The initiative is
closely linked to poverty alleviation and
universal basic education programmes and relies
on the establishment of innovative partnerships
with employers, workers and civil society.
It involves rapid response measures for
prevention, withdrawal and rehabilitation of
victims of the worst forms of child labour and
provides viable alternatives for family income.
The number and range of ILO-IPEC partners
has also expanded over the years and now
includes other international and government
agencies, employers and workers organizations,
private businesses, community-based organizations,
NGOs, the media, parliamentarians, the
judiciary, universities, religious groups and, of
course, children and their families. National and
community action is crucial for the success of
the ILO-IPEC programme. Through local
authorities and municipalities, it can reach
children in the informal economy and small and
medium-sized businesses that provide the bulk
of employment, as well as promote integrated
approaches to get children out of work and into
school.
The end of child labour Within reach

Over the past decade, the international
community, in collaboration with the ILO, has
mounted one of the largest social reform
movements ever seen. According to the second
Global Report on Child Labour prepared by the
ILO in May 2006, this work is bearing fruit.
The report, entitled The end of child labour
Within reach, says that an encouraging reduction

in child labour, especially its worst forms, is
beginning to emerge in many parts of the world.
Furthermore, the report indicates that if the
current trends continue, child labour in its worst
forms may be eliminated within the next decade.
According to the report, the global number of
child labourers in the age group 5-17 decreased
from 246 million in 2000 to 218 million in
2004, a decrease of 11 per cent. The percentage
of child labourers out of all children in this age
group went down from 16 per cent (1 in 6
children working) in 2000 to 14 per cent (1 in 7
children working) in 2004. In addition, the
number of children aged 5-17 engaged in
hazardous work declined by 26 per cent, from
171 million in 2000 to 126 million in 2004.
The decline in the 514 age group was even
sharper with a 33 per cent drop. The report
states that the global picture that emerges is that
child work is declining, and the more harmful
the work and the more vulnerable the children
involved, the faster the decline.
This progress has not been spontaneous. It can
attributed to the setting of ILO standards and
the rapid ratification of the ILO child labour
Conventions, which has been accompanied by
tangible measures to combat child labour. It has
taken the political mobilization of workers,
employers and governments, combined with the
practical action of parliaments, NGOs, local
authorities, consumers and the public at large.
Political commitment, through the adoption of
coherent policies in the areas of poverty
reduction, basic education and human rights, is
central to the progress made by member States in
this area. Economic growth alone will not
eliminate child labour, although it is extremely
important, and so policy choices matter, and
those which open gateways of opportunity for
poor people are central to efforts to eliminate
child labour. The ILOs knowledge of the
dynamics of child labour is profound and
what has become clearer over the years is that
responding to child labour requires the right
policy choices and the central involvement of

employers and workers organizations in the
spirit of social dialogue. There have been
important advancements made in terms of
advocacy, tackling the worst forms of child
labour, child labour monitoring, developing
a learning culture through knowledge
management and mainstreaming child labour
within the ILOs broader decent work agenda.
Not least, the considerable efforts over the years
of implementing partners and local stakeholders
worldwide in putting into operation direct
action programmes to prevent and eliminate
child labour have contributed significantly to its
current decline and will be critical in sustaining
this trend over the coming years.
Set against the considerable accomplishments
over recent years, important challenges remain.
Agriculture and domestic work need more
attention with regards to action against child
labour. In addition, sub-Saharan Africa, as the
region that has the highest incidence of working
children and has made the least progress in its
prevention and elimination, remains the greatest
challenge to the development community.
Indeed, even though the decline of children in
hazardous work has been significant, there are
still an estimated 126 million children trapped
in life-threatening work. The ILO acknowledges
that the pressure cannot be allowed to ease off
and has called on its member States to commit
themselves to setting appropriate time-bound
measures and to eradicating the worst forms of
child labour urgently.
Meeting the MDGs by 2015 would considerably
assist global efforts to eradicate the scourge of
child labour. At the same time, while not stated
explicitly in the various development
frameworks, the prevention and elimination of
child labour is a major factor in achieving the
MDGs. It has an important role to play in
tackling poverty and extreme hunger, achieving
universal primary education and enhancing
youth employment. In this respect, the ILO has
set out an action plan for the coming years based
on three pillars:
10
supporting and mainstreaming national

responses to child labour;
deepening and strengthening the worldwide
movement against child labour; and
further integrating child labour concerns in
overall ILO strategies to promote decent
work for all.
Education: a crucial component of global

efforts to eliminate child labour
ILO-IPECs approach to the elimination of child
labour has evolved over the past decade as a
result of the experience it has gained and the
changing needs of its partners for assistance.
Much of the support in obtaining this
experience was provided through two key
worldwide programmes: one funded by the
Norwegian government, which focused on
the role of teachers, educators and their
organizations; and the other funded by the
government of the Netherlands, which enabled
ILO-IPEC to build a detailed knowledge base
and leadership in the field of education.
The ILO-IPEC programme incorporates a wide
range of categories of work against child labour,
including research and statistics, technical
cooperation, monitoring and evaluation,
advisory services and advocacy, and education.
ILO-IPEC has demonstrated leadership and
experience in using education to combat child
labour in both formal and non-formal settings,
which has proved significant in the prevention of
child labour and the rehabilitation of former
child workers. Non-formal or transitional
education has played an instrumental role in the
rehabilitation of former child labourers.
Vocational education and training have provided
the skills needed for gainful employment, which
in turn contributes to local and national
development. In addition, ILO-IPEC has been
providing policy advice and technical assistance
to governments to ensure that educational
policies pay special attention to children at risk
of child labour.
The international communitys efforts to achieve

EFA and the progressive elimination of child
labour are inextricably linked. On the one hand,
education is a key element in the prevention of
child labour. Children with no access to quality
education have little alternative but to enter the
labour market, where they are often forced to
work in dangerous and exploitative conditions.
On the other hand, child labour is one of the
main obstacles to EFA, since children who are
working full time cannot go to school. In
addition, the academic achievement of children
who combine work and school often suffers.
There is a strong tendency for these children to
drop out of school and enter full-time employment.
It is widely accepted by many organizations,
including UNICEF, the World Bank, UNESCO
and the G8 Education Task Force, that
education and in particular free and compulsory
education of good quality up to the minimum
age of entering into employment as defined by
ILO Convention No. 138 is a key element in
the prevention of child labour. The ILO is
promoting EFA in the context of its Decent

Work campaign, not only as a means to combat
child labour, but also as part of its work to
develop vocational and skills training and
promote the status of teachers and uphold
their individual rights and the rights of their
organizations.
Global Task Force on Child Labour and
Education for All
The past decade has witnessed the emergence of
a wide range of good practices from ILO-IPEC
projects worldwide in terms of enhancing access
and quality of education and skills training for
former child labourers and children at risk. In
order to consolidate this rapidly growing level of
practical experience and expertise and translate
this into effective support and guidance for
member States in terms of education policy
development and reform, ILO-IPEC has been
focusing increasingly on reinforcing partnerships
and networks at all levels, particularly
internationally.
Awareness Raising
Transitional Education
Schooling
Social Mobilisation
Rehabilitation
CHILDREN
FAMILIES
Economic Empowerment
Youth Employment
Vocational Education
Community Safety Nets
COMMUNITIES
Social Mobilisation
Awareness Raising
Education Policy
Support to School
Institutional Capacity Building
Legal Service
Registration & Protective Measures
AREA-BASED PROGRAMME
Institutional Capacity Building

Legislation & Enforcement
Labour & Social Policies
NATIONAL LEVEL PROGRAMME
IPEC works through a combination of types of intervention. Those at the local level (area-based programmes) focus more
on access to and quality of education, and transitional/vocational education, while at the national level the focus is more on
ensuring that educational policies are responsive to working children and children at risk. IPEC cannot achieve these targets
along, but rather works in concert with other organizations and bodies, drawing on and coordinating the varied expertise of key
actors in the relevant fields.
11
It is widely acknowledged that in order to

achieve the MDGs and EFA, the international
community has to step up its efforts to eliminate
and prevent child labour and to ensure greater
coherence between global development
programmes and strategies. A key component of
ILO-IPECs strategy has been to reinforce
dialogue with the main international partners
sharing the related objectives of eliminating
child labour and providing education for those
who are marginalized. One of the strategic
objectives of this project was to enhance
inter-agency cooperation through the establishment
of a task force which would ensure greater
coherence of programmes and resources.
To this end, ILO-IPEC, in collaboration with
UNESCO, the World Bank, the Global March
Against Child Labour and subsequently
UNICEF, organized a series of round tables on
the Elimination of Child Labour and the
Achievement of Education For All, the first of
which was held in New Delhi, India, in
November 2003. The round tables were
organized as a side event in the context of
UNESCOs annual High-Level Group on EFA,
which monitors global progress towards this
objective by 2015. The second round table was
held in Brasilia, Brazil, in November 2004 and
the third in Beijing, the Peoples Republic of
China, in November 2005. It was in Beijing that
the co-organizers announced and endorsed the
creation of the Global Task Force on Child
Labour and Education for All.
This initiative has been welcomed worldwide as
it establishes a solid platform upon which
mainstream efforts to bring about education
policy reform in many countries will specifically
target child labourers, their families and
communities. In the future, as the Task Force
expands its membership and activities, this
alliance of agencies, partners and organizations
sharing similar interests and responsibilities,
combined with the active involvement of the
countries concerned, will enable a more effective
approach to resource management, project
implementation, follow-up and monitoring of
12
the related programmes of child labour

elimination and the achievement of EFA and the
MDGs.
The central role of the Task Force will be to
mobilize political will and to maintain the
momentum towards mainstreaming the issue of
child labour and education in national and
international development through advocacy,
coordination and support. It will also build on
existing collaborative work, including the
ILO-UNICEF-World Bank research initiative,
Understanding Childrens Work. One of the
main tasks of this body will be to coordinate
evidence-based support to accelerate countries
efforts towards the universalization of education,
poverty reduction and child labour elimination.
The Task Force will facilitate collaboration in the
areas of: coordination of the comparative
advantage of different partners; resource
mobilization; upstream assistance in policy
development and reform and capacity building
among various partners, including relevant line
ministries; awareness raising and other areas of
advocacy; promotion of dialogue between
governments, social partners and civil society;
coordination of knowledge management; and
identification of new areas of research.
The Global Task Force also provides support to
the project launched with APEC and presented
here in this publication. The projects approach
in terms of raising awareness of the problem of
child labour and the potential of education as an
intervention strategy to help working children,
children at-risk and their families and building
the capacity of support institutions, including
national education authorities, is similar to the
aims and objectives of the Global Task Force and
its programme of work. Future outcomes of the
project should seek to reinforce these links and
potential synergies as a means to strengthen
sustainable efforts within the countries involved
and APEC as an institution to tackle the
problem of child labour and ensure the provision
of quality education to all children in the region.
Chapter
ILO
ABOUT APEC
Chapter
ABOUT APEC
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) forum was established in 1989 to
capitalize on the growing interdependence of
Asia-Pacific economies. By facilitating economic
growth, intensifying economic and technical
cooperation and enhancing a sense of community,
APEC aims to create greater prosperity for the
people of the region.
APEC is a unique forum, operating on the basis
of open dialogue and respect for the views of all
participants. There are no binding commitments;
compliance is achieved through discussion and
mutual support in the form of economic and
technical cooperation. In APEC, all economies
have an equal say, and decision-making is
reached by consensus.
Since its inception, APEC has grown to become
one of the worlds most important regional
groupings, comprising 21 Member Economies:
Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile,
the Peoples Republic of China, Hong KongChina, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea,
Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New
Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, the Russian
Federation, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand,
the United States of America and Viet Nam.
Between them, they span four continents, are
home to more than a third of the worlds
population (2.6 billion people) and represent
50% of the worlds GDP (US$ 19,254 billion)
and more than 41% of world trade.5
APEC is the most economically dynamic region

in the world, generating nearly 70 per cent of
global economic growth in its first ten years.
In 1989, the founding members of APEC
developed three objectives:
to promote sustainable economic growth;
to develop and strengthen the multilateral
trading system; and
to increase the interdependence and prosperity
of Member Economies.
APECs vision was further defined in 1994,
when APEC Leaders committed to the Bogor
Goals of free and open trade in the region.
Recognizing the differing levels of development
among the Member Economies, the Leaders set
two broad timetables. The goal of free and open
trade will be achieved by industrialized
economies no later than 2010 and by developing
economies no later than 2020. It is a voluntary
commitment, based on good faith and a pledge
of best endeavour.
APEC also works to create an environment for
the secure and efficient movement of goods,
services and people across borders in the region
through policy alignment and economic and
technical cooperation. This cooperation also
helps to ensure that the people of the APEC
region have access to training and technology to
take advantage of more open trade and investment.
Fact Sheet: About APEC, www.apec.org
13
14
CHAPTER 2: About APEC
APEC structure
The APEC Secretariat is based in Singapore and
operates as the core support mechanism for the
APEC process. It provides coordination,
technical and advisory support, as well as
information management, communications and
public outreach services.
The Secretariat performs a central project
management role, assisting APEC Member
Economies and APEC forums with overseeing
more than 230 APEC-funded projects. APECs
annual budget is also administered by the
Secretariat.
The APEC Secretariat is headed by an Executive
Director and a Deputy Executive Director.
These positions are filled by officers of ambassadorial rank from the current and incoming host
economies respectively, and positions rotate
annually. The Secretariat is staffed by a small
team of 22 Programme Directors, seconded
from APEC Member Economies. An additional
27 staff fulfil specialist and support functions.
APECs working level activities and projects
are guided by APEC Senior Officials and
undertaken by four core committees:
Committee on Trade and Investment;
Senior Officials Meeting Committee on
Economic and Technical Cooperation;
Economic Committee; and
Budget and Management Committee.
Sub-committees, experts groups, working
groups and task forces carry out the activities led
by these committees.
APEC Working Groups are made up of experts
from each APEC Member Economy and work
in specific sectors as directed by APEC
Economic Leaders, Ministers and Senior
Officials.
In all, there are eleven Working Groups covering

the following areas: Agricultural Technical
Cooperation; Energy; Fisheries; Human
Resources Development; Industrial Science
and
Technology;
Marine
Resource
Conservation; Small and Medium Enterprises;
Telecommunications and Information; Tourism;
Trade Promotion; and Transportation. The one
concerned with the issue of child labour is the
Human Resources Development (HRD)
Working Group. Please refer to the
organizational chart for APEC on p.16
Human Resources Development Working
Group
The HRD Working Group was established in
1990 and conducts work programmes to develop
human resources in the spheres of education,
labour and capacity building. Work developed
and undertaken by the HRD Working Group is
based on its Eight Medium-Term Strategic
Priorities: quality basic education; improved
labour market information and analysis;
enhanced skills in key sectors including small
and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); lifelong
learning; improved curricula, teaching methods
and instructional materials towards the 21st
century; mobility of qualified persons; enhanced
quality, productivity and efficiency of labour
forces and work places; and strengthened
cooperation to support trade and investment
liberalization and facilitation.
The HRD Working Group is headed by the
Lead Shepherd, who holds the position for a
term of two years and is supported by the
Network Coordinators as well as the Lead
Shepherds Advisory Committee, which meets
virtually before every Working Group meeting
to sort out issues. Currently, the position of Lead
Shepherd of the HRD Working Group is held by
Dr Chira Hongladarom.
15
Source: www.apec.org
16
CHAPTER 2: About APEC
While discussions on substantive issues are

continuously conducted by virtual means on
specific issues, the HRD Working Group also
meets annually to develop and endorse its work
programme for the year. The networks conduct
their meetings in between the Working Groups
plenary sessions.
The HRD Working Group conducts its work
programme through its three networks: the
Capacity Building Network, the Education
Network and the Labour and Social Protection
Network. The programme of work of the Labour
and Social Protection Network includes
fostering human capacity building, social
integration and strong and flexible labour
markets through the development of useful
labour market information and policy, improved
workplace conditions and practices and strong

social safety nets. The APEC Awareness Raising
Campaign: Eliminating the Worst Forms of
Child Labour and Providing Educational
Opportunities project falls within the remit of
the Labour and Social Protection Network.
APEC has consistently recognized the crucial
connection between education and economic
growth. The region will not be able to sustain
growth and economic development if a segment
of its youth cannot achieve their full potential.
Indeed, one of the HRD Working Group
Strategic Priorities is: providing quality basic
education with a focus on increasing access by all
groups to basic education and increasing levels of
educational attainment for the population as a
whole.
17
Chapter
ILO/Deloche P.
PROJECT HISTORY
Chapter
PROJECT HISTORY
In 1999, APEC issued a landmark Joint
Ministerial Statement highlighting the following
undertaking:
the Canadian International Development

Agency (CIDA). It was the first APEC activity to
address the issue of child labour.
The Human Resources Development Working
The aim of the conference was to examine

strategies that had proven successful in removing
children from the worst forms of child labour
and in providing them with educational
opportunities, to identify lessons learned and
to facilitate the design of appropriate
implementation projects for interested APEC
Member Economies. Conference participants
considered case studies documenting effective
practices and initiatives within the APEC
region and internationally and their
appropriateness as models for replication or
adaptation in individual APEC economies.
Participants also discussed where cross-economy
partnerships could be beneficial.
Group should be a forum to promote educational

opportunities for youth in the region and should
explore these and other ways of eliminating the
worst forms of child labour. We direct the Working
Group to give priority to this issue and to
implement an activity in support of this work.
It was felt that, if ignored, child labour

could perpetuate poverty and stunt economic
development in an environment of increasing
international competitiveness and interdependence.
The Ministers further developed a Plan of
Action in which they instructed:
The HRD Working Group will develop a

project to exchange information on best practices
for eliminating the worst forms of child labour and
promote educational opportunities for youth in
the region. The work should use the collective
experiences of APEC to consider regional
perspectives on the issue and share experiences
regarding successful approaches.
In October 2000, USDOL organized a

conference on the Best Practices for Eliminating
Child Labour and Providing Educational
Opportunities at the HRD Working Group
Meeting in Bangkok. The conference was
sponsored in cooperation with the Thai Ministry
of Labour and Social Welfare, ILO-IPEC and
It was recognized that there was an urgent need

to raise awareness of the risks of child labour and
the importance of quality education to children
and their families in the affected communities,
as well as to decision-makers who formulate
policies on issues related to child labour and
education. A project to develop an APEC
regional awareness raising campaign to promote
child labour was proposed. The idea was born
for the APEC Awareness Raising Campaign:
Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labour
and Providing Educational Opportunities.
As a follow-up to the October 2000 meeting, a
workshop was organized in June 2001 at the
23rd HRD Working Group Meeting in Mexico
19
Ratifications of ILO Conventions Nos. 138 and 182 by APEC Member Economies as of July 2006
Member Economies6
Australia
Status in ILO-IPEC
Convention 138
Convention 182
Donor
Brunei Darussalam
Canada
Donor
Chile
Participating country
Peoples Republic of China
Participating country (trafficking of women

and children
()7
()
Hong Kong China

(Hong Kong Special
Administratve Region,
China)
Indonesia
Japan
Donor
Republic of Korea
Malaysia
Mexico
New Zealand
Donor (for activities in the Pacific)
Papua New Guinea
Peru
Philippines
Russia
Participating country (Moscow and St. Petersburg)
Singapore
Chinese Taipei
(Taiwan, China)
Thailand
United States of America
Donor
Viet Nam
City to develop strategies for raising awareness in

selected APEC economies on the economic and
social benefits of moving children out of
the workplace and into relevant, accessible
educational environments. Workshop participants
came from Ministries of Labour and Education,
as well as from non-governmental organizations
with special expertise in organizing public
awareness activities on child labour and
education in the Asia-Pacific region. The
awareness-raising campaign would focus its
messages specifically on how basic education and
skills development can be effectively used to
combat the worst forms of child labour.
Six APEC Member Economies, Indonesia,
Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Thailand and
6
7
20
Viet Nam, expressed a strong interest in working

with the ILO on this project. These were
countries where the problems of the worst forms
of child labour and the lack of educational
opportunities for the poorest children needed to
be urgently addressed. These were also countries
where the ILO-IPEC had existing or potential
resources and partnerships.
The APEC Awareness Raising Campaign:
Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labour
and Providing Educational Opportunities was
formally launched in all six countries in late
2001. The project aimed to work with the
regional economic forum, APEC, to influence its
Member Economies to combat the worst forms
of child labour and promote educational
As named by APEC, with the ILO current usage in parenthesis. Economies that are not ILO member States are listed in italics.
() denotes notification of the acceptance of the Conventions, including definition of minimum age of employment.
CHAPTER 3: Project History
opportunities as part of their overall growth and

economic development strategy.
The projects development objective was to
increase public awareness and capacity for action
in selected APEC economies of the importance
of moving children out of hazardous work and
into education. This was to be accomplished
through alliance-building at national and
regional levels against the worst forms of child
labour and in favour of education and by key
stakeholders undertaking relevant initiatives
which use education to combat child labour in
the target countries.
In light of the positive experiences of the first
phase from 200103, the USDOL approved a
two-year continuation of the project, with the
same development objective and geographical
scope. The second phase, which started in late

2004, had the additional aims of strengthening
the regional alliance and mobilizing key parties
to initiate relevant activities that use basic
education and skills development to combat
child labour. It would capitalize on the raised
awareness and alliances to push for policy
development that centred on improving access
and quality of education to combat the worst
forms of child labour.
Overall, the initiative has been instrumental in
building local national alliances to promote
awareness and increase the capacities of key
stakeholders to take action in the target
countries. The groundwork has also been laid for
a regional network to promote the sharing of
good practices and lessons learned and engage
APEC as a regional body in this work.
21
Chapter
ILO/Gianotti E.
COUNTRY PROFILES
Chapter
COUNTRY PROFILES
Indonesia
Capital: Jakarta
Area: 1,904,600 sq km
Language: Bahasa Indonesia
Ethnic groups: Javanese 45%, Sundanese 14%, Madurese 7.5%, coastal Malays 7.5%, other 26%
Administrative divisions: 30 provinces and 2 special regions (Aceh and Jogjakarta)
System of government: Unitary Multiparty Republic
Currency: Indonesian rupiah
INDONESIA IN FIGURES
Human Development Index8 (2003)
0.6979
Demography
Population (2005)
222.8 million10
Population under 15 (as % of total) (2003)
29%11
Economy
GDP (2004)
US$ 257.6 billion12
GNI (per capita) (2004)
US$ 1,14013
Unemployment (as % of total labour force) (2005 est.)
10.9%14
Inflation rate (2004)
7.1%15
Population living below the national poverty line (1990-2002)
27.1%16
Health and education
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Life expectancy at birth (2004)
67.4 years17
Adult literacy rate (15 years and above) (2004)
90.4%18
Gross primary enrolment ratio (2003)
116.2%19
Survival rate to Grade 5 (2001-2002)
89.1%20
Gross secondary enrolment ratio (2003)
61.8%21
Public expenditure on education (as % of GDP) (2002)
1.2%22
Public expenditure on health (as % of GDP) (2002-02)
1.2%23
The Human Development Index focuses on three measurable dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life, being educated and having a
decent standard of living. Thus it combines measures of life expectancy, school enrolment, literacy and income to allow a broader view of a countrys
development than does income alone.
UNDP, Human Development Report 2005.
UNFPA, State of World Population 2005.
World Bank, World Development Indicators (WDI) database 2006.
CIA World Factbook.
UNESCO Global Monitoring Report 2006.
23
Background
Education
Situated in South-East Asia, Indonesia is the

worlds largest archipelago nation. The country
consists of five main islands Java, Sumatra,
Sulawesi, Kalimantan (60 per cent of Borneo)
and Irian Jaya as well as 13,667 small islands
and islets. The five main islands account for 90
per cent of the total land area, and each island
has its own coastal and mountain regions.
Indonesia has a 12-year public and private

education system (primary grades one through
six; junior high school grades seven through
nine; and senior high school grades ten
through twelve). Schooling is compulsory at the
primary and, since 1994, junior high school
levels; senior high school education is optional.
Indonesia is the worlds fourth most populous

country. Large-scale migration to urban areas
means that some 42 per cent of people now live
in cities. Furthermore, the population distribution
between regions is highly uneven: more than 60
per cent of Indonesians live on Java, Bali and
Madura, which make up only 7 per cent of
Indonesias land surface area.
In 1994, the government implemented a policy

aimed at achieving nine years of basic education
for all children by 2008. The Education Strategic
Plan 200509 sets out a Medium Term Policy
Framework with a major objective of equalizing
and broadening access to education. This calls
for full implementation of the nine-year basic
education programme, taking into account the
need to tackle obstacles facing the poor and
geographical obstacles relating to participation
in education.
Economy and development

Indonesia has a market-based economy in which
the government plays a significant role. The
country has struggled to overcome the Asian
financial crisis, and still grapples with high
unemployment, a fragile banking sector,
inadequate infrastructure, a poor investment
climate and unequal resource distribution
among regions. In late December 2004, the
Indian Ocean tsunami took 131,000 lives in
Aceh and North Sumatra with another 37,000
missing, displaced some 570,000 people and
caused damage and losses worth an
estimated US$4.5 billion.
After President Yudhoyono took office on 20
October 2004, he moved quickly to implement
a pro-growth, pro-poor, pro-employment
economic programme. He and his team have
targeted average growth of 6.6 per cent from
200409 to reduce unemployment and poverty
significantly. Indonesias overall macroeconomic
picture is stable and improving, although GDP
growth rates have not yet returned to pre-crisis
levels.
24
25
24
The National Medium Term Development Plan

200409 reported that in the 1315 age bracket
the school enrolment rate for the rural
population is 75.6 per cent, whilst for the urban
population the enrolment rate is 89.3 per cent.24
However, actual participation is well below the
enrolment rate, particularly in rural areas.
As with other countries, there is a correlation
between drop-out rates and involvement in
economic activity, and drop-out rates and level
of income. For example, school enrolment rates
of lower income groups vary by 17 per cent
compared with higher income ones at the
primary level and 52 per cent at the secondary
level.25 The major drop out occurs at the
transition between primary and junior high
school.
In 2005, the increase in the education budget
was the largest of any ministry, reflecting a
government commitment to improving access to
and quality of education.
National Medium Term Development Plan 200409, 27-3.

Summary report focusing on intolerable forms of child labour for ILO-IPEC Project INT/96/MO3/CIDA, 1998.
CHAPTER 4: Country Profiles
Child labour situation

Indonesian labour laws have established a
minimum age of 15 for employment. The
Manpower Act 13/2003 states that between the
ages of 13 and 15, children can do light work up
to three hours a day, provided that such work
does not disrupt their physical, mental or
social development. This Act also prohibits
employment of children in the worst forms of
child labour.
Despite the legislation, data from the National
Socio-Economic Survey in 2003 show that
1,502,600 children aged 1014 are in the labour
force and not attending school. Another
1,621,400 are not attending school and are

described as helping at home or doing
other things.
In 2002, a National Action Plan for the
Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour
was established. This set priorities and strategies
for eliminating the worst forms of child labour
in a three-phase programme within a 20-year
framework. The Plan identifies five forms of
child labour as immediate targets: children
involved in the sale, production and trafficking
of drugs; trafficking of children for prostitution;
and child labour in offshore fishing, in mining
and in the footwear sector.
25
Mexico
Capital: Mexico City
Area: 1,972,550 sq km
Languages: Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl and other regional indigenous languages
Ethnic groups: Mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian 30%,
white 9%, other 1%Administrative divisions: 31 states and 1 federal district
Government system: Federal republic, the political system is presidential, bicameral and federal
Currency: Mexican peso
MEXICO IN FIGURES
Human Development Index (2003)
0.81426
Demography
Population (2005)
107 million27
32.1%28
Economy
GDP29
US$ 676.5 billion30
GDP growth (annual) (2004)
4.4%31
GNI (per capital)32 (2004)
US$ 6,79033
Unemployment (as % of total labour force)(2003)
2.5%34
6.1%35
10%36
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
26
75.1 years37
91%38
109.2%39
93%40
78.8%41
5.3%42
2.7%43

Gross Domestic Product.
World Bank, World Development Indicators database, April 2006.
Gross National Income, Atlas method.
Background
Education
Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking

country in the world. Sharing a common border
throughout its northern extent with the United
States, the country is bounded on the west and
south by the Pacific Ocean, to the east by the
Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, and on
the south-east by Guatemala and Belize.
Mexico has made great efforts to improve

educational opportunities for its people. It is the
goal of the federal government to eradicate
illiteracy and to ensure at least a primary
education for all citizens. Attendance is required
for those aged 6 to 14.
Mexico has a diverse mix of people and

landscapes. It is also a nation where affluence,
poverty, natural splendour and urban blight rub
shoulders.

Mexico has a free market economy. It contains a
mixture of modern and outmoded industry and
agriculture, increasingly dominated by the
private sector. Economic growth over the last
decade has made Mexico an upper-middle
income country, but there remain huge
disparities and social exclusion. Approximately
24 million Mexicans live in extreme poverty.
Rural areas are often neglected and huge shanty
towns ring the major cities.
In 2004, Mexico achieved an inflation-adjusted
growth rate of 4.4 per cent (compared with 1.3
per cent in 2003). It benefited from economic
recovery in the United States (the countrys
principal export market) and high international
oil prices. Government officials maintained tight
budgetary discipline, however, and sought to use
the oil-export earnings to pay off the countrys
external debt rather than to increase public
expenditures. The need to generate sufficient
employment to meet the countrys pressing
human needs remained a particularly serious
concern.
44
Public schools in Mexico are funded by the

federal government. Although nearly threequarters of all primary public schools are located
in rural areas, such schools are the least
well-developed in the nation and often do not
cover the primary cycle. Many internal migrants
move to cities because of the availability of
better schools for their children and the social
opportunities that derive from an education.
Enrolment figures in Mexico are high, but so are
drop-out figures. The Oportunidades scheme
provides a grant to families whose children
remain in full-time education: the longer the
child stays in school, the larger the payment.
According to some international observers, the
scheme is successful both in reducing extreme
poverty and in improving basic education.

Labour law in Mexico prohibits employment of
children less than 14 years of age, details
protective measures for working children
between 14 and 16 and limits the participation
in hazardous work of children under 18. Those
between 14 and 15 may work for a maximum of
six hours per day. However, household work is
not covered by labour legislation, so children
working in domestic work who are mostly
girls are only protected by the law on
compulsory education.44
Moe, Levison and Knaul: Youth Education and Work in Mexico, World Development Vol. 29 No. 1, 2001.
27
Some 43.5 per cent of the population are under

the age of 18. Owing to poverty, many children
migrate, with or without their families, within
rural areas, from rural to urban areas, among
urban areas, and to the United States. This
results in family instability and a large number of
working children.
There are few statistics on child labour in
Mexico, and in particular the worst forms of
child labour have not been investigated. Galeana
suggests that 8 million children (close to half the
number of children of official school-going age
in Mexico) are working, and this figure has been
widely published.45 A large-sample time
allocation study by Knaul found that half of all
12-year-old boys in the sample worked more
that 20 hours per week.46 Taracena found
widespread use of child labour in agriculture on
plantations in Mexico, particularly during
harvest season, and especially involving children
from an Amerindian background. The work
might include long hours (12 seems common,
up to 17 is quoted) and can easily lead to skin
punctures and infection or exposure to
dangerous chemicals.
the outcome of a national study on the situation

of child labour from 1995 to 2002. Some of the
most relevant findings included:
An estimated 3.3 million children aged
between 6 and 14 are working in Mexico.
Two-thirds of working children are aged
between 12 and 14 and the remaining
one-third is under the age of 12.
The states with the highest incidence of
child labour are Chiapas, Campeche, Puebla
and Veracruz. In these states, between 20 to
30 per cent of the population aged between
6 and 14 works.
Other research on child labour in Mexico reveals
the following:
Nearly 95,000 boys, girls and adolescents
work in different public spaces and streets
around Mexico, with over 14,000 in the
streets of the capital.47
16,000 children and adolescents are victims
of sexual commercial exploitation.
1.6 million children aged between 6 and 14
do not attend school in Mexico.48
In 2004, the National Institute of Geography,

Information and Statistics (INEGI) presented
45
46
47
48
28
Quoted in Taracena, Elvia: Les modles de scolarisation des enfants travailleurs au Mexique: Le cas des enfants dorigine indienne travaillant comme ouvriers
agricoles, paper submitted to the International Conference on Rethinking Childhood, Bondy, France, November 2000 (IRD, Paris).
Moe, Levison and Knaul, op.cit.
Censo de nios, nias y adolescentes trabajadores, 2001 UNICEF, DIF DF.
Elena Azaola, Infancia Robada (Stolen Childhood), UNICEF, DIF Nacional, CIESAS 2000.
Peru
Capital: Lima
Area: 1,300,000 sq km
Ethnic groups: Amerindian 45%, Mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 37%, white 15%, black,
Japanese, Chinese and other 3%
Languages: Spanish (official), Quechua (official), Aymara and a large number of minor Amazonian
languages
Administrative divisions: 23 provinces and 1 constitutional province (Callao)
System of government: Constitutional republic
Currency: Nuevo sol
PERU IN FIGURES
0.76249
Demography
Population (2005)50
28 million51
33.2%52
Economy
GDP (2004)
US$ 68.6 billion53
GNI (per capita)
US$ 2,36054
8.7%55
5.7%56
49%57

70.4 years58
Adult literacy rate (2004)
87.7%59
121.3%60
83.6%61
86%62
3%63
2.2%64
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64

The exact figure is 27,219,264 according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadsticas e Investigaciones (INEI), www.inei.gob.pe.
CIA World factbook 2005
29
Background
Peru is South Americas third largest country. Its
geography is varied, ranging from an arid coastal
region to the Andes further inland and moist
tropical forests bordering Colombia and Brazil.
Abundant mineral resources are found in the
mountainous areas, and Perus coastal waters
provide excellent fishing grounds.
Since World War II, the population of Peru has
grown rapidly and has become predominantly
urban. There has been a sharp decline in death
rates, caused mainly by improvements in
sanitation practices and health care, while birth
rates have remained very high. As a result, there
has been a surplus of population in many areas,
particularly
in
the
Andean
region.
Overpopulation of the rural areas has been the
root cause of the mass migration to the cities that
has occurred in Peru since the 1950s. The high
rate of population growth has also placed great
pressure on Perus educational and health care
systems.
Education
Primary education lasts for six years and is
compulsory. A year of pre-primary education is
also compulsory. Secondary education covers
five years divided into two cycles and, according
to the 1993 Constitution, is also compulsory.
Compulsory education is difficult to enforce,
however, especially outside urban centres.
Because of extremely large class sizes, inadequate
facilities and poorly trained teachers, the quality
of education received by children in public
schools is regarded as low.
In recent years, Peru has had one of the best

performing economies in Latin America, largely
attributable to growth in the mining and export
sectors. GDP grew 4.9 per cent in 2002, 3.8 per
cent in 2003 and an estimated 5 per cent in
2004.
Parents face many difficulties in enrolling their

children in school. One common problem is the
lack of identity papers, either because the parents
did not register their child at birth or because the
documents were lost when the family migrated
from one community to another. Furthermore,
in rural communities, parents give preference to
the education of boys. Whether for boys or girls,
there are not enough secondary schools.
Peru is the worlds second-largest producer of

silver, sixth-largest producer of gold and copper,
and a significant source of the worlds zinc and
lead. Mineral exports have consistently accounted
for the most significant portion of Perus export
revenue, averaging around 50 per cent of
total earnings in 1998 to 2005. However,
overdependence on minerals and metals subjects
the economy to fluctuations in world prices, and
a lack of infrastructure deters trade and
investment.
In general, however, the main obstacle to

accessing public education is the cost of
education, which many poor families cannot
afford. Public education in Peru is not free. In
addition to direct costs, such as school fees, there
is an annual fee that must be paid to a parents
body, the APAFA, before a child is allowed to
study, and there are further costs such as books,
uniforms, school materials and transport. For
families living in extreme poverty, these costs
represent a formidable barrier to placing their
30
Despite Perus strong macroeconomic

performance, unemployment and poverty have
remained consistently high. One-fourth of
children under five are malnourished. Wealth
and economic activity are overly concentrated in
Lima and other major cities, with rural Andean
and jungle areas suffering extreme poverty. The
government lacks revenues for adequate social
investment.
children in the formal education system.

A factor that influences poor families decision to
send their children to school is the provision of
food and health care.
are more economically active children in urban

areas (53.8 per cent), than in rural areas (46.2
per cent). The number is higher among girls and
higher in poor areas/households. The number of
those economically active also increases with the
age of the child.

Child labour is on the increase in Peru. In the
last 10 years, the incidence has grown
considerably. Some 2 million children between
the ages of 6 and 17 are working. This means
that out of the total population of girls, boys and
adolescents, 27 per cent more than one in four
are doing some kind of work. In general, there
Children work in agriculture and informal

activities. Some of them are employed in the
worst forms of child labour, such as sexual
exploitation, brick-making, dumping, mining
and coca plantations. Other occupations include
market and street trading, textiles and domestic
service. In all cases, labour affects school
attendance and performance.
31
The Philippines
Capital: Manila
Area: 300,000 sq km
Languages: Filipino and English, with 8 major dialects (Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon or
Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango and Pangasinense)
Ethnic groups: Tagalog 28.1%, Cebuano 13.1%, Ilocano 9%, Bisaya/Binisaya 7.6%, Hiligaynon
Ilonggo 7.5%, Bikol 6%, Waray 3.4% other 25.3% (2000 census)
Administrative divisions: 3 geographical areas (Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao) with 17 regions, 79
provinces, 117 cities, 1,500 municipalities and 41,975 barangays (the smallest political unit)
System of government: Republic
Currency: Philippine peso
THE PHILLIPPINES IN FIGURES
0.75865
Demography
Population (2005)
83.1 million66
Population under 15 (as % of total)(2003)
36.1%67
Economy
GDP (2004)
US$ 84.6 billion68
US$ 1,17069
Unemployment (as % of total labour force)(April 2006)
8.2%70
Inflation rate (April 2004)
7.1%71
36.1%72
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
32
70.8 years73
Adult literacy rate (2004)
92.6%74
112.5%75
76%76
83.9%77
3.1%78
Public expenditure on health (as % of GDP) (2002)
1.1%79

UNFPA, State of the World Population 2005; figure according to National Statistics Office, 85.2 million.
UNDP, Human Development Report 2005; 2005 figure according to National Statistics Office, 36.9%.
National Statistics Office.
National Statistics Office.
UNDP, Human Development Report 2005; 2003 figure according to National Statistical Coordination Board, 30.4%.
World Bank, World Development Indicators database, April 2006; 200304 figure according to Department of Education, 106.2%.
World Bank, World Development Indicators database, April 2006; 200304 figure according to Department of Education, 83.6%.
Background
The Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107
islands, stretching from the south of China to
the northern tip of Borneo. Much of the country
is mountainous and subject to earthquakes and
eruptions from around 20 active volcanoes.
The Philippines has the highest birth rate in
Asia. The bulk of the population lives on just 11
of the countrys islands. There has been a
continuing trend of internal migration from
rural to urban areas since at least 1991.
According to the 2000 census, 52 per cent of the
population lived in rural areas and 48 per cent in
urban areas, including about 12 per cent in
metropolitan Manila. Updated estimates based
on the 2000 census indicate that, in 2005, the
age group 014 accounted for 35 per cent of the
nation's total population.

Although it once boasted one of the regions
best-performing economies, in more recent
decades the Philippines has not been able to
achieve a sustained period of rapid economic
growth. In spite of its rich natural and human
resources, the country is saddled with a large
national debt, and more than 20 million people
live in poverty. The economy is heavily
dependent on the billions of dollars sent home
each year by the huge Filipino overseas workforce.
In 2004, the Philippines achieved real economic
growth of 6 per cent, up from 4.5 per cent in
2003. However, with the population expanding
by more than 2 per cent annually, the actual
improvement in living standards has been
modest.
On average, employment has been growing in
the past few years. However, unemployment has
remained at 8.1 per cent as of January 2006, as
the number of jobs generated has been
inadequate to absorb the influx of entrants into
the labour market. The majority of the
unemployed are young people aged 15 to 24.

Youth account for almost half of the total
unemployed (48.7 per cent), with employment
opportunities scarce for the unskilled and
inexperienced and for persons whose education
does not match industry needs. Youth
unemployment has the highest rate compared to
all age groups and is more than twice the
national unemployment rate.
Education
Philippine education is based on the American
system, with English as the medium of
instruction. Schools are classified into public
(government) or private (non-government).
The six years of primary education are free and
compulsory; the four-year secondary education
programme is free but not compulsory.
According to the Department of Education, for
the school year 200304, a total of 13 million
students were enrolled in elementary education
(about 88.8 per cent of 6- to 11-year-olds),
including 12.1 million in public schools run by
local government and 920,674 in private
schools. A total of 6.3 million students were
enrolled in secondary education (about 59.2 per
cent of 12- to 15-year-olds), including about 5
million in public schools and 1.2 million in
private schools.
Ideally, there should be one public elementary
school per barangay and one public high school
per municipality. For the 200405 school year,
the Department of Education reported that 267
barangays were still without a public elementary
school, while five municipalities did not yet have
public high schools.
A law against the worst forms of child labour
(Republic Act No. 9231) was passed in Congress
and signed by President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo in December 2003. It mandates the
Department of Education to ensure and
guarantee the access of working children to both
formal and non-formal education.
33

Information on child labour in the country is
obtainable from three official sources: the Survey
on Children (SOC), the Labour Force Survey
(LFS) and the Annual Poverty Indicators Survey
(APIS). All surveys are conducted by the
National Statistics Office (NSO). The SOC was
conducted in 1995 and 2001, both with the
assistance of the ILO. Using a reference period of
the past 12 months, the SOC reported an
increase in the number of economically active
children from 3.6 million in 1995 to 4 million
in 2001.
Based on the 2001 SOC, 37 per cent of the
working children aged 517 did their job on a
seasonal basis or only during school vacations.
One in four working children was employed as a
permanent worker. According to different
occupations, the majority of the working
children aged 517 worked as labourers and
unskilled workers (2.6 million or 65 per cent).
Others worked as service workers and shop and
market sales workers (544,000 or 13.5 per cent)
and as farmers, forestry workers and fishermen
(454,000 or 11.3 percent). Looking at the
situation by industry or sector, it was recorded
that more than 50 per cent of working children
aged 517 (2.1 million or 53 per cent) were
engaged in agriculture, hunting and forestry.
Notable percentages of other working children
could also be found in wholesale and retail,
repair of motor vehicles and personal and
household goods (747,000 or 18.6 per cent), in
private households with employed persons
(230,000 or 5.7 per cent), fishing (207,000 or
5.2 per cent) and manufacturing (186,000
or 4.6 per cent).
About 2.4 million or 59.4 per cent of the
4 million working children were exposed to a
hazardous work environment. Physical hazards
were the most common faced by working
children and around 1.1 million (44.4 per cent)
were exposed to physical hazards only; 382,000
34
(16 per cent) were in danger of physical and

chemical hazards; and another 352,000 (14.7
per cent) were in physically and biologically
hazardous working places. Around 237,000 (9.9
per cent) of working children aged 517 were
exposed to the three forms of hazardous
environment.
In view of the need to have a regular source of
information on working children which could
provide selected statistics, the NSO expanded
the coverage of the quarterly LFS in 2003 to
include those children aged 514 and included
selected indicators on education. Compared to
the SOC, the LFS data revealed a substantially
lower number of working children owing to the
use of the past week reference period, i.e.
interviewees were asked whether they had
worked during the seven days prior to the survey.
In October 2004, the LFS revealed that around
2.116 million children or 9.1 per cent of the
25.210 million aged 517 were working.
The number of working children had decreased
from 2.226 million over the last year, or by 0.7
per cent. Children aged 1517 were more likely
to be employed than younger groups. More boys
than girls were in work. However, a greater
proportion of girls worked more than eight
hours a day. Nearly 60 per cent of working
children were employed in agriculture, hunting
and forestry. More than half of working children
were unpaid.
Meanwhile, the APIS provides information
linking child labour to poverty levels. The 2004
APIS pointed out that poor families (the lowest
30 per cent of income strata) are more likely to
have working children aged 517, with 23 per
cent compared with 8 per cent among the
non-poor families (higher 70 per cent of income
strata). It was also noted that the incidence of
working children increased from 20.7 per cent of
families within the 30 per cent income stratum
in 2002 to 23.1 per cent in 2004.
Thailand
Capital: Bangkok
Area: 513,100 sq km
Languages: Thai
Ethnic groups: Thai 89%, other 11%
Administrative divisions: 76 provinces
System of government: Constitutional monarchy
Currency: Baht
THAILAND IN FIGURES
0.77880
Demography
Population (2005)
64.2 million81
24.5%82
Economy
GDP (2004)
US$ 161.7 billion83
US$ 2,49084
Unemployment (as % of total labour force) (2004)
2%85
3.3%86
13.1%87
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
70.5 years88
92.6%89
98.5%90
Survival rate to Grade 5
77.3%91
Public expenditure on education (2000-02)
5.2%92
Public expenditure on health (2002)
3.1%93

UNDP, Human Development Report 2005
US Department of State, Background Note Thailand.
35
Background
Thailand is located in the centre of peninsular
South-East Asia. Myanmar is to the west, Lao PDR
to the north and east, Cambodia to the
south-east and Malaysia to the south.
The population is mostly rural, concentrated in
the rice-growing areas of the central, northeastern and northern regions. However, as
Thailand continues to industrialize, its urban
population 31.6 per cent of total population,
principally in the Bangkok area is growing.

Thailand is undergoing a transition from an
agricultural to an industrial economy. Large
disparities in socio-economic welfare remain,
caused by uneven distribution of wealth,
environmental degradation and the effects of
urbanization.
Thailands developing free-enterprise economy
has recovered from the Asian financial crisis
triggered by speculation against the Thai baht in
199798. By 2002, Thailands standard of living
had returned to the level prevailing before the
financial crisis.
into force which emphasizes participatory

democracy and decentralization to local-level
administration, rights-based development and
greater transparency in the State system.
Furthermore, the new constitution decrees that
the State must protect children and youth from
violence and unfair treatment and that all
children are entitled to free basic education of
not less than 12 years.
Education
The basic education system has been improved,
including raising the duration of compulsory
schooling from 6 to 9 years, providing free
education for up to 12 years, expanding access to
education, improving educational facilities and
providing education in local or minority
languages.
In 2004, an estimated 96 per cent of students
completed grade six, and 48 per cent completed
grade 12. In the same year, more than 8.8
million students were enrolled in 32,413
primary, middle and high schools; 631,000
students were enrolled in 612 vocational
education institutions.

During 200104, the economy grew at a
moderate rate, but the rate of growth was slower
than in the booming 1980s and the first half of
the 1990s. A long-term shift from agriculture to
manufacturing and services continues, but about
49 per cent of the workforce is still employed in
agriculture, forestry and fishing, although this
sector is responsible for only 10 per cent of GDP.
The economy is heavily dependent on exports,
such as textiles and computer components,
which account for 60 per cent of GDP. Between
2002 and mid-2004, the number of poor
declined by about 2 million. According to the
World Bank, the poverty rate declined from 15.6
per cent to 12 per cent during this period.
Following the 1997 economic crisis, the
countrys political structure underwent a series of
changes. In late 1997, a new Constitution came
36
The decline in poverty along with the

government-promoted education continuation
programme and a low birth rate have been key
factors in reducing the number of children in
child labour in Thailand. In 1988, 40 per cent of
children aged 13 to 14 were reported to be
working and not in school. By 1999, this had
fallen to less than 10 per cent.
However, some underserved areas and vulnerable
groups have lagged behind in sharing the
benefits of economic growth, and disparities are
widening within the country. The child labour
problem persists. A nationwide survey by the
Department of Labour Protection and Welfare
found that of the approximately 300,000
children aged 15 to 17 (60 per cent male and 40
per cent female) who are legally employed in
registered establishments, 50 per cent received

lower wages than the legal daily minimum wage
and more than 70 per cent worked more than 40
hours a week.
In addition, Thailand continues to face
challenges in combating some of the worst forms
of child labour. Child labour can still be found
in Thailands large unregulated sectors, such as
in small-scale factories, fishing, construction,
agriculture, the service sector including domestic
work, forced begging and commercial sexual
exploitation. Vulnerable groups of children at
risk of the worst forms of child labour have been
identified, comprising children of ethnic
minorities, migrant children, children in
poverty, runaways, school drop-outs, children
from broken homes and children without birth
certificates or other official identification papers.
Significantly, there are indications that the
continuous demand for child labour in informal
sectors has led to an influx of children from
neighbouring countries. Thailand represents by
far the biggest destination country for labour
migrants (both regular and irregular) in the
Mekong sub-region, who are drawn by the
countrys social and economic progress. Some are
trafficked and work in slavery like conditions.
There are no official government statistics on the
number of children trafficked into and out of
Thailand. However, what is known of
recruitment conditions and exploitation
indicates that a significant number of underage
migrant children are victims of trafficking.
They are mostly from hill tribes in Thailand and
from Cambodia, the Lao Peoples Democratic
Republic and Myanmar, but cases of trafficked
children from some South Asian countries have
also been reported.
Various studies indicate that most child
trafficking victims in Thailand originally sought
migration for employment willingly and may
have been misled in their home villages or at a
border crossing point by unscrupulous job
brokers operating to fill a demand or a perceived
interest in child labour. The victims experienced
a range of problems from receiving wages much
lower than the national minimum wage to
sexual and physical assaults and deprivation of

the basic workers rights guaranteed by Thai law.
In addition to the demand from employers
seeking to maximize profits with cheap pliant
labour, child labour and the trafficking of
children in and into Thailand prevails due to
several enabling factors, including:
uneven social, political and economic
development between Thailand and
neighbouring countries that prompts
migration, both regular and irregular;
transnational organized criminal groups;
lack of consistent and effective migration
management;
poor labour inspection, particularly in sectors
with the many migrant workers;
corruption and failure to enforce existing
laws by some individual authorities;
lack of citizenship for the hill tribe population;
lack of legal status among foreign migrant
children and youth as a result of illegal migration.
Following the 1997 economic crisis, the
countrys political structure underwent a series of
changes. In late 1997, a new Constitution came
into force which emphasizes participatory
democracy and decentralization to local-level
administration, rights-based development and
greater transparency in the state system.
Furthermore, the new constitution decrees that
the State must protect children and youth from
violence and unfair treatment and that all
children are entitled to free basic education of
not less than 12 years.
While, overall, Thailand has significantly
improved its legal framework to combat child
labour and child trafficking, it continues to be a
source, transit and destination country for
trafficked children, and great challenges remain.
Thailand has not ratified the Protocol to
Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, supplementing the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime (2000). Furthermore, weak law
enforcement and implementation of antitrafficking measures are still areas of concern.
37
Viet Nam
Capital: Hanoi
Area: 329,314 sq km
Ethnic groups: Kinh (Viet) 86.2%, Tay 1.9%, Thai 1.7%, Muong 1.5%, Khome 1.4%, Hoa 1.1%,
Nung 1.1%, Hmong 1%, others 4.1% (1999 census)
Languages: Vietnamese (official), English (increasingly favoured as a second language), some French,
Chinese and Khmer, mountain area languages (Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian)
Administrative divisions: 59 provinces and 5 municipalities
System of government: Communist Party-dominated constitutional republic
Currency: Vietnamese dong
VIET NAM IN FIGURES

0.70494
Demography
Population (2005)
84.2 million95
Population under 15 ( as % of total) (2003)
31.1%96
Economy
GDP (2004)
US$ 45.2 billion97
US$ 54098
5.5%99
7.9%100
50.9%101

Life expectancy at birth
71.3 years102
90.3%103
100%104
87.1%105
73.5%106
Public expenditure on education (as % of GDP)
Public expenditure on health (as % of GDP) (2003)
1.5%107
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
38

UNFPA, State of World Population 2005
World Bank, World Development Indicators database, April 2006
CIA World Factbook
World Bank, World Development Indicators database, April 2006. Figure according to UNESCO, Statistics in Brief Education in Vietnam,
June 2006, 90.4%
World Bank, World Development Indicators database, April 2006. 2004 figure according to UNESCO, Statistics in Brief Education in Vietnam,
June 2006, 98%
UNESCO Global Monitoring Report 2006
Background
Viet Nam is located in South-East Asia,
bordered by the Gulf of Tonkin and the South
China Sea to the east, China to the north, Laos
and Cambodia to the west and the Gulf of
Thailand to the south.
Viet Nams population is growing at a rate of
about 1.2 per cent a year. The average
population density was 246 people per sq km,
one of the highest levels in the world. The
highest concentration of people is in the Red
River Delta in the north-east, where Hanoi is
located, and the lowest concentration is in the
north-west. The population, which traditionally
has been primarily rural, has become
increasingly urbanized since 1986, when the Doi
Moi economic renewal programme began to
boost income and employment opportunities in
the cities. In addition, a steady stream of
migrants continues to move from the north to
the south.

Viet Nam has made significant progress in
raising the living standards of its people,
manifested in recent dramatic economic growth
and poverty reduction. In 15 years from 1990 to
2004, GDP tripled, with an average annual
growth rate of 7.5 per cent; the incidence of
poverty dropped from 58 per cent in 1993 to 24
per cent in 2004. The real economy doubled in
size during the decade, savings rates rose sixfold
to around 25 per cent of GDP, exports rose by an
average of 25 per cent a year and Viet Nam
moved from a food deficit nation to become the
second largest exporter of rice.
Economic growth in the 1990s generated
marked improvements in living standards. The
108
109
incidence of poverty was halved from 70 per cent

to around 35 per cent, and the proportion of the
population living in severe poverty fell to 15 per
cent. Across a broad front, there were widespread
and visible improvements in the lives of
Vietnamese citizens.108
Education
In 2003, Viet Nams literacy rate was 94 per cent
(95.8 per cent for men and 92.3 per cent for
women). However, educational attainment is less
impressive. Although five years of primary
school education are compulsory and 92 per
cent of eligible children were enrolled in primary
school in 2000, only two-thirds completed the
fifth grade.
The cost of tuition, books and uniforms and the
need to supplement family income are the two
main reasons for children dropping out of
school. A huge disparity exists in primary school
enrolment between the cities and rural parts of
Viet Nam. In some rural areas, only 1015 per
cent of the children progress beyond third grade,
whereas almost 96 per cent of pupils in Ho Chi
Minh City complete fifth grade. In 2000,
enrolment in secondary school was only 62.5 per
cent, much lower than in primary school. One
of the governments goals is to expand access to
secondary education.

While there has been no national survey
specifically on child labour in Viet Nam, the
countrys periodic surveys on living standards
indicate that there has been a decrease in the
percentage of children taking part in economic
activities: from 41.1 per cent in 1993 to 29.3 per
cent in 1998 and 18 per cent in 2003.109
World Bank 1999.

Source: GSO, Surveys on Living standards in 19921993, 19971998, 20022003.
39
The surveys also reflect the

characteristics of child labour:
following
Children taking part in economic activities

can be classified into four groups: employed
labour; family business; working for both
family and outside employers; and
self-employed. Between 1992 and 1998, the
percentage of self-employed children
increased. The following years, 1998 to 2003,
witnessed a reversal, with the numbers
decreasing. Meanwhile, the percentage of
children working in family businesses, the
category where most children are employed,
fell steadily between 1992 and 1998 but rose
again between 1998 and 2003. During this
same period, the percentage of employed
children aged 6 to 10 years dropped
significantly but increased among children
aged 11 to 14 and 15 to 17.
In general, there are more economically
active children in rural areas than in urban
areas. The number is higher among girls and
higher in poor areas/households. The number
of those economically active also increases
with the age of the child.
Despite a downward trend in the number of
economically active children, labour intensity
has tended to increase. In particular, working
hours are longer, especially those from 15 to
17 years old. The percentage of children in
this age group working overtime rose from
1.6 per cent to 9.1 per cent between 1998
and 2003 and that of children employed in
family businesses and the household economy
rose from 4.8 per cent to 73.6 per cent.
40
The percentage of economically active

children decreases as the percentage of
children going to school increases, underlining
the importance of education and the
governments policy of universalization of
primary education in efforts to reduce child
labour. Nonetheless, the percentage of
drop-outs remains high (38 per cent among
children aged 15 to 17 in 2003) and is
reflected in the labour force participation of
this age group.
These achievements notwithstanding, recent
studies have drawn attention to diverse forms of
child labour in Viet Nam, which include:
working children under the minimum working
age; children in domestic service; child victims
of human trafficking, sexual abuse and
exploitation; and drug trafficking.
There are several reasons for the existence of
child labour in Viet Nam. In addition to the
inability of the education system, and in
particularly lower secondary education, to reach
all children, direct causes include poverty and
the spread of HIV/AIDS. Indirectly identifiable
causes vary from a poor knowledge of the
adverse impacts of child labour, ignorance of the
law against child labour, low levels of trade
union penetration and representation in the
emerging domestic private sector, the lack of
systematic information collection and
management systems for child labour, and the
lack of a comprehensive regulatory framework
on the prevention of child labour in the informal
economy.
Chapter
ILO/Deloche P.
FIRST PHASE ACTIVITIES

BY COUNTRY AND REGION
Chapter
FIRST PHASE ACTIVITIES BY

COUNTRY AND REGION
The project is both an ambitious and innovative
undertaking within the overall ILO-IPEC
framework of activities, given that it has
operated with a low level of resources, both
human and financial, and that it seeks to
mobilize national actors within a broad
international coalition of countries, namely
APEC. The main objective of raising awareness
among a range of stakeholders was largely
achieved thanks to the significant synergies
created with existing networks and programmes
and the capacity to leverage resources available
through larger-scale programmes in the
countries concerned, whether those of
ILO-IPEC or other activities, such as EFA and
poverty alleviation. In the course of the first
phase of the project from 2001 to 2003, each of
the six project countries received on average a
sum of US$20,000 each to implement its
project activities. In spite of this relatively
limited amount, the outcomes were
considerable, particularly as regards the aim to
establish a Child Labour and Education
Task Force in each country.
Indonesia
Integrated policy approach

Indonesia was an interesting case study in the
first phase in that, unlike the other five project
countries, it did not establish an Education Task
Force but took advantage of the existence of four
national level multi-sectoral bodies focusing on
the inter-related fields of education, child labour
and poverty alleviation and pursuing the aims

and objectives of the project through these
mechanisms, namely:
the National Action Committee on the
Worst Forms of Child Labour;
the National Steering Committee on the
Elimination of Child Labour;
the National Committee on Education For
All; and
the national level task force on poverty
alleviation.
Several meetings, including a national workshop,
were organized to facilitate coordination and an
exchange of detailed information between these
four bodies and the project and to strengthen the
capacities of their members to understand and
reinforce the linkages between child labour,
education and poverty alleviation. This led to
discussions on a policy paper by the project on
the mainstreaming of child labour and education
in Indonesias PRSP due to be completed in
April 2004 and the mainstreaming of child
labour into the nine-year basic education
programme. There was strong support from all
participants on these proposals. The paper
benefited considerably from this multi-sectoral
approach involving key ministries, the
above-mentioned committees and other relevant
bodies. By the end of the first phase, it had been
agreed that the National Committee on
Education For All would take a leading role in
matters regarding education initiatives within
the child labour programme.
41
As well as the national level activities above, the

project also organized a provincial and a district
level workshop in specified locations in order to
assist local government agencies, university bodies and NGOs in understanding how to mainstream child labour issues effectively into poverty alleviation and EFA frameworks. These events
also provided opportunities to disseminate targeted promotional and information materials on
eliminating child labour for wider dissemination
among teachers, educators and care-givers.
It was noted, however, that there was a need for
education focal points to be nominated in the
national committees to ensure that education is
given appropriate and adequate emphasis in
child labour and poverty alleviation efforts.
These focal points should meet as required in
order to exchange information on progress and
offer mutual support and guidance.
Mobilizing the media

As with the aim of policy integration of education, child labour and poverty alleviation, the
objective of reaching out to the media press,
audio-visual and electronic was a common element in all countries. Indeed, in terms of raising
awareness and influencing social attitudes and
behaviour with respect to a major social issue,
such as child labour, the media are possibly the
most important mechanism for conveying key
messages to the general public.
In Indonesia, a special event was organized in
conjunction with National Childrens Day in
July bringing together around 30 media professionals. Materials on child labour and education
were distributed and there was discussion on
how ILO-IPEC could enhance its own media
campaigns and messages to ensure better dissemination. There was a suggestion that radio might
be a more effective channel to reach communities at regional and district levels. Empowering
local media organizations and professionals
would support ILO-IPEC efforts in ensuring
42
greater coverage of child labour, particularly in

hard-to-reach communities.
Impact of an enabling environment

The project in Indonesia benefited significantly
from the fact that the country had already committed itself to several key global development
initiatives. The ILO-IPEC programme had been
in operation since 1992 and the Project of
Support for the TBP was in its final stages of
preparation. In addition, the project was able to
create important synergies by bringing together
members of national bodies established to oversee a national poverty alleviation programme
and the national education strategy within the
EFA framework and discussing the mainstreaming of child labour within these initiatives. It was
also able to broaden the mainly governmental
membership base of the committees by including representatives of active and experienced
NGOs. The implementation of the project at
both provincial and district levels was an added
bonus in a country that was undergoing a significant decentralization process at that time and
therefore could engage these authorities on child
labour, poverty alleviation and education.
Challenges encountered
Given the progress by ILO-IPEC in mainstreaming child labour in education initiatives at the
global level (see Chapter 1), it is important to
establish effective links between policy-related
activities at the global, regional, national,
provincial and district levels, in particular to
encourage action at more local levels. This would
be especially worthwhile in a country such as
Indonesia, which has decentralized its political
structure. Working at the district level would
encourage local resource mobilization and the
creation of structures to sustain project activities.
It would also be important to ensure that central
government mechanisms and funding support
this process. The fact that there are 434 decentralized districts and municipalities in Indonesia
CHAPTER 5: First Phase Activities by Country and Region
presents a challenge which can be overcome

through strategic interventions at all levels in
order to scale up activities.
Further challenges included an acknowledgement
that some of the advocacy materials that were
developed did not suit some of the target
audiences. Researching this communications
aspect needs to be carried out more effectively in
future.
Mexico
The task force

The project in Mexico needs to be set in the
context of an environment where there was
limited general understanding of the problem of
child labour and where the ILO-IPEC
programme had not yet been established. In fact,
the project contributed significantly to the
start-up and implementation of activities,
including the establishment of the ILO-IPEC
Country Programme. Mexico City was selected
as the projects location, and the project task
force there took the shape of a consultative
committee which included ILO-IPEC and ILO
tripartite partners, the Under-Secretariat of
Labour of Mexico City, the Mexican Workers
Federation (CTM) and the Mexican Employers
Federation (COPARMEX). It further enlisted
the involvement of the Institute of Youth, the
Department of the Integral Development of the
Family and the Ministry of Public Education.
Other organizations and institutions were
invited to participate in the committees
meetings, including members of Mexico Citys
legislative assembly and various NGOs. There
was close cooperation between the project and
the preparatory work on the ILO-IPEC Country
Programme, which focused primarily on raising
awareness of the problem of commercial sexual
exploitation of children, a key element of the
Country Programme. There was broad
consensus from stakeholders that immediate
action should be taken on this issue. The close

collaboration also meant that the project was
able to benefit from the launch of the first ILO
Global Report on Child Labour in 2002 and the
first World Day Against Child Labour and also
the participation of the ILO in the XI
Conference of American First Ladies.
The committee was responsible for developing a
plan of action for an awareness-raising campaign
on child labour and education, including
potential supporting organizations and
materials. The committee also established
an e-mail network to exchange information
between participating organizations. Among the
materials produced through the project was a
CD-ROM about the ILO and its work on the
prevention and elimination of child labour,
including the programme in Mexico. The CD
was well-received by partners and stakeholders
who up until then knew very little about the
ILO and IPEC. The Institute of Youth assisted
the project in the design of a poster targeting
young people, and adolescents were involved in
this process. The Institute also provided
logistical support to the project and organized its
own events to discuss child labour issues and
disseminated additional materials.
Awareness-raising workshops
There was a predominant view that children
should be allowed to work to support families in
economic difficulty and that work can instil a
sense of responsibility in children. Following the
establishment of the task force and the
development of campaign materials, the project
organized a series of workshops targeting
specific groups and partners. These included
principals of technical secondary schools, trade
union representatives, civil servants from
relevant government departments, child service
centre employees and media professionals.
The workshop for secondary school principals
was organized around the theme of the
43
Poster developed in Mexico: This is all a child should have to carry
importance of education and teachers in

preventing and eliminating child labour. While
the workshop essentially fulfilled its objective in
terms of raising awareness among these
education professionals, one of the major
challenges that remained was that of convincing
the education authorities of the need to
mainstream it more widely across the school
system. The aim was to ensure that the
awareness-raising element was sustained
throughout the system and in classrooms.
The workshop for trade unionists included
representatives from several organizations,
including the youth section of a national
confederation. The programme focused on both
the international and national legislative
frameworks for child labour and the role of trade
union organizations in efforts to prevent and
eliminate it. The event led to the realization that
there was still relatively little known or
understood about child labour among key
stakeholders in Mexico, including the trade
union movement, and that activities needed to
be strengthened to ensure, for example, that the
issue became an integral part of the national
trade union agenda.
Similar challenges were identified following the
capacity-building event for civil servants
working in Mexico Citys departments of labour
and social welfare. On the basis of this meeting,
it became clear that there has been a certain
social acceptance of child labour, even within
government institutions, and that this would
need to be addressed through additional
awareness-raising activities at all levels of
government.
44
Likewise, the training workshop for child service

centre workers revealed that, although there was
a better understanding of child labour among
this group of professionals, there still remained
some confusion regarding the children
concerned. For example, street children and
children working in the street were put together
under the same definition. These workers had
little knowledge of the ILO and the
ILO-IPEC programme. Clearly, therefore, the
need to reinforce awareness-raising efforts in
Mexico is critical.
Mobilizing the media and decision-makers

In an effort to respond to the need to promote
the issue of child labour and its prevention and
elimination more widely, two additional
workshops focused on key partners who could
support this objective: the media and members
of the citys legislative assembly. The project was
able to benefit from the support of UNICEF in
addressing the media professionals, which
helped considerably in that UNICEF has been
operational in Mexico for a number of years, was
well known to and respected by the media and
could reinforce the profile of the ILO and
ILO-IPEC and the collaboration between the
sister agencies in the area of child labour.
The programme was broad, highlighting
important background information for the
media on relevant international conventions,
commercial sexual exploitation of children in the
context of ILO Convention No. 182, and
national legislation and potential responses to
the problem. The response from participants was
very positive, and they showed a strong
inclination to take part in further activities.
It was also suggested that, in future, workshops

should be organized for both State and national
media professionals and should also involve
senior officials in the media.
implementation, as each district is dominated by

one of the three main political parties.
Peru
The workshop targeting members of Mexico
Citys legislative assembly, which includes the
ILOs tripartite partners, concluded that it
would be important to continue to promote the
issue of child labour prevention and elimination
and the role of education in order to maintain
these as priorities across the agendas of each of
the tripartite partners.
The project was faced with a general and broad
lack of understanding and knowledge of child
labour among all stakeholders and the widely
held belief that working is more beneficial than
harmful to the child. The ILO-IPEC Country
Programme had not even been launched prior to
commencement of the project, which has had
inevitable repercussions. The poor understanding
of the problem of child labour has also meant
that there are limited resources available to
develop programmes on prevention and
protection and care of child workers.
The stakeholders mobilized through the
consultative committee became key partners of
the ILO-IPEC Country Programme, which
established a new committee under the auspices
of the Under-Secretariat of Labour of Mexico
City. This new committee provides policy advice
and oversees the implementation of programmes
and projects on child labour.
The complex political landscape in Mexico, and
particularly in Mexico City, has raised some
further challenges. Mexico City is an
autonomous administration governed by a
different political party from that of the federal
government, and there are 16 political districts
in Mexico City. This has led to political
challenges over the choice of districts for project
Extended scope of existing Child Labour and

Education Task Force
Peru provided an interesting case study on
implementing innovative social mobilization
activities, particularly involving the media and
well-known music personalities. As with other
countries in the project, significant efforts were
made in the area of networking and
alliance-building and in broadening the scope
and activities of an existing Education Task
Force structure. The Task Force had been
established within the context of a previous
ILO-IPEC education project, and the new
project provided a useful opportunity to
broaden its membership to include additional
representatives from key partners, including
APEC focal points from the Ministries of
Labour and International Affairs, NGOs, the
media and politicians.
The project coincided with the electoral
campaign of the mayor of Lima which, through
a particularly creative approach, was viewed by
the project coordinator as a unique opportunity
to further reinforce awareness-raising activities,
especially among influential politicians.
The election of the mayor is a major political
event for the capital city, and candidates and/or
their advisors through the project advisory
committee were invited to participate in an
Education Task Force workshop to better
understand the importance of education in the
prevention and elimination of child labour. This
has created a sustained level of support for the
project from all the politicians involved in the
election specifically. More generally, the actions
of the project have enhanced potential influence
at the policy level and also enabled the
implementation of activities that reach a much
45
broader cross-section of the population. Training

workshops for the Task Force members covered
child labour-related issues and helped in
identifying knowledge gaps and elaborate
alternative strategies to tackle child labour.
Combining partnership strengths in raising

awareness
The Child Labour and Education Task Force in
Peru, coordinated by NGO partner Centro
Proceso Social (CPS), was able to combine the
capacities of different stakeholders through a
series of integrated awareness-raising workshops
on the worst forms of child labour and the
importance of education as an intervention
strategy. Activities involved journalists and other
media professionals, students of mass
communications, as well as public relations
advisors to politicians. Two universities,
involving around 100 communications students,
were encouraged to organize their own similar
workshops following the model, and these were
timed to coincide with preparations for the
political race for mayor of Lima in October
2002. A round table-style forum was organized
at which mayoral candidates discussed how best
education can be used to combat hazardous
child labour in the country and produced a joint
declaration on this issue. These combined
activities were supported by substantial national
media coverage, further reinforcing awareness of
these issues among the general public. Two of the
candidates from particularly disadvantaged areas
of Lima have since launched non-formal
education programmes in their constituencies.
Following the project, proposals were made to
make significant changes to the national
constitution and the Childrens Code in order to
delete references to childrens right to work and
to add the prohibition of hazardous work by
children. A memorandum was sent to members
of Congress to explain the reasons underpinning
these proposed legislative changes.
46
Music as a means of communication

Radio remains a powerful means of communication
around the world, particularly in rural and
hard-to-reach communities. The incidence of
child labour is particularly high in these
communities, especially in the agricultural
sector, and the high level of illiteracy and poor
education structures further reinforces this
situation. The Task Force decided to use the
radio as a means to pass on its message to the
communities where child labour is prevalent.
The message was in the form of a musical CD,
which included songs from 30 popular
musicians from Peru. These artists were
mobilized through the efforts of the CPS and, as
well as supporting the production of the CD,
they went on to conduct their own awarenessraising activities. They also launched a
collaborative effort entitled SOS Nios al
Rescate (SOS Rescue Children) in which
benefit concerts were organized to raise funds to
support education programmes for children
withdrawn from the worst forms of child labour.
The CD was played on radio stations popular
among disadvantaged communities, and media
coverage of the CD included broadcasts on 16
radio stations and on 4 popular television
programmes in the form of a music video.
In addition, a special event was organized to
present the CD to private companies, which
resulted in around 4,000 additional copies being
produced and distributed to a much wider
audience, including in neighbouring Andean
countries such as Bolivia, Chile, Colombia,
Ecuador and Uruguay, as radio coverage is
regional. In Bolivia, the domestic workers trade
union made one of the songs their official
anthem. The project was thus able to have an
impact in many more countries and at no extra
cost.
Capitalizing on the participation of media
professionals and social communicators in the
workshops, the project also established an
electronic network of around 200 members,

which continues to operate actively today,
particularly in the media. These individuals
contribute to the ILO-IPEC electronic bulletin
produced by the office in Lima by sending in
articles to be published, and an estimated 2,500
articles have so far been received from this
network.
The project in Peru highlighted the significant
potential benefit to social mobilization
programmes in enlisting the support of
professionals, including communications
experts, and also the need to consult children
themselves in defining clear campaign messages
and using accessible language. It is a tribute to
the achievements of this first phase that the
ILO-IPEC Coordinator continued to receive
invitations to relevant activities after the end of
the project. A number of organizations and
individuals involved in the project also
elaborated their own awareness-raising activities,
for example, university students organized
competitions in photography and creative
writing and also initiated relevant research
studies. In addition, the project contributed to
the decision by the Peruvian government to
increase the national education budgetary
allocation from 1 to 2 per cent, although the
target of the campaign was to raise the education
budget to 6 per cent.
As in Mexico, the project in Peru faced an initial
challenge of a widely held public view of child
labour being a positive situation for children in
terms of learning responsibilities. One of the
ways it overcame this initial difficulty was in
clearly defining its social messages and using
innovative methods to disseminate them. Other
ILO-IPEC programmes in Peru have also
benefited from the media and awareness-raising
materials, particularly the programmes for
children in mining and domestic child labour.
In addition, teachers organizations and various
NGOs have used the music CD referred to
previously for their activities.
Philippines
Sustainability through the elaboration of

training materials
As in the case of Peru, the project in the
Philippines was able to benefit from an existing
Child Labour Education Task Force (CLETF)
structure and a committed and motivated group
of members that gave the project activities a
significant initial boost. The project committee
decided that the most effective approach would
be to expand the network of the existing
national level body to reach out to local levels
and motivate those communities where child
labour is prevalent to take action through
education. Such was the success of this strategy
that the project was able to add a further region
to the four already targeted, and five regional
Education Task Forces were established and
training workshops organized for their members.
These bodies were charged with the responsibility
of ensuring local stakeholder involvement.
The main task force members included the
Department of Education, Culture and Sports
(now known as DepEd, the Department of
Education), the Alliance of Concerned Teachers
(ACT) and NGOs that had programmes for
child workers and/or education. Activities in the
regions
included
providing
accessible
information on ILO Convention 182 and EFA
and enhancing the capacities of local task force
partners in a number of areas, including:
awareness raising;
resource mobilization;
advocating and facilitating childrens
participation, especially child workers;
promoting relevant curricula integrating
life-skills and childrens rights and alternative
learning methodologies where appropriate
for child labourers;
calling for free basic education of good quality;
calling for the provision of incentives for
teachers engaged in activities to eliminate the
worst forms of child labour;
47
mobilizing local officials to ensure that

childrens educational needs are met;
promoting the continued expansion of
membership and coverage of the Education
Task Force; and
promoting the establishment of child labour
monitoring systems in each district.
In all, around 350 organizations were involved
in the awareness-raising and training sessions,
including national and local government
departments, civil society organizations,
educators, employers and church groups. In
turn, it is estimated that these organizations
reach thousands of children, families and
individuals. These figures give some idea of the
scale of the success of the project in the
Philippines. Support and administrative systems
have been established for each of the local task
forces and some have progressed to collecting
baseline data and setting up working committees
for research, advocacy, finance, rescue, training,
membership and partnership.
Following an evaluation of the experiences of the
project and the task forces, it was decided to
publish a manual to guide other interested
organizations and individuals in the Philippines
in setting up their own Child Labour and
Education Task Force and developing and
implementing an action plan. Entitled
Organizing a Task Force: A Practical Guide,
this publication has the capacity to have a
significant impact on the long-term sustainability
of the project and, once again, for relatively
small investment.
Sustainability received a further boost when the
Department of Education issued instructions to
its offices at all levels in the country to cooperate
with and support the TBP programme. It also
issued a bulletin to all schools across the country,
prioritizing education for child workers.
48
Impact of the project on the national TimeBound Programme

The project, through the considerable activities
of the national and local task forces, has laid
strong foundations for the implementation of
the Education Initiative of the national TBP in
the Philippines. The CLETF has now become
recognized as an education sub-group of the
technical working groups under the National
Child Labour Committee. It has around 20
member organizations, including the Education
Initiative grantee World Vision, and UNICEF
has also expressed an interest in joining.
Furthermore, the education agenda elaborated
under the project was reviewed at a national
workshop mandated to work on the TBP
education agenda, which highlighted the success
of the project in facilitating key processes of the
TBP in respect of education interventions.
As a next phase of activity, it was suggested that
it would be important to establish effective
communications structures with the local task
forces so that they would be prepared for and
could facilitate the future TBP Education
Initiative interventions. The local task forces, in
particular, would play a vital role in enriching
the TBP programme, which has a major focus on
local level activities.
Equal standing of task force members

In reflecting upon the success of the task force
structure in the Philippines, members highlighted
several factors which they felt had contributed to
the projects impact and sustainability, including
the fact that all those involved recognize
education as an important intervention in the
prevention and elimination of child labour.
Members also noted that the structural
relationship between their organizations was
based on a collegial system rather than a
hierarchical one, ensuring that all members are
equal. This central philosophy permeated most

task force activities, including with local
communities, to ensure that consensus was
arrived at through dialogue and that the main
focus was on changing behaviour within the
community. Responsibilities are distributed
among members according to their capacities to
perform specific tasks or functions and this is
once again based on collective dialogue and is
not imposed by any one member. Other factors
underpinning the success of the task forces
included support from local government
authorities and local NGOs, as well as from the
ILO-IPEC office in the Philippines. The
involvement of teachers organizations was also
considered critical in view of the underlying
need to influence the attitudes of teachers
towards child labour.
awareness-raising materials were available in

local languages and dialects, which had
inevitable resource implications. In addition,
establishing local task forces in a country the size
of the Philippines has implications in terms of
communications and meetings, particularly in
view of the recommendation that there be more
contact between the CLETF and the local task
forces and between the local task forces. It was
also felt that additional efforts should be made to
engage certain key national stakeholders,
particularly the employers confederation, the
trade union confederation, the Department of
Interior and Local Government and other
relevant government departments. The local
government authorities are especially key in the
provision of specialized services for the
protection of children.
Local languages key to accessibility

Thailand
Awareness-raising and outreach materials were
produced in local languages and dialects to
ensure their success in those communities where
child labour was prevalent. These materials
included among others a teachers kit and a
promotional video entitled Invisible children:
A closer look at child labour. These advocacy
materials were widely disseminated in the
targeted regions through the print media and
radio stations. Another key aspect of the project
was the level of child participation, especially
that of working children, in the various
activities. A consultative workshop was
organized for child labourers to be able to discuss
issues of concern to them, their needs and
expectations, and to facilitate their further
involvement through the establishment of
childrens associations against child labour.
One of the challenges encountered by the
project in the Philippines also provided one its
unique opportunities, namely its focus on local
impact. In order to be accessible to all actors, the
project had to ensure that advocacy and
Engagement of high-level officials in key ministries

Thailand benefited from the existence of a
mature ILO-IPEC programme with an
established National Steering Committee (NSC)
and the project was able to draw upon this
experience in setting up a new CLETF, as the
selection of member organizations was based
upon the advice of the NSC and included the
ILO tripartite partners. The focal point for the
task force was the National Institute of
Development Administration (NIDA), an
academic institution bringing together the key
ministries related to child labour. The task force
successfully initiated policy dialogue with key
government ministries and high-ranking
officials, including the Deputy Minister of
Education and advisors to the Prime Minister,
who expressed strong support for the campaign.
Other officials highlighted the need for various
education programmes for disadvantaged groups
that would help in reducing the incidence of
child labour. The initial membership was
subsequently broadened to include the APEC
49
representative, the employers and workers

confederations, the major national NGO
network and the media.
Mobile campaign in Bangkok

The National Council on Youth Development
(NCYD), an NGO network represented in the
Task Force, organized a team of over 50
students, teachers and local leaders from eight
schools in three different provinces to conduct a
mobile campaigning activity in the capital city.
The campaign was entitled Education for your
own childrens future and was delivered through
a traditional folk dance Pong Lang. The host
of a well-known television programme publicly
expressed her support for the campaign, which
ensured that the message was broadcast on a
wider scale.
The advocacy and other promotional materials
produced in the context of the project focused
on the importance of education as an
intervention strategy to help working children
and to ensure access to decent work and future
employment and information on the new
Education Reform Act, which will expand the
duration of compulsory education. These
materials were disseminated to target schools,
teachers, parents and social partners in at-risk
communities, as well as to participants in the
various national workshops organized by the
project. As well as disseminating materials
physically to partners and stakeholders,
the project also established an electronic
communications network in which a dedicated
web page was developed and was included on the
web sites of the employers confederation, the
Ministry of Labour and NIDA.
As has been mentioned previously in other
countries, one of the major advantages of the
project has been its role as catalyst in the
countries in which it has been implemented.
Because of the nature of its advocacy work, its
flexibility and capacity to support other
programmes, the project has been able to
50
promote the issue of child labour and education

quite widely, including through national
television and press. In Thailand, this has helped
in significantly raising the profile of ILO-IPEC
and its programmes and making these more
visible to all stakeholders and partners. It has also
helped in strengthening relationships between
ILO-IPEC and its partners, particularly
employers and workers organizations.
Decent work for at-risk youth

In an effort to broaden its membership base, the
task force sought to involve the social partners
more in its activities and the Employers
Confederation of Thailand, an implementing
partner in the project, launched a campaign to
promote skills development for disadvantaged
youth in which apprenticeships were offered by
members of the confederation. The organization
also set up site visits to these apprenticeship
programmes for human resource managers from
different companies.
Pressing home the message of the strong
correlation between education and work, the
project, in collaboration with the Department of
Labour Protection and Welfare and the
Department of Non-Formal Education,
launched a factory-based school campaign to
encourage employers to promote education
among their workers. Several member
companies of the employers confederation
joined this campaign, and support by private
companies was officially recognized by the
Ministry of Labour through a special certificate.
The project realized how important it was to
mobilize employers and workers organizations
around the issue of basic education and skills for
workers who might not have had access to
appropriate education and training programmes
in their past. In particular, the project focused on
ensuring that young workers above the
minimum age for employment, but below 18
had access to programmes to improve their
education and skills levels. The project realized
that a certification award for employers that

endorsed the programme was a particularly good
incentive to attract the interest of the private
sector. One of the recommendations that
emerged from the project in Thailand was that
policy dialogue should be facilitated by
ILO-IPEC between the tripartite partners to
address child labour issues effectively.
rested with one department. The creation of this

new ministry also affected the involvement of
and coordination with the APEC focal point, the
Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of
Labour and Social Welfare, in the project. It also
affected to some degree the effective operation of
the NSC.
Further reinforcement of the message of decent

work for at-risk youth was made when a one-day
national seminar was organized by NIDA, one of
the projects implementing partners, bringing
together 250 participants from government
ministries and agencies, teachers, workers and
employers representatives, students, local leaders
and the media. The event, which was presided
over by a group of high-level officials from the
national tripartite partners, focused on available
educational opportunities and their link to
decent work. There was a significant amount
of media coverage of the meeting, including
through television, and an interactive CD-ROM
was produced as a report and distributed widely.
A complete feature was developed and
subsequently submitted to the Long Distance
Learning Foundation, patronized by the King of
Thailand, for distribution to teachers and
schools across the nation.
Viet Nam
The project in Thailand was affected by two
factors beyond the control of ILO-IPEC and the
project advisory committee. The first of these
was the SARS epidemic in early 2003, which
caused one meeting to be postponed owing to
quarantine regulations. In addition, during
the project, a government decision was taken
to restructure the Ministry of Labour and
Social Welfare and create a new Ministry for
Social Development and Human Security.
This would have an inevitable impact upon the
sustainability of some of the activities, as
responsibilities in dealing with childrens issues
were to be split between these government
departments whereas before the responsibility
Strong education presence in Child Labour and

Education Task Force
As with other project countries, one of the first
achievements of the project was to establish an
Education Task Force which, in Viet Nam,
comprised members from ILO-IPEC, the
Ministry of Education and Training, the
National Institute for Educational Strategies and
Curricula, the Committee for Population,
Family and Children, the Ministry of Labour,
Invalids and Social Affairs and the Viet Nam
Womens Union. It is interesting to note the level
of involvement of education-related government
institutions within this task force. As in Mexico,
the members of the task force became part of the
institutional framework of the ILO-IPEC
Country Programme.
The task force organized a national workshop as
a platform to launch the project in which key
messages on child labour, its prevention and
elimination and the role of education were
highlighted. Around 100 participants attended
the workshop from relevant government
ministries and departments, a significant
number of media companies, other national and
international agencies and organizations. A series
of working papers had been prepared for the
event by different specialists and experts covering
a range of relevant topics, including the
definitions of child work and child labour, the
current situation in Viet Nam, school drop-out,
the role of education in preventing and
eliminating child labour and experiences from
other countries. The workshop concluded by
51
acknowledging the significance and urgency of

the child labour problem in the country and the
need for a common endeavour on behalf of all
stakeholders to tackle it. It also recognized the
vital role of education and agreed that all
children should have access to primary
education which was not the case at present.
A number of disadvantaged and marginalized
children did not have access to education and it
would be important to tackle the shortcomings
in the education system, particularly through
policy development to target out-of-school
children and upgrading school systems, facilities,
teacher training and equipment. Workshop
participants also recommended considerable
investment in new areas of education research to
better formulate strategies of education
intervention and for non-formal education
systems to be developed.
Programme. It brought partners to work

together around a major and sensitive issue and
helped in establishing effective structures and
communications. It also helped members of the
steering committees to have a more complete
understanding of what would be expected of
them in their roles in the NPSC.
Awareness-raising materials target key audiences

Of the two major activities conducted within the
context of the project, one was a televised forum
of debate on the theme Raising awareness on
the importance of education as a means of
combating child labour. The one-hour
programme was broadcast on the most popular
television channel with national coverage and
was repeated on two occasions, reaching
significant numbers of the general public
throughout the country.
Project paves the way for Country Programme

As with Mexico, the project was launched in
Viet Nam prior to the start-up of the Country
Programme, making it effectively the first
ILOI-IPEC intervention in the country.
It brought the project partners together to
establish a coordinated management and
implementation structure, facilitated by the
National Programme Manager (NPM). Some of
the members of the National Project Steering
Committee (NPSC) of the ILO-IPEC Country
Programme make up the membership of the
Task Force. It has been widely recognized that
the project contributed significantly to the
launch of the Country Programme, laying the
foundations for further work in the fields of
advocacy and awareness raising in particular.
This was especially important for the project in
Viet Nam, as child labour was still considered a
sensitive issue and the project had established
good working relations with the media and
other partners.
The project also contributed to building the
capacity of ILO-IPEC partners which would be
active in the more comprehensive Country
52
In building a focused communications strategy,

the task force met on a number of occasions to
discuss the target audiences for the different
awareness-raising materials. A poster campaign
was aimed at influencing policy-makers and
education administrators, while a flipchart was
designed to reach teachers, education volunteers
and community educators, who would use the
flipchart in their work. In addition, a significant
number of leaflets were designed and
disseminated among at-risk children and
families. The task force organized pre-tests of the
materials in five selected project sites to ensure
effective impact upon target audiences. It was
also expected that these materials could be used
in future awareness-raising activities of the
overall Country Programme.
The ILO-IPEC programme was still in its early
stages at the time of implementation of this
project. Coupled with the perceived sensitivity
of child labour as a social issue to be tackled
urgently, these combined challenges could
impact upon the sustainability of the activities
Child Labour
Poverty
No Education
Access to low income jobs
Materials developed in Vietnam: What are the consequences of child labour?
and the results of the project. Efforts would need

to be made to sustain initiatives and to engage
further relevant partners in the country,
particularly key government departments and
the social partners. The project noted the need
for more emphasis on awareness raising,
especially through the media, and for a
communications network between the
stakeholders to ensure a more effective exchange
of information and sharing of resources.
Impact at regional level

The project aimed to build upon ongoing or past
programmes, structures and networks on child
labour and education, including those of
ILO-IPEC. The project capitalized on
strengthening links with the education sector
with considerable success. This was vital from
the point of view of sustainable action with
minimum investment. The project made
significant progress in the individual countries in
raising awareness of child labour and promoting
education as an intervention strategy to prevent
and eliminate it. It was felt that building on this
momentum more could be done to engage
APEC as a regional body and its HRD Working
Group in this work. As a result, the second phase

of the project has focused more strongly on the
role of the national APEC focal points, greater
involvement of the HRD Working Group and
an improved communications network between
the ILO and APEC.
The project has been instrumental in creating
awareness of child labour as a phenomenon of
society, supporting government, the social
partners and civil society in creating task
forces to tackle the issue of education as an
intervention strategy and experimenting with
different methods of social mobilization to suit
the varied cultural and traditional contexts of
the countries involved. One of its major
objectives and achievements was the successful
establishment or reinforcement of the CLETFs
to support and promote the importance of
education in preventing and eliminating child
labour. The formula, scale and scope of these
bodies differed from country to country based
on prior experiences and socio-cultural context,
but all focused on the aim of building national
capacity and instilling a sense of ownership and
therefore enhancing the project outcomes by
ensuring sustainability of these.
53
The project provided significant support to

other child labour and education programmes,
including those of ILO-IPEC, in the
participating countries as they have continued to
benefit, either directly or indirectly, from the
task forces and the awareness-raising activities
and materials. In countries where the ILO-IPEC
Country Programmes were only just starting up,
i.e. Mexico and Viet Nam, the project provided
essential support by already raising the issue
within the collective consciousness of all
stakeholders and the general public. It provided
a solid platform for the launch of the more
comprehensive country programme.
What made the project stand out even more in
comparison with similar programmes was that it
operated with such limited resources yet
developed a wide array of materials adapted to
the local language and context, disseminated
across several countries in some cases, to ensure
that the messages were heard by some of the
hardest-to-reach communities, using the media
in all its forms to do so. The project was not
intended to withdraw children directly from
hazardous work situations and provide them
with education opportunities this is the work
of the government and technical cooperation
programmes in each of the countries. Rather, its
role was to generate and disseminate knowledge
and experiences on the strong link between child
labour and education in order to convince the
decision-makers of different partners of the need
to focus attention and resources on these areas.
Having a common understanding of the causes
54
and consequences of child labour among the key

stakeholders in the region helped to facilitate the
development, reform and implementation of
policies and programmes to prevent and
eliminate child labour, particularly through
education interventions.
While more attention needed be paid to
communication with APEC structures in future,
the project sought to extend its awareness raising
and knowledge management and dissemination
through the establishment of a regional
communications network between the project
managers and partners in each of the countries.
This network, including an e-mail list, was
established at a regional workshop held at the
end of the first phase (see Chapter 7) to
exchange experiences and information between
the different countries and to evaluate the first
phase in preparation for the second. There was a
positive response to the regional workshop from
the ILO-IPEC field staff and representatives of
stakeholders that participated, and it was
recommended that these should be held more
frequently, should involve all partners from each
country and should especially involve APEC
representatives. Nevertheless, such workshops
would have significant resource implications,
both human and financial, as the project is
effectively intercontinental and did not have
access to such a level of resources. In addition to
such face-to-face meetings, it would be
important to establish different low-cost means
of regional communications, for example,
through e-mail and the web site.
Chapter
ILO/Maillard J.
EVALUATION OF FIRST
PHASE ACTIVITIES
AT NATIONAL AND
REGIONAL LEVELS
Chapter
EVALUATION OF FIRST PHASE

ACTIVITIES AT NATIONAL AND
REGIONAL LEVELS
The project generated a significant amount of
detailed knowledge and experience in a relatively
short space of time in the first phase of its
activities (2001 to 2003). As part of the
evaluation process and in order to share
experiences and lessons learned from each of the
countries, an inter-regional workshop was
organized in Manila in November 2003. The
aim was to assess the core elements of the lessons
learned and to issue a series of recommendations
that would underpin the shape and structure of
the project in its second phase.
Project achievements
The Manila workshop and the evaluation
completed in February 2004 highlighted many
of the accomplishments of this initiative.
Likewise, the donor recognized and
acknowledged both the high stakeholder
involvement and the impressive breadth of
audio-visual and printed materials developed
through the project considering the limited
resources available. In light of the positive
experiences of the first phase of the project, in

particular the activities and materials
development as well as policy influence, it was
proposed to pursue the regional initiative in
2004 with the continued support of the USDOL.
The project is considered innovative because it
aims to work with the regional economic forum,
APEC, to influence its Member Economies to
use education to combat the worst forms of child
labour as part of their overall growth and
economic development strategy. The initiative
has been instrumental in building alliances to
promote awareness and increase the capacities of
key stakeholders to take action in the target
countries. The foundations have also been laid
for a regional network to promote the sharing of
good practices and lessons learned and to engage
APEC as a regional body. The continuation
of this project would ensure the further
consolidation of the regional alliance, as well as
stimulate a more intensive policy dialogue to
promote stronger enforcement of measures
against the worst forms of child labour and in
favour of education in the target countries.
55
In addition to the emergence of a regional network within APEC based on the development of national and local
alliances, accomplishments in the different countries included:
Indonesia: Efforts to promote greater synergies between the national committees on the worst forms of child
labour, EFA and poverty alleviation have made significant inroads in ensuring that national development
frameworks, including the PRSP and the nine years basic education programme, reach working children.
This would prove to be important for developing a strong policy focus in future TBP efforts.
Mexico: For the first time, local authorities and communities were sensitized to the risks of the worst forms
of child labour and motivated to use education to combat this problem through forums, an informational
CD-ROM and a wide array of materials. This was crucial in support of the initiation of the ILO-IPEC Country
Programme there.
Peru: A musical CD featuring 30 popular Peruvian singers was produced to reach the non-literate communities
where child labour is prevalent, and this received significant public and media attention. A mayoral debate in
Lima centred on the issue of child labour. The project activities contributed to the governments decision
to increase the education budget to better reach children vulnerable to the worst forms of child labour.
Philippines: Building on previous work using education to combat child labour tremendous efforts were made
to reach the local communities in the affected districts and to work with the education sector to identify those
children in the worst forms of child labour and to help devise ways in which they could be reached through
education. This set the groundwork for effective national and local partnerships and policy coordination through
the time-bound education agenda in future TBP efforts.
Thailand: The Employers Confederation of Thailand and the National Council on Youth and Development worked
together to increase opportunities for decent and productive work for young people.
Viet Nam: As in Mexico, key stakeholders were made aware for the first time of the crucial role of basic
education and skills development in combating child labour. This initiative made a significant contribution to
the start of the IPEC Country Programme, with education playing a key role in its development, where there had
not been substantive work on child labour in the past. The first national conference on child labour was made
possible through the support of this project on the theme: Education for the Prevention and Elimination of
Child Labour. Representatives from the USDOL and the Project Manager were among those that made
presentations at the conference with participation from all the relevant ministries, including labour and
education, as well as the social partners and civil society groups.
Local resource mobilization was crucial to

leveraging the resources provided by the donor
to make greater impact. The materials developed
were all in local languages and some were also
translated into English. Among these materials
were:
teacher training materials and a policy report
on the worst forms of child labour, EFA and
the PRSP in Indonesia;
an informational CD-ROM, posters, brochures
and stickers on child labour and education
in Mexico;
a musical CD and video clip, media and
informational
kits,
good
practice
documentation and a policy report in Peru;
56
a video, posters, stickers, t-shirts and booklets

on Education agenda for child labour in the
Philippines and Organizing a task force:
A practical guide;
an informational CD, teacher training
materials and module, a web site and a
national workshop report produced jointly
by ILO-IPEC and the Employers
Confederation of Thailand;
a national television forum, posters,
flipcharts for teachers and leaflets in Viet Nam.
Furthermore, the funds spent on overhead costs
were relatively marginal as the project built on
existing ILO-IPEC structures as well as on other
child labour and education programmes in the
country, which was important for sustainability.
CHAPTER 6: Evaluation of first phase activities at national and regional levels
Lessons learned: Mainstreaming

Changing behaviour and attitudes through
raising awareness and mobilizing society is a
long-term process and cannot achieve
sustainable and lasting results in a short period
of time. Activities need to be planned,
implemented, followed up and replicated on a
consistent basis in order to maintain key
messages in the public consciousness. One-off
activities will not have the level of impact
required, which is why it is vital to reinforce
national ownership of project strategies among
stakeholders and partners to ensure that
messages are sustained over long periods of time
and to continue building the capacities of
all involved. Mainstreaming is therefore
fundamental to sustaining the achievements of
the project from the first phase.
One of the most effective ways of strengthening
the integral link between the prevention and
elimination of child labour and education as an
intervention strategy at the national policy level
would be to sustain the meetings and activities of
the CLETFs. The impact of working with the
tripartite partners, civil society organizations, the
media, community groups and the children had
been significant in each country but should be
maintained through consistent and continual
capacity-building efforts and awareness raising.
The elimination of child labour and provision of
education for all are major national challenges
that require a comprehensive response and
grouping of expertise and resources. It cannot be
left to one or two organizations or agencies to
address these issues by themselves. It requires
the establishment of a national alliance of
stakeholders, with clearly defined roles and
responsibilities, appropriate and inclusive
structures and relations, a functioning secretariat
and a sense of national ownership. Each group
needs to be empowered to act collectively and
individually to ensure that the message is not
diminished and that efforts are made to
mainstream child labour and education at all
levels of policy development and reform,

particularly poverty alleviation and education for
all national action plans and national efforts to
achieve the MDGs. Ministries of education, in
particular, are key potential members of a task
force, and every possible effort should be made
to engage this government department and
mobilize its full support and involvement.
In those countries where efforts had been
made to mobilize local authorities or where
decentralization was ongoing, such as the
Philippines and Indonesia, it is vital to promote
the potential role and responsibilities of local
government and ensure ownership and support
at all levels of government. Efforts to mainstream
at policy level are also critical in terms of local
resource mobilization, as education is an issue
that attracts significant support, which should
include support for out-of-school children,
particularly child labourers and at-risk children.
It was felt during the evaluation discussions that
this would be especially relevant in the case of
decentralized political structures, such as
Indonesia, which would include the
decentralization of financial responsibilities and
resource allocations. Sustainability of project
achievements, for example, would be greatly
enhanced if appropriate education resource
allocations were linked to policy development
and reform to promote education in favour of
working and at-risk children.
Sustaining social mobilization activities

Mainstreaming of social mobilization activities is
particularly important as the objective is to
provide key stakeholder groups and the general
public with information on the impact of child
labour on the children themselves, their families,
communities and the broader socio-economic
development of the country. In addition,
messages need to be sent out not only
highlighting the problem but also the solutions
and the intervention strategies that would have
57
greatest impact, especially education. These

efforts have to be sustained over time in order to
have the lasting effect that would be required to
change behaviour and attitudes. Therefore, the
work of the project has been to identify
innovative and effective mechanisms to raise
awareness that can be adopted by the different
stakeholder groups and mainstreamed into their
own activities, thereby generating critical
ownership.
58
against. A more proactive approach was adopted

in a poster campaign in Mexico and was found
to be very effective in which an image of a childs
school bag was accompanied by the message
I wish this was the only thing I had to carry.
This is even more important in those countries,

such as Mexico and Viet Nam, where awareness
and knowledge of child labour and its effects are
limited and where long-term communications
and advocacy strategies are essential. The
objective of the project was to serve as a catalyst
in experimenting with interventions in this field
to identify effective activities and to encourage
stakeholders, including ILO-IPEC, to take over
ownership and sustain them. For example, in
Viet Nam, during the elaboration of a guide for
teachers, the materials were pre-tested with a
group of teachers in order to assess suitability,
effectiveness and efficiency in passing along key
messages. In addition, a post-validation exercise
was conducted following training workshops to
assess the suitability and impact of the materials
on the ground. These are key components in
developing and continually improving social
mobilization resource materials, and it is vital
that ILO-IPEC develops long-term social
mobilization strategies to support field staff in
their programme work.
Elaborating effective advocacy and communications

strategies is a special skill and requires the
support of professionals in this field. By the same
token, developing targeted and effective
communications strategies requires sound
knowledge of the field situations around
which they are built, which means that
communications experts should draw on the
experience and expertise of those working in
these areas. It was therefore recommended that
ILO-IPEC establish a closer working partnership
with the ILOs Department of Communications
(DCOMM) for support and guidance in
developing social mobilization materials,
drawing on the advice and guidance of field staff
in each country, and also in engaging the
involvement and support of the media in the
project activities and education task forces.
In addition, providing adequate funds were
available within the project allocation,
professional support could also be sought from
communications experts. A key lesson learned
during the first phase of the project was how
relatively inexpensive and effective it was to
decentralize the production of materials to
ILO-IPEC field offices, with technical assistance
from ILO-IPEC headquarters to ensure
consistency of social mobilization messages.
In evaluating the different format of messages for

different target groups, the need for simple,
accessible, positive and meaningful language was
highlighted. In many countries, it is often more
effective to elaborate a message designed to
promote social change in a way that does not
focus solely on an issue, such as calling for an
immediate end to child labour. Often, messages
are based on a demand such as Stop Child
Labour! However, calling for an end to child
labour does not necessarily have to be so
challenging, forcing people to either be for or
The project has been successful in ensuring

maximum impact through minimum resource
investment. It has experimented with a range of
activities and strategies in different fields related
to the prevention and elimination of child
labour and the promotion of education as a key
intervention strategy in this work. During the
first phase of activities, the project accumulated
a significant amount of knowledge and
experience that should be shared more
effectively and consistently throughout
ILO-IPEC structures and also networks of
stakeholders and partners worldwide. Indeed,

this is a growing area of importance in
ILO-IPECs work. Project coordinators
recommended that communications networks to
share lessons learned and good practices from the
project activities be strengthened to ensure wider
dissemination of knowledge and materials which
could assist the launch of similar activities and
campaigns in other countries. The concept of
establishing national and local CLETFs, for
example, was a particularly effective strategy
replicated in nearly all project countries and
where little financial investment was required for
an activity that could pay significant dividends
in terms of linking national child labour and
education efforts.
It was also recommended that the individual
projects should document the processes involved
in different project components, especially the
establishment and sustaining of the task forces.
For example, the project in the Philippines
produced a guide on organizing task forces at the
local level in order to integrate child labour and
education efforts within local government
programmes and policies. Each project brought
its own unique approach that could be
invaluable to others working in this field, for
example, the involvement of musicians in Peru
or the mobilization of employers and their
confederation in Thailand.
It was noted that some of the challenges facing
the project that were highlighted at the
workshop in the Philippines emerged because of
the need to have more statistics and knowledge
about the local situation. Such information and
analysis was particularly crucial in countries like
Mexico and Viet Nam which had not had any
activities on child labour before and were
relatively new to this area of work. Likewise,
it is important to analyse target groups
comprehensively in elaborating awarenessraising and capacity-building programmes and
especially in identifying specific indicators for
changes in behaviour and attitudes which are
medium- and long-term objectives.
The importance of networking and

coordination
A common thread running through the project
is that of networking and sustaining impact
through national ownership and economies of
scale. The concept of the CLETFs provides a
suitable and enabling environment to sustain
such networks providing that appropriate efforts
are made to establish effective networking
structures and a working system of coordination.
The need for a good cross-section of
stakeholders and partners to be included in these
networks is particularly important and should
include, as a minimum, the ILO tripartite
partners, relevant government ministries and
departments, teachers organizations and
teachers, academic institutions, NGOs, the
media and community organisations. Improving
coordination between such a disparate group of
partners requires clear and agreed objectives on
what exactly coordination efforts should aim to
achieve.
One of the main objectives of the project is to
build a strong commitment by education
partners to tackling the issue of child labour as a
priority. The most effective method to instil this
sense of commitment is to bring the partners
together to analyse the problem of child labour
and to discuss the most effective methods to
tackle it through the education system. The
education partners thus develop a sense of
ownership of the issue and work together more
effectively to elaborate education interventions
to ensure that all children benefit from their
right to education and that education is more
inclusive and more relevant to the lives of
children and their families. Hence, the role of
the CLETFs takes on a greater significance in a
countrys efforts to combat child labour and
ensure education for all.
It would be important to focus greater attention
on the social partners and the media in the next
phase of the project. It was vital to engage
employers and workers organizations,
59
particularly teachers organizations, in the active

promotion of education programmes in the
workplace, particularly targeting those workers
with a limited education background in order to
support them in improving work-related
skills and basic education. In this respect, the
certification scheme established in Thailand was
seen as a positive step in engaging employers
in the project by providing them with an
additional incentive to set up programmes to
promote education and skills training for
workers as part of an overall effort to prevent and
eliminate child labour.
Teachers, educators and their representative
organizations are key partners in the project and,
indeed, in a majority of ILO-IPEC child labour
programmes. These are the frontline workers in
schools, classrooms and non-formal education
centres throughout a country. In many
communities, they are widely respected and have
a close relationship with community leaders.
They know many of the families within the
communities and, ultimately, they often know
which children are in school and which are not
and what they might be doing instead.
ILO-IPEC has long recognized the importance
of building strong partnerships with this group
of professionals and their organizations
through capacity-building and awareness-raising
activities. Within the project, too, many
activities were directed at teachers and their
organizations, for example, the elaboration of a
teachers guide in Viet Nam and awarenessraising activities with the teachers organization
in Peru. This relationship should be further
enhanced in the next phase of the project.
Strengthening links with APEC

Participants in the evaluation workshop agreed
that future action should concentrate on efforts
to engage APEC at the regional level and at the
national level through its representatives. It was
60
suggested that the donor, the USDOL, through

its contacts with APEC as a Member Economy,
could provide continued invaluable assistance in
this regard to build on the initial contacts made
during the phase. At the regional level, it was
considered important that the project identify
key entry points into the structures and
programmes of the APEC HRD Working Group
and its three areas of activity: education, labour
and social protection and capacity-building. It
should also research and analyse how it can most
effectively work within the framework of these
entry points and encourage ownership of the
project by APEC institutions and national focal
points at government level. Greater efforts
would be required in future to engage APEC
more actively in the project, particularly in the
task forces.
Measuring impact
The two pillars of the project were to increase
public awareness of child labour and the role of
education as an intervention strategy and to
build national capacity to act upon this
awareness and understanding. Owing to the lack
of resources and time, is was not possible for the
project to measure scientifically attitudinal and
behavioural changes in each country. While this
kind of work goes beyond the scope of the
project both in terms of time and resources
available, efforts to improve impact assessment
of social mobilization, awareness raising and
policy level work has been undertaken by
ILO-IPEC as a major part of its ongoing work
on design, evaluation and documentation.
An example of an attitudinal survey was
undertaken in the context of the Indonesia TBP,
which could be used as a starting point. Such a
survey can be useful for both advocacy and
programming purposes. This survey can be
repeated at a later point in time in order to assess
how effective project activities have been in
making changes in behaviour, policies and action.
Attitudinal survey on child labour and education in Indonesia

To mark the World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June 2005, ILO-IPEC Indonesia released the findings of a new
survey which provided important new data on attitudes to child labour and education. Some of the key findings of
the survey included:
19 per cent of school-age children below the age of 15 were not attending school.
The average cost of keeping one child in elementary school and one in junior secondary school for one year,
including transport and uniform, can be more than two months gross salary at the level of the provincial
minimum wage.
71 per cent of respondents whose children were out of school cited costs of education as the main factor.
Only 50 per cent of respondents knew that the Indonesian governments policy is for all children to complete
school for nine years to the age of 15. Thirty-nine per cent thought it was six years (completion of elementary
education).
Despite cost factors, there is a high commitment to the idea of education. Most households that have children
out of school, either in the labour force or helping at home, are not strongly committed to this behaviour.
This implies that if cost issues could be addressed education participation would increase.
When asked about the number of hours it might be acceptable for a child below 15 to work, 37 per cent
indicated 3 hours or less. Twenty-seven per cent said 4 hours; 19 per cent said 5 hours; and 15 per cent said
6 hours or more. This finding is important because other research suggests that when children begin to work
longer hours (more than 3 hours a day) their attendance at school falls.
Whilst the vast majority agreed that children below 18 should not be allowed to work in illicit sectors
(prostitution, drugs), the numbers were much smaller when it came to sectors that are regarded by the law as
hazardous. Only 16 per cent said children should not be allowed to work with chemical substances; only
23 per cent said children should not be allowed to work in off-shore fishing; and only 27 per cent thought
children should not be involved in heavy lifting work.
61
Chapter
UNICEF/HQ00-0592/Jose Hernandez-Claire
INTER-REGIONAL
PLANNING WORKSHOP
Chapter
INTER-REGIONAL
PLANNING WORKSHOP
Following the completion of the first phase of
the project, an inter-regional planning workshop
was held on 1618 February 2005 in Bangkok.
The aim of the workshop was to prepare the
second phase of the project and to develop an
implementation schedule. The workshop also
provided an opportunity to share experiences
from the first phase and to gain a greater insight
into the functioning of APEC and ways in which
APEC could work more closely with the ILO to
combat the worst forms of child labour through
education and skills development. The full
report of this workshop is located in the
CD-ROM which accompanies this publication
Significant representation of project partners

At the project evaluation workshop in Manila
in November 2003 (see Chapter 6), it was
recommended that all project partners,
including APEC representatives, be invited
to future evaluation workshops. This
recommendation was taken on board in the
preparations for the workshop in Bangkok,
which was attended by 39 participants, speakers
and resource persons, including APEC
government focal points, officials from the
respective ministries of labour, education,
foreign affairs and social development,
representatives of teachers unions, employer
organizations and civil society groups, and ILO
staff from Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines,
Thailand and Viet Nam. The level and profile of
participation facilitated a rich and rewarding
sharing of experiences and planning of national
and regional activities.
A presentation on the findings of the evaluation

of the first phase enabled participants to take
past experiences into account when orienting
their discussions. The project was considered to
have been highly effective, given the limited
resources, in building regional and national
alliances and in raising awareness at the national
and local levels. The findings of the evaluation
indicated that in the second phase there would
need to be:
strengthening of the regional network and
greater involvement of all stakeholders,
especially APEC;
long-term, repeated, intensive and focused
interventions and activities;
better impact assessment, through the
identification of clear indicators at the outset
of the project.
Group discussions were held to initiate the
planning process, focusing on three areas:
regional communications mechanism;
regional documentation;
regional events.
Working with APEC

Dr Chira Hongladarom, Lead Shepherd of the
APEC HRD Working Group, highlighted the
importance of child labour and education and
made reference to the efforts that the Working
Group makes in relation to using basic
education and skills development to combat the
worst forms of child labour. On a personal note,
Dr Hongladarom announced to participants
63
that during his tenure as Lead Shepherd he

would make every effort to ensure that priority
would be given in APEC to the elimination of
worst forms of child labour and to the
promotion of education for all.
The Lead Shepherd explained that there were
three active networks of the HRD Working
Group which would be relevant to the project:
the Education Network (EDNET), the Capacity
Building Network (CBN) and the Labour and
Social Protection Network (LSPN). He noted
that the topics for discussion at the next meeting
of the HRD Working Group in Pattaya,
Thailand, would include lifelong learning, social
safety nets and entrepreneurship, and small and
medium enterprise development all of which
were relevant to the interrelated issues of child
labour and education.
Dr Hongladarom underlined his strong wish to
collaborate with the group to help set targets for
preventing and eliminating child labour in the
APEC Member Economies. He pointed out
that APEC could assist in the efficient
functioning of markets, while child labour was a
symptom of market failure. As a regional
economic forum, APEC had been increasingly
addressing social issues like child labour and the
social dimensions of globalization.
It was also noted that it would be important to
encourage APEC Member Economies to allocate
resources in support of basic education and skills
development as part of the effort to combat child
labour. Dr Hongladarom reiterated the
importance of being proactive in engaging
APEC and also for APEC representatives to
work closely with the ILO and its partners,
which had considerable experience and expertise
in the field of child labour.
The presentation was supported by interventions
by the following APEC governmental focal
points: the Honourable Benedicto Ernesto R.
Bitonio, the Philippines; Ms Areeya Rojvithee,
64
Thailand; and Mr Cao Tran Quoc Hai, Viet

Nam. The subsequent discussion emphasized
the importance of APEC Member Economies
allocating resources to using basic education and
skills development to combat child labour as
part of a wider effort to promote human
resources development.
The ILO and Decent Work

A presentation by the ILO Deputy Regional
Director, Ms Lin Lean Lim, set the project in the
context of the ILOs Decent Work agenda and
the achievement of the MDGs. Salient points
raised included:
the rejection of child labour is a vital element
in ensuring decent work throughout all stages
of life;
providing quality basic education with a
focus on increasing access by all population
groups and increasing levels of educational
attainment for the population as a whole are
critical aspects of work in the education
sphere;
children in hazardous work grow up with
poor employment prospects, which in turn
keeps them and their families caught in
the poverty trap;
education is the first step to decent work,
employment opportunities are the next step;
non-formal education is an important
stepping stone towards reintegrating child
labourers into the formal education system
and from there to less harmful and more
remunerative jobs;
discrimination against girls means they will
have greater constraints and fewer choices
and opportunities in later life;
education and training systems (both formal
and non-formal) should both equip young
people to enter the labour market and
prepare them to make their full contribution
as parents, citizens, leaders, thinkers and
innovators;
CHAPTER 7: Inter-Regional Planning Workshop
the connection between education and

economic growth is inseparable, and the
APEC region will not be able to sustain
growth and economic development if a
segment of its youth cannot achieve their
full potential;
youth, as well as children, are central to
the MDGs;
children and young people make up nearly
half of the worlds population, especially in
the developing world; as such, they hold the
key to the worlds future economic, social,
political and technological development.
Participants agreed that it would be important to
keep the points raised in the presentation in
mind when planning the project at both
national and regional levels. Above all, the
principles of Decent Work could be part of a
common platform within APEC and child
labour could be addressed in addition to other
areas of mutual concern, such as youth
employment, skills development, labour
migration, labour force participation,
productivity and social protection, HIV/AIDs
and public-private partnerships.
National activity plans

Representatives of the countries attending the
workshop made presentations on their proposed
national activity plans, which would be adjusted
in light of the workshop discussions. All
included awareness raising and information
sharing through documentation, seminars and
other means. In other respects, the plans varied
in content according to each countrys individual
situation.
Some countries (Indonesia, Peru and the
Philippines), which have decentralized systems,
included improving the role of local government
in using basic education and skills development
to combat the worst forms of child labour, while
others placed emphasis on establishing and/or
increasing the role of teachers unions (Mexico),
on the need for targeted educational

interventions for migrant children (Thailand)
and on preventing school drop-out, which in
turns leads to the worst forms of child labour
(Viet Nam).
Working groups set the future agenda

The third day was designed around group
discussions to link in the information shared
during the workshop, to plan the regional
dimensions of the initiative and consider how
national plans would feed into it. One group
looked at the regional perspective, including the
benefits of a regional initiative, focusing on:
engaging APEC and its other Member
Economies other than the project countries
more directly;
engaging the ILO and key partners in the
project;
placing child labour and education higher on
the APEC agenda and on the agendas of
its Member Economies;
considering support activities, such as events,
publications and web sites, that could be
organized at the regional level; and
ensuring the sustainability of the project at
the regional level.
Another working group looked at the national
perspective, including:
the role of the ILO and APEC focal points
and key implementing partners in national
activity plans;
engaging APEC at the national level and how
to translate this into potential impact within
the regional body;
building on the first phase of activities;
achieving consistency in the national activity
plans in order to feed into regional policy
objectives;
the availability and management of data on
the worst forms of child labour in the project
countries;
65
child and youth participation at the national

and regional levels; and
ensuring the sustainability of the project at
the national level.
Key ideas that emerged from the group
discussions and presentations included:
Regional level
to draw on the networks, expertise and

human and technical resources of APEC, the
ILO and partners;
to include the worst forms of child labour
and to link education in APECs Collective
Action Plan for the six relevant APEC
Member Economies;
to encourage APEC to issue a high-level
communiqu or declaration of support;
to put forward a child labour plus
programme in line with APEC priorities (such
as globalization and human development);
to produce a biannual newsletter, printed
materials, a video and CD-ROM of good
practices in each country, and successes,
recommendations and lessons learned from
the project;
to develop a slogan;
to create an e-network and web site; and
to set up a photo library and issue media
articles and press releases.
National level
to work with all implementing partners,
including relevant ministries, employers,
workers and teachers organizations, civil
society organizations, children and youth
organizations, local authorities, academia,
church and religious institutions, legislature
and other government offices, the mass
media, APEC at the regional and national
levels and the ILO and other UN agencies;
to draw on the technical support and
assistance of the ILO, such as the provision of
resource persons, materials development,
strategies linking child labour with EFA and
66
the MDGs at national and regional levels

and research initiatives and dissemination;
to form a secretariat and link APEC
government focal points with the ILO and
national partners;
to encourage the HRD Working Group to
work more on issues related to the worst
forms of child labour and education;
to lobby policy-makers;
to engage other stakeholders, including the
National Steering Committee in Indonesia
and the National Child Labour Committee
in the Philippines;
to establish indicators of success which may
be adapted by the national committees;
to make data more systematic and widen the
coverage; and
to involve children and youth and recognize
their right to participate in policy- and
decision-making processes.
The participants agreed to work further on

fine-tuning their national activity plans to
include all of the points that were raised during
the workshop. They also stressed that it was
important to determine how the national and
regional plans and activities could best support
each other. They further agreed that emphasis
needed to be placed on:
promoting the use of basic education and
skills development to combat the worst forms
of child labour;
strengthening of relationships with partners,
such as APEC, at the national and regional
levels;
engaging the interest of new partners; and
increasing learning from other countries in
the region.
Participants concluded that the projects added
value was to bridge the human rights and
economic development perspectives by bringing
APEC together with organizations working
against the worst forms of child labour and in
favour of education.
Chapter
ILO/Maillard J.
SECOND PHASE
ACTIVITIES BY COUNTRY
AND REGION
Chapter
SECOND PHASE ACTIVITIES BY

COUNTRY AND REGION
In light of the project experiences of the first
phase, the USDOL provided additional support
to continue the project. While the overall
objective remained the same, the second phase,
which started in late 2004 and will be
completed by 31 August 2006, focused on
strengthening the regional alliance and
mobilizing key parties to initiate relevant
activities that use basic education and skills
development to combat child labour.
The regional framework included:
the development of a regional communications
mechanism and web site;
activities to engage APEC as a regional body;
the publication of project experiences,
including the documentation and sharing of
good practices;
research and mapping of opportunities on
decent and productive work for young people
above the minimum working age as a strategy
against the worst forms of child labour.
The projects second phase capitalized on
enhanced awareness and alliances to push for
policy development and enforcement that
focuses on improving access and quality of
education to combat the worst forms of child
labour. Local and national authorities were
encouraged to take an integrated approach to
combating child labour, promoting basic
education and skills development, as well as
alleviating poverty. APEC representatives at
country level played an important role in these
efforts.
Impact at regional level

During the second phase of the project,
significant progress has been made in initiating
activities at the regional level, engaging APEC as
an institution more closely and strengthening
the projects regional network through
cooperation on specific outputs. Invaluable
support was provided by the Lead Shepherd of
the HRD Working Group and by the USDOL
through its coordination of the Labour and
Social Protection Network. Important strides
have continued to be made in the implementation
of country-based activities focused on engaging
key stakeholders in policy development in efforts
to combat the worst forms of child labour and
promote education. One of the principal areas of
work during the second phase has been to ensure
that the regional and country-based objectives
mutually reinforce each other.
In all the countries, the national alliances have
been cooperating more closely with the local
APEC government focal points. Activities have
been implemented according to the time-frame
in the work plan and were based on the outcomes
of the inter-regional planning workshop held in
February 2006 in Bangkok (see Chapter 7).
Closer collaboration with APEC HRD Working

Group
As evidence of enhanced collaboration with
APEC, the Project Manager was invited to be a
keynote speaker at the 27th Annual APEC HRD
Working Group meeting in June 2005 in
Pattaya, Thailand. This invitation was extended
67
by Dr Chira Hongladarom, Lead Shepherd of

the HRD Working Group, and Mr Christopher
Watson, Office of International Organizations of
the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB)
in the USDOL, Washington, and LSPN
Coordinator of the HRD Working Group.
The Project Manager gave a presentation on
cooperation between the ILO and APEC on
child labour, basic education and skills
development. The ensuing discussion highlighted
the interest and support of APECs Member
Economies in using basic education and skills
development to combat the worst forms of child
labour. Strong interest was also expressed in
inter-regional cooperation in helping introduce
young people above the minimum working age
to the world of work through improved access to
education and skills training from both donor
and recipient economies. Representatives of the
LSPN expressed interest in collaborating with
the Education Network of the APEC HRD
Working Group in this area.
Ideas were shared on how Member Economies
might submit project proposals on child labour
to the HRD Working Group. While the
resources would be relatively modest, it would
nevertheless be an effective means of engaging
Member Economies in this area. Additional
ideas were shared on how the projects message
might be extended beyond the HRD Working
Group to other relevant APEC Working Groups
and at ministerial level. It was suggested to look
into how the projects messages might be
publicized through high-level meetings of
APEC, considering the role of Viet Nam as host
in 2006. During a mission to Viet Nam in early
2006, the Project Manager met APEC
representatives to further discuss these
possibilities. Other important opportunities for
increased collaboration include the 5th APEC
HRD Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok in
October 2006 and the ILOs Asian Regional
meeting for the tripartite constituents to be held
in Korea in August 2006.
68
In this respect, the Project Manager was invited by the APEC HRD Working Group to give a
presentation on the progress that had been made
on cooperation between APEC and the ILO
using education and training to combat the
worst forms of child labour at the 28th Annual
APEC HRD Working Group Annual Meeting
in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. The meeting
took place at the same time as the Senior
Officials Meeting, ensuring a great deal of high
level representation. The Project Manager spoke
about the multiple challenges of youth
unemployment and underemployment, as well
as tackling their poor working conditions and
child labour through relevant education and
training.
Addressing the multiple challenges of child labour,
youth unemployment and underemployment
For many young people in the APEC region above the
minimum working age and below 18, it is difficult to
make a smooth transition from school to work.
Taking into account inadequate access to education,
training and apprenticeship programmes matched to
local labour market needs, many young people
become vulnerable to the worst forms of child
labour. It is important to note that young people
from better-off families tend to be overrepresented
in the unemployment figures since only they can
afford to be unemployed. Millions of young people,
many of whom come from impoverished families,
work long hours, without protection against hazards
and risks, on short-term or informal contracts, with
low pay and little or no social protection.
There is a cruel irony in the co-existence of
child labour and youth unemployment and
underemployment. While there is a demand for
certain types of labour that is met by children who
should not be working, there is also a supply of
labour from young people that goes unutilized or
underutilized. The problem of child labour and
youth unemployment and underemployment need to
be tackled together and integrated into policies on
employment, education and poverty reduction.
There is an urgent need to promote better functioning of labour markets that would help reorient the
demand for labour away from children and towards
young people. There is also an equally urgent need
to remove young people above the minimum working
age from hazardous into non-hazardous work.
CHAPTER 8: Second phase activities by country and region
The presentation was well received and there

were many questions and comments, as youth
training and employment, including school-towork transition and conditions of work, are
common areas of concern for both the developed
and developing APEC Member Economies.
Representatives from these Member Economies
suggested looking into how these issues could be
included within the APEC HRD Ministerial
Meeting agenda in Bangkok in October 2006.
Additional presentations were on Viet Nam,
industrial relations and HIV/AIDs in the work
place, which were also appreciated. The
presentations given by the Project Manager at
the APEC HRD Working Group Meetings in
2005 and 2006 are included in the CD-ROM
which accompanies this publication
Awareness-raising and networking materials

A project brochure was published and printed in
early 2006 and disseminated widely among
the project countries and a broad range of
stakeholders and partners at all levels, including
international and regional. The brochure
provides the background to the project, focusing
primarily on how education and training can be
used to combat child labour as part of an overall
growth and development strategy for APEC and
its Member Economies. It also describes the first
and second phase activities in each country and
presents expectations and follow-up particularly
within the framework of the HRD Working
Group. A copy of the brochure can be found on
the accompanying CD-ROM.
In addition, the project web site a key output
of the second phase went live in April 2006
(www.ilo.org/apec). The objective over the
coming months will be to enhance the content
of the site and promote the activities and
follow-up in each of the project countries, as well
as at the regional level. The web site will enable
users to download relevant publications and
reports and will also provide a useful network of
links to related programmes and projects within
the APEC region and globally, for example, the
ILOs 2nd Global Report on Child Labour,
which was launched in May 2006. As the web

site expands and grows in detail and content, it
will become a communications hub for the
project and a significant source of information
and knowledge for organizations, teachers,
education officials and many other interested
groups and individuals. The good practices,
lessons learned and materials emerging from the
six project countries will serve as models of
change and intervention for others operational
in the field of child labour prevention and
elimination, the promotion of education and
skills training, the promotion of youth employment
and child protection activities in general.
Youth training and employment

There has been considerable progress in the
projects second phase on the start-up and
implementation of activities and use of the
additional resources approved by the USDOL in
September 2005. Some of these resources were
used to strengthen the projects activities on
awareness-raising activities in the Philippines
and Viet Nam. The remainder was used to
support an additional regional activity to
research and provide documentation on youth
training and employment as a strategy against
the worst forms of child labour. This activity
responds to the request by the APEC HRD
Working Group participants at the meeting in
June 2005 in Thailand to initiate activities in
this new and emerging field.
National studies were commissioned on youth
training and employment in Indonesia, the
Philippines and Viet Nam. Terms of reference
for these studies were elaborated for national
consultants, and it was decided that each report
would focus on young people aged 15 to 17 and
would collect information on the following key
areas:
youth labour market profile, detailing age
and sex distribution, educational attainment,
industry distribution and occupational and
employment composition;
69
details of the overall policy environment in

each country;
working conditions of youth and the
relationship to worst forms of child labour;
assessment of existing training and
apprenticeship programmes for young people;
mapping of concerned agencies, donors
providing youth training and employmentrelated programmes and services.
It is expected that the final report, to be
published in August 2006, will inspire further
in-depth research and related action by APEC,
the ILO and their partners to promote decent
and productive work for young people above the
minimum working age.
Good practices inventory

It was felt that the sharing of good practices from
the project activities should not be limited to the
project countries only, since there is much to
learn from each other around the world.
Thus, the project contributed to the global
compendium of good practices on education as
an intervention strategy to prevent and eliminate
child labour produced by ILO-IPEC headquarters
in early 2006 and published on its web site.
There is a link to this compendium from
the project web site. It is also located in the
CD-Rom annex.
Working with teachers

The second phase of the project worked towards closer cooperation with the national teachers
organization in Indonesia, PGRI. A one-day seminar was organized on strengthening the role of the PGRI in combating child labour through education. The organizations previous successful experiences with child labour and
education were discussed at the meeting to enable participants to formulate policies and programmes for the future,
including the PGRIs role in addressing child labour in the footwear industry and in developing career guidance
programmes for children in support of efforts to prevent child trafficking. Reinforcing the recommendation from the
first phase activities to better communicate and share good practices between the projects, experiences of working
with teachers organizations in Peru and the Philippines were also shared with participants to assess the
possibility of replication within the Indonesian context. In addition, participants reviewed the content of a teachers
kit and discussed ideas for its effective use in Indonesia.
Addressing the seminar, Mr Patrick Quinn, Chief Technical Adviser of the ILO-IPEC TBP programme in Indonesia,
pointed out that: The governments policy of nine years basic education for all children can be the single most
important tool in combating child labour. We need to find ways of ensuring children stay in school for at least nine
years. Participants from the education sector discussed the issues of child labour and education, such as cost of
education, access to schools in rural and remote areas, and what could be done by the PGRI to reduce drop-out and
to tackle child labour. It was agreed that the root of the problem was a lack of education. Mr Aloysius Mathews, the
Asia-Pacific regional coordinator of Education International (EI), the Global Union Federation (GUF) for education
sector personnel, said that urgent first steps were for the government to better finance its compulsory nine-year
education programme and to improve the recruitment of teachers.
Data from the National Social and Economic Survey show that there are almost 4 million children below the age of
15 who are not attending school, and 1.5 million of these children are already in the workforce. The recent ILO
study on attitudes to child labour and education (see Chapter 6) found that only half of parents knew that the
government policy was for children to complete nine years basic education. The same study also found that the
cost of education and access to school were important issues affecting drop-out.
As part of the efforts to reduce child labour, the PGRI, in cooperation with the ILO, carried out an education
programme in schools to inform students of the benefits of education. PGRI has introduced the programme in 40
junior high schools with 7,500 students. As a result, 97 per cent of the students completed their studies and
continued on to senior high school, said West Java PGRI member Entis Sutisna. The programme included a
role-play kit, which could also be used by parents, community leaders, businessmen and local government
officials.
Mr Quinn went on to point out that: Teachers are well placed to help identify ways of preventing children dropping
out of school. On a day-to-day basis, teachers see the children with problems, they know those who are not
attending school regularly, and they often know which children are likely to drop out. To reduce the drop-out rate,
there is an urgent need for policies which help keep children in school, an active monitoring of childrens
attendance and active follow-up if a child stops attending school before completion of nine years basic education.
70
Activities by country
Indonesia
Based on the key recommendations emerging
from the first phase, the project organized a
national seminar with the National
Development Planning Agency to consolidate
alliances on child labour and education. All key
stakeholders, particularly from government
agencies and institutions, took part in a meeting
that essentially sought to reinforce awareness and
understanding of the link between child labour
and education to ensure that education policies,
programmes and resources benefit working
children within the overall national development
framework. The agenda helped participants in
reflecting upon effective means to mainstream
child labour issues in development policies
and plans, particularly as regards education
interventions. Among the working documents
presented at the meeting were a research paper
on attitudes to child labour and education,
information on different programmes aimed at
eliminating child labour, particularly through
education, and an overview of education policy
development and strategies to provide education
opportunities to child labourers. The Project
Manager also met the APEC government focal
point in Jakarta, who suggested that the project
make efforts to encourage APEC Member
Economies to present project proposals on child
labour to the HRD Working Group.
Formal links between child labour and education at provincial and district levels
During the first phase, it was recognized that in
the context of decentralization, it would be vital
to promote the potential role and responsibilities
of local government in activities to combat the
worst forms of child labour and ensure
ownership and support for these efforts at all
levels of government. Within the framework of
the national TBP, the project also facilitated the
forging of strong links for the first time between
the Provincial and District Action Committees

on the Worst Forms of Child Labour and the
Local Education Councils. To this end, six
provincial-level workshops were organized in
areas where the worst forms of child labour were
prevalent and which had been identified as
project sites within the TBP. Discussions at each
of these workshops covered the situation of child
labour and education in each area and strategies
to improve the access to and quality of basic
education in the affected communities.
Exchanges highlighted the need to ensure that
affected children would have access to nonformal education programmes and to raise
awareness among parents and communities in
general of the importance of education in order
to encourage them to send their children to
school and not work. The meetings also made
recommendations on cooperation in related
policy and programme work at the provincial
and district levels, including ensuring
appropriate resource allocation. The Project
Manager participated in some of these
workshops and also took the opportunity to
report on the results to the APEC representative
in Jakarta. The APEC representative supported
these initiatives and recommended that the
project continue to encourage member
economies to submit their own project proposals
on child labour to the HRD Working Group for
endorsement and support.
At the workshop in Medan, North Sumatra,
participants highlighted the need for a campaign
to emphasize the importance of education for
children, to improve the quality of teacher
training and to increase the education budget.
One recommendation from the meeting in
Tanah Grogot, East Kalimantan, was to establish
a District Action Committee (DAC) on child
labour with the assistance of ILO-IPEC and
then to encourage closer cooperation between
the DAC and the Local Education Council to
ensure the implementation of the policy on
nine-year compulsory basic education with
71
National seminar on combating child labour through education

ILO-IPEC Indonesia, in collaboration with the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) and the project,
held a national seminar on Combating child labour through education on 27 June 2006 at the Bappenas offices
in Jakarta. The seminar followed the publication of the governments new Medium-Term Development Plan which
calls for implementation of the National Action Plan on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour.
The seminar considered recent developments in policies on education and child labour and ways to mainstream
child labour in the development agenda and education policies. It was attended by around 100 key stakeholders
from government, workers and employers organizations, NGOs and various international and national institutions.
Donors, including the World Bank, also shared some lessons learned and pointed the way forward on how access to
education can be increased.
Mr Alan Boulton, ILO Country Director, emphasized in his opening remarks that the single most important step that
can be taken to reduce child labour is to ensure that the policy of nine years basic education for all children is fully
implemented. Child labour not only jeopardizes the rights of children, it also has a wider social cost, he said.
Child labourers are likely to experience low incomes and deprivation when they become older. Their own children
are also more likely to drop out of school and become child labourers. We need to break this cycle. It is crucial to
give children the opportunity of a proper education.
State Minister Sri Mulyani in her opening remarks read by the Bappenas Deputy Director of Manpower and Economic
Analysis, appealed to all stakeholders, social partners and NGOs to work together to formulate ideas on how to
eliminate child labour through education. Meanwhile, Patrick Quinn, ILO-IPEC CTA, presented the results of the
new study on public attitudes towards child labour and education. He emphasized that it was crucial to reduce both
direct and indirect cost of basic education, particularly for poor families.
The education sector, especially formal education, is a great solution for poor children. If we are serious, it will
only take about ten years to overcome the problem [of child labour.] We have to see that education is the most
important investment a fertile soil may produce good plants. Irwanto, Research Institution of Atma Jaya
University
special focus on child labourers. There was a very

high participation rate at these provincial
workshops, which also attracted considerable
media interest.
Major national study on skills training to

combat child labour
A major study of more than 2,500 15- to
29-year-olds, launched in early 2006, was
published on 12 June 2006, the World Day
Against Child Labour. This study examined the
relationships between early school drop-out,
child labour and future career and life
development. It provided critical information on
childrens participation in education, training
and the labour market and on the working
conditions of youth. The survey was cost-shared
by the project, the ILO-IPEC TBP programme,
the Youth Employment Programme and the ILO
Area Office in Jakarta.
72
The survey found that young Indonesians who

drop out of school before completing junior
secondary education are likely to earn much less
later in life, are more prone to unemployment
and are in less secure employment. It also fond
that, compared with the national unemployment
rate of 10.4 per cent, around 66 per cent of
out-of-school 17- to 18-year-olds were
unemployed, with the rate falling to 53 per cent
for 19- to 20-year-olds and 20 per cent for those
aged 23 to 24.
The report clearly indicated the need to keep
children below 15 out of the workforce and in
school. A child who drops out of school and
begins work might contribute to family income
in the short-term but, as an adult, the individual
is likely to be significantly less successful than
those who complete their education.
The main findings of the survey, supported with

other relevant data, have provided clear evidence
that there is a large pool of unemployed young
people, many of whom are undereducated and
unskilled, sharply reducing their employability.
This problem needs to be addressed by
promoting greater education and training
opportunities among young people. This would
not only help the young people concerned, but
would be an effective investment for the
Indonesian economy. Among the main findings
of the survey were:
Dropping out of basic education is mainly
a result of the costs of participation in
education. Thirty-three per cent of children
had left school before completing junior
secondary education and 20 per cent had
begun working.
The survey found extremely high
unemployment (71 per cent) among the
out-of-school children in the 1517 age
group, with the rate declining gradually until
young people reached the age of 2324
(20 per cent).
Among the employed and self-employed, the
survey found a significant earnings disparity
between those who had completed junior
secondary school and those who had not.
Among the employed, earnings of those who
had completed school were 56 per cent
higher among salaried workers and 39
per cent higher among the self-employed.
Eighty-five per cent of working 15- to 17year-olds lacked a contract. Someone who
had completed junior secondary school was
three times more likely to have a contract
than someone who had dropped out.
Thirty-three per cent of respondents
answered yes to the question Have you ever
felt the way you earned money meant your
personal safety was in some way at risk, such
as working on the streets or at night in
dangerous situations?
Very few young people had ever received
career counselling, but those who did found
it useful.
Those who drop out are likely to get married

and have their first child on average two years
before those who complete basic education.
Early marriage and early child birth can be
factors related to future incidence of poverty,
which in turn generates future child labour.
Mexico
The project in Mexico has focused primarily on
engaging and mobilizing the main trade union
confederations and some of their key affiliates.
Prior to the inter-regional planning workshop in
Bangkok (see Chapter 7), meetings were
organized with the CTM and the Workers and
Peasants Revolutionary Confederation (CROC)
to discuss a national approach for the second
phase. As a result of these meetings, an action
plan was established and presented at the
planning meeting in Bangkok by the ILO-IPEC
Project Coordinator. One of the main proposals
was to establish a working group including the
two confederations and representatives from the
ILO and UNICEF. UNICEF has been
operational in Mexico for longer than
ILO-IPEC and has been providing support and
guidance to the programme against child labour.
The working group has been meeting twice a
month since its creation and acts as the project
advisory committee to plan and implement the
activities.
Political influence of the trade union movement

The trade unions in Mexico have a great deal of
political influence and have organizational
structures and methods in place that provide
significant support to the dissemination of child
labour and education messages across the
country. In 2005, three national workshops were
organized to raise awareness and build capacity
throughout the union structures. The first of
these led to the elaboration of a national trade
union action plan to tackle the worst forms of
child labour. The event covered a wide range of
relevant issues, including the causes and
73
consequences of child in Mexico, education and

child labour, mechanisms to follow up the ILO
and UN conventions and relevant national
legislation and government programmes. There
was also discussion on a wide range of trade
union experiences in dealing with child labour
and the outline of an operational plan. The action
plan has been printed and disseminated
throughout the trade union movement in Mexico.
Following the elaboration of the action plan,
which underpinned subsequent activities, the
working group organized an internal meeting to
discuss legislative issues relating to child labour,
covering both international and national legal
mechanisms. Participants analyzed federal law
relating to child labour in the light of ILO
Conventions Nos. 138 and 182 and, in the light
of this, studied closely the reform proposals on
child labour. The union experts expressed strong
interest in this area and highlighted the need to
mainstream child labour into the legal activities
of trade unions. One of the key outcomes of the
meeting was a recommendation to organize a
broader trade union legislative forum.
Training trade union trainers

With the groundwork for understanding and
knowledge sharing laid, the next step was to
organize a capacity-building workshop to train
trainers on the differences in the causes of child
labour between girls and boys, as well as the
opportunities available to them in basic
education and skills development. As well as
resource persons from the Ministry of Labour,
the ILO, UNICEF and the CTM, support was
provided by the United Nations Development
Fund for Women (UNIFEM). The aim of the
workshop was to train a core group of trade
union trainers in facilitating awareness-raising
efforts within the broader union movement and
launching an inter-trade union programme on
child labour underpinned by the national action
plan. As the first workshop of this nature in
Mexico, the activity also helped to pilot and
74
improve a training guide that had been prepared

in advance. The manual was designed to provide
information on child labour, including gender
roles, and to assist in designing action
programmes to prevent and eliminate child
labour, as well as pedagogical materials for union
activities. Comments by participants on the
manual helped to improve it. In addition, it was
agreed that three specific communications
products would be developed during the year to
target child labour: a media information kit;
awareness-raising materials on child labour and
child commercial sexual exploitation, including
posters and pamphlets; and a radio
advertisement. Both the CTM and the CROC
committed themselves to financing a regional
seminar on child labour and a piece of theatre on
the same theme. These activities are being
implemented in coordination with the
ILO-IPEC Country Programme.
Following the publication of the national trade
union action plan, six meetings were organized
to promote the projects messages across the
country. In addition, a joint activity was
undertaken by the Ministry of Labour, CROC,
CTM, UNICEF and the ILO to design,
produce, launch and follow up a national trade
union campaign entitled Stop child labour:
Give us back our rights to play and study. Each
partner participated as it could through
logistical, financial and technical support.
Promotional campaign materials included a
leaflet on the national union action plan,
posters, calendars, stickers and so on. A
high-profile national media launch of the
campaign was organized on 30th November
2005 to mark the anniversary of Mexicos
ratification of ILO Convention No. 182 and the
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Mainstreaming of child labour in trade union

agendas, programmes and activities
In reviewing the projects activities since its
inception, the partners in Mexico noted that the
issue of child labour now benefits from a higher

public profile. In addition, it occupies a priority
position on the national trade union agenda.
A number of significant activities have been
implemented to reinforce ownership of the issue
of child labour and education by the trade union
movement to the extent that various union
organizations are developing their own
programme of activities to prevent and eliminate
child labour, including an innovative piece of
theatre. The joint CTM/CROC working group
is closely following up these activities and
implementation of the national plan of action,
and, in February 2006, a forum was organized
for young trade union activists from CTM to
develop their own activities on the issue.
Working groups at this forum formulated a series
of their own action plans against child labour.
As a result of these activities, there are now two
collaborative plans of action for 2006 between
the ILO and the CTM and the ILO and the
CROC on using education to combat child
labour. The CTM created its own committee
against child labour during its last annual
national board meeting in February 2006. In
addition, the CROC and CTM have joined
forces to call on the government to create a
national committee and plan of action against
child labour and in support of education.
Mobilizing and engaging the national trade
union movement has facilitated the integration
of child labour in the national political agenda.
Within the framework of the trade union
movement, a range of activities have opened up
to support this work, including in the field of
legislation, communications and technical
cooperation. The project activities have led to
the emergence of practical opportunities to
develop a national campaign against child labour
through the direct support of the trade unions,
for example, the CTM could provide the project
with free television advertising provided that
funding could be found for the design and
production of the promotional adverts. The
workshop activities have mobilized significant
support for child labour activities within the
context of this project and for the ILO-IPEC

Country Programme in Mexico, and unions are
also developing initiatives based on their own
ideas and financing.
Peru
The approach adopted in the second phase of
the project in Peru was to focus on engaging and
mobilizing local authorities, politicians and
political decision-makers around the Campaign
for social investment in childhood as a tool to
fight against child labour and to improve
national economic development. The main
message of the campaign was how child labour
sustains poverty and negatively impacts on
childrens rights and the economic development
of the country and how education can tackle
these issues and promote development.
The project targeted local authorities and
municipalities, including the private sector, to
invest in education to combat child labour in the
project sites of San Isidro and Callao. Over half
the problem of child labour in Peru is to be
found in urban areas, and San Isidro, a major
financial district, has the highest percentage of
children working in the streets. These children
mainly originate from the municipality of Callao
and have limited access to education and come
from poor families.
The second phase had three specific goals in
mind:
to raise awareness among those responsible
for public policies of the negative
consequences of premature entry into the
labour market by children and adolescents
and to mobilize support to identify strategies
to tackle these issues and to reform relevant
policies;
to raise awareness among the media of the
issues of child labour and the role of
education as an intervention strategy and to
engage the media as a key ally in the projects
aim and objectives;
75
to widely disseminate information on

childhood, child labour and education and
the importance of investing in national
economic development and to mobilize
public support for the project and its aims
and objectives.
The first part of the second phase, therefore,
concentrated on the development, design and
production of the promotional materials that
would underpin the activities with the different
target groups. This process was supported by the
various bodies and institutions which had been
involved in the first phase, including the Task
Force, and representatives from the target
groups, including the APEC representative in
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The materials
were also informed by the outcome of a survey of
a focus group and included posters, an
awareness-raising video, brochures, leaflets, an
electronic newsletter and a web site.
Targeting current and future political

decision-makers
Among the products developed for the campaign
were specialized guides and manuals for
municipal and regional government officers on
child labour and education. Initially, the
products were designed solely for electronic
dissemination. However, with the support of a
non-governmental organization, ADRA-UK,
and the UK Department for International
Development (DFID), it was also possible to
have the materials printed and distributed. Once
the materials were completed, it was decided to
hold many short meetings, rather than a
restrictive number of long meetings, over a
period of around eight months for the local
authorities and relevant politicians in Lima and
Callao. The approach to this target group was
both formal and informal, and follow-up to
invitations included direct phone calls,
discussions with political assistants and
counsellors, and so on. Every effort was made to
76
ensure that the target group was available for

meetings and discussions. The objective was to
press the message home strongly enough that the
issue of child labour and access to quality
education would be mainstreamed into political
debate and dialogue and reform of relevant
public policies. At each meeting, audiences were
provided with detailed information on the
ILO-IPEC programme, including key
conventions, the project, the relation to
education for all and the aims and objectives of
the campaign. There was significant interest
from and dialogue with the participants, and
they were invited to become involved with the
wide range of activities related to the campaign.
The reaction to the presentations and the
campaign varied depending upon the level of the
political groups. Congress members initially
considered the problem to be outside their
mandate, but following the presentation and
discussions, nearly all agreed that they could
integrate the issue into different areas of their
work, including prevention of youth delinquency,
protection of human rights and corporate social
responsibility. Local government officials showed
greater interest in identifying and implementing
practical solutions to the problem in their own
municipalities. The project offered them
technical support in designing programmes to
assist child labourers and their families. This
element was particularly important in terms of
follow-up and sustainability of the project as the
objective was to encourage the elaboration of
programmes that would assist poor families with
income-generating activities to alleviate the
perceived necessity of sending their children out
to work. The project also deliberately chose not
only to meet current elected politicians, but also
to initiate dialogue with political candidates who
would stand for election in the future, thereby
enhancing political support for the sustainability
of programmes designed to help these children
and their families.
Appeal to the San Isidro business community

As many children work in the streets of the
financial community of San Isidro, it was
decided to target the influential business
community in this area, to raise awareness of the
plight of the working children and to encourage
it to go further in applying its corporate social
responsibility. The project emphasized the part
played by APEC, a regional economic forum in
which Peru is an active member, and highlighted
the need for Peru to become a stronger
economic member by investing in the education
and training of its young people and thereby
enhance their access to decent work. The
message was that the persistence of child labour
and poor access to and quality of education
would continue to undermine Perus economic
development.
Since early 2000, the local authorities and some
members of the business community in San
Isidro have been allocating resources to a
programme on child labour and street children.
Indeed, the municipality has been developing
strategic partnerships with other municipalities
in the country, sharing information and
experiences on child labour. Based on this
experience, the project initially invited around
30 companies to a workshop to discuss the
nature of the project and to explore ways in
which the business community could support it.
The companies were those that had in the past
shown support for social marketing or social
welfare programmes in the community.
The event had a significant impact on the
participants, whose interests levels were such that
the meeting lasted a lot longer than planned, and
many business professionals requested further
meetings of a more direct and detailed nature on
potential programmes of support for the
children and their parents.
held in Lima in 2008 and that the issue of child

labour, education and human capital investment
would be included in the programme. The
Project Coordinator noted that one of the
critical challenges for the project with the business
community would be to maintain the contacts
that had been developed and to build on these in
the future. Companies are very dynamic
institutions, and effective communications are
required to ensure that issues are followed up.
The project also organized two workshops for
social communications and marketing
professionals working in the San Isidro
Municipal Authority and for companies in the
San Isidro district. In addition, workshops were
held for the media, which gave extensive
coverage of the project throughout the country.
In addition, the Peruvian Cinema Association
supported the screening of a special video
to facilitate the implementation of a
community-based visual campaign to raise
awareness of child labour.
Teacher training
Around 400 teachers from four schools in the
San Isidro and Callao districts were key targets of
capacity-building efforts to enhance inclusive
and interactive training techniques to make
education more attractive to child labourers and
at-risk children who go to evening classes after
work. The teachers were selected on the basis of
the high incidence of child labour where their
schools were situated. Among the materials
shared with these teachers was the ILO-IPEC
SCREAM education pack. With these and other
materials, the teachers have been able to work
more effectively with the children to facilitate
their transition into full-time formal schooling
or skills training programmes.
Remaining challenges for the project

Among the speakers at the workshop was the
APEC representative from the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, who informed the Project
Coordinator that the APEC Forum would be
The strength of the project in Peru was its

ability to reach out to and engage the support
and investment of critical stakeholders,
77
particularly private enterprise, in the campaign

to prevent and eliminate child labour and
promote education as an intervention strategy.
However, this poses challenges of its own, as a
critical aspect of such campaigns is to ensure
effective monitoring and follow-up, for example,
that politicians fulfil their commitments to
undertaking appropriate reform to policies
relating to education, childhood and social
investment, and likewise that companies fulfil
their commitment to implement proactive
corporate social responsibility programmes,
including upholding the concept of decent
work. It is important to ensure that child labour
and education remain a priority in the project
for Peru in the build-up to the APEC Forum in
Lima in 2008. Lastly, having invested in the
production of a manual for local and municipal
authorities and in building the capacity of these
officials to use this tool, it is important for the
project to ensure that these materials would be
sustained following changes to the municipal
administrations in November 2006.
Philippines
The strong foundations laid during the first
phase of the project in the Philippines, involving
the reinforcing of the national CLETF, the
establishment of local task forces and the forging
of close links with the national TBP, greatly
facilitated the rapid implementation of activities
in the second phase. At the national level, the
alliance includes the Ministries of Labour and
Education, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers
(ACT), the Employers Confederation of the
Philippines and grassroots organizations such as
the Education and Research Development
Association Foundation and the Childrens
Laboratory for Drama in Education Foundation.
Task forces have drawn up development plans
and most have formed core committees to ensure
sustainability of action.
78
Support for the Time-Bound Education Agenda

The first objective of the second phase was to
raise awareness among national and local
alliances and all key stakeholders on the
Time-Bound Education Agenda and the
Philippines EFA Plan 2015, with the aim of
ensuring individual and collective action against
child labour and in favour of education. This
required the dissemination and promotion of the
Time-Bound Education Agenda in the
provincial and regional areas covered by the TBP
through the local task forces. Workshops for
these task forces were organized in each of the
TBP areas, and Department of Education
principals and superintendents expressed
support for the Education Agenda. In addition,
24 colleges and universities were mobilized
through forums on child labour and education
organized during the pre-service orientation
programmes for students. By integrating
activities into the orientation programmes, it was
estimated that the project was able to reach more
than 3,000 students across the major colleges
and universities in the TBP areas. As part of this
activity, the students and teachers involved
produced appropriate advocacy materials, the
best of which were selected to be passed on for
use by the local child labour and education task
forces in all TBP provinces and municipalities.
It was noted that even after such a short time,
there were already indications, particularly at the
local level, of legislative reform and appropriate
budget allocations to support investment in
education programmes to combat child labour.
This is partly due to the local task forces being
formally integrated into the legal structure of
governance and service delivery in each region,
which has facilitated the creation of an enabling
local government policy environment
sympathetic to child labour and education
issues. In several TBP areas, local programmes
and policies are taking shape accompanied by
funding and a resolution in the city council of
Himamaylan in Negros Occidental led to the

provision of a significant financial contribution
to the TBP. In addition, the Municipal Council
chairpersons have committed themselves to
setting up special groups to monitor cases of
child labour and childrens participation in
schooling.
Mobilization of teachers and their organization

The project mobilized the teachers organization,
the ACT, through workshop activities for
members of several of their chapters in TBP regions.
As well as raising awareness, the workshops
included capacity-building sessions on creative
and innovative teaching methodologies that
would cater more effectively to (former) child
workers and at-risk children.
National Conference on Child Labour and

Education
A National Consultative and Assessment
Conference was held in Cebu City from 4 to 5
May 2006 and was attended by more than 400
public and private school teachers, school
administrators, student leaders, multi-sectoral
members of the CLETFs at national and local
levels and members of the Education Sub-Group
of the National Child Labour Committee.
Conference outputs included an inventory of
gains achieved under the Education Agenda of
the Philippine TBP. In addition, participants
reasserted their commitment individually and
collectively within the CLETF to intensify
efforts to help eliminate child labour. These will
all be part of a reformulated Philippine TBP
Education Agenda.
Teacher awards
One of the highlights of the National
Conference was the recognition of teachers for
the Gawad ACLAT (Anti-Child Labour Award
for Teachers), which acknowledged the
contributions of teachers to the campaign to
prevent and eliminate the worst forms of child

labour. From among the nominees identified by
the CLETFs, five were short-listed. A teacher
from Cebu City was awarded the grand prize,
and two runners-up were also named. Special
citations were also given to five teachers and
para-teachers former working children
themselves who had been running special
classes for child labourers and street children.
Communications package to endorse

the Philippine TBP
A key output of the second phase activities
included the production of an audio-visual
presentation (AVP) featuring national and local
endorsement of the Philippine TBP. Childrens
Lab sought the help of advertising giant Doyle
Dane Bernbach (DDB) which graciously
provided its services free of charge. DDB,
through its social marketing arm DDB CARES,
developed a complete strategic communications
package that included:
three versions of television advertisements on
the Philippine TBPs six priority worst forms
of child labour, which were aired for four
consecutive days in April 2006 by GMA TV,
one of the countrys premier networks;
three sets of campaign materials for print
advertisements and posters, which were
posted prominently in Light Rail Train
(LRT) stations;
an audio-visual presentation;
a street theatre script; and
other communication media, such as online
games.
All materials referred to the Republic Act 9231
against the worst forms of child labour and
carried the central Philippine TBP message
Fight Child Labour, Now!, with the
consequential message Employ A Child And
Go To Jail. The package was presented during
the National Conference in May 2006, and all
these materials are prepared for reproduction
and distribution to the local task forces.
79
Targeting employers and their organizations

One of the recommendations from the first
phase of the project was to mobilize the business
community sector more, particularly in terms of
mainstreaming child labour within their
corporate social responsibility programmes. In
this respect, a series of round table discussions
and general awareness-raising activities were held
for employers. Among these were multi-sectoral
forums on child labour in the pyrotechnics
industry and with the Metro Bacolod Chamber
of Commerce and Industry. A panel discussion
on decent and productive work for youth above
the minimum working age also took place with
the aim of promoting linkages between the
education, business and social protection sectors.
Thailand
While there has been a significant reduction in
child labour in Thailand over the last 15 years,
the problem persists among migrant as well as
rural and hill tribe communities. The trafficking
of children into Thailand from the Lao Peoples
Democratic Republic and Myanmar into labour
and commercial sexual exploitation is a growing
phenomenon. Therefore, research has been
initiated to guide education policy reform on
how and what kind of education and skills
training can best reach out-of-school children
vulnerable to the worst forms of child labour, in
particular hill tribe and migrant children. The
2005 Thai cabinet approval for migrant and
stateless children to have access to education
makes the research on migrant children timely.
The Office of the Education Council of the
Ministry of Education has undertaken the
research in Samut Sakhon Province, which is
also a project site of the ILOs Mekong
Sub-Regional Project to Combat Trafficking in
Children and Women. Research on rural and hill
tribe children has been undertaken by the
NCYD, which has produced a model training
curriculum for career counselling in rural schools
80
to promote youth (self-)employment and

motivate the government to replicate this on a
wider scale. A national consultation will be
organized to disseminate the key findings and
thus contribute to the Thai governments
Education Reform Roadmap 20052008 and
onwards. A new programme to combat the worst
forms of child labour in Thailand is under
development and will in the area of education
and training build on the models and lessons
learned from this project.
Migrant children in Samut Sakhon

The Office of the Education Council of the
Ministry of Education proposed to focus on
migrant and stateless children as they are most
vulnerable to child labour and early school
drop-out. Migrant labour is widespread in
Samut Sakhon. The study methodology was a
combination of documentary review, a sampled
survey and semi-qualitative data collection of
selected cases in order to:
review the existing policy as well as laws and
regulations which might cause inaccessibility
to and dropping out from school of migrant
and stateless children, including the status of
migrant workers as their parents;
study the problems causing early school
drop-out of these children and review related
studies in Thailand and from other countries;
provide policy recommendations to tackle
early school drop-out problems, as well as to
suggest the kind of education and skills that
can best respond to the needs of these children.
The landmark cabinet approval on 5 July 2005
of a policy to provide greater educational
opportunities to ethnic and non-Thai children
meant that schools no longer have to report in
red ink in the childs record that s/he does not
have legal civil registration identification. In
addition, it was stressed that education provision
should be open to all nationalities and all
educational levels. In addition to ensuring the
basic human right to education for all children,
this has been seen as a means of ensuring

national security and stability. Following the
above regulation, the Ministry of Education has
developed implementation guidelines for schools
and local educational areas to survey
unregistered children and to raise their parents
awareness of the value of education, to put their
personal data in the school personal record
and to request district officers to issue legal
registration identification to these children.
health: unlike Thai people, migrant labourers

and their children do not have access to health
insurance;
economic: migrant families who need to
supplement their income urge their children
to work with employers who avoid legal
hiring criteria;
rights protection: the basic human rights of
illegal migrant children are not protected
leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.
The aim of the research was to facilitate the

enforcement of these provisions and overcome
any administrative and societal barriers these
children face on account of their ethnicity or
culture. As in many parts of the world, working
children belong to the strata of society most
discriminated against in terms of ethnicity and
culture, and it is important to develop models
that can counteract exclusion mechanisms inside
and outside the education system. Consultations
have been organized with key stakeholders from
the research site, Samut Sakhon, to discuss the
methodology and progress on the research.
Participants included the sampled schools, the
local education authority, the Office of Social
Development and Human Security, the
Non-formal Education Bureau, the Office of
Civil Registration, the Organization for
Networking to Promote Quality of Life and
Working Conditions, other youth organizations
and the Project Manager.
As a result, these children tend to grow up to be

unskilled labourers with inadequate life skills
and self-reliance despite their expectation of a
brighter future.
The problems and needs of migrant children in

Samut Sakhon fall into the following main
categories:
socialization and education: migrant children
bring with them their own culture and
ethnicity, which is distinct from those of
other Thai children in their schools and
communities. Though they speak Thai, some
migrant children are not literate in the
language, which presents challenges for both
their socialization process and ability to excel
academically;
One of the major recommendations emerging

out of the research is that headmasters and teachers need more support to meet the objectives of
the 2005 cabinet approval for improving access
to education for migrant and stateless children.
During the course of the study, it was found that
one of the reasons for migrant parents choosing
not to send their children to school is that they
are uncertain as to how long they can stay in
Thailand. In some cases, it was discovered that if
the children earned well and lived in a
provincial town, it might make parents reluctant
to send them to school because the opportunity
cost to do so seems high in the short term. Over
the long term, however, these children would be
vulnerable to growing up with poor employment
prospects making them unable to escape the
poverty trap. Significantly, it was found that
most migrant students are responsible, attentive
to their study and diligent, and therefore teachers
had a positive attitude towards teaching them.
At the time of publication of this report, the
research had entered the final phase, which
aimed to provide recommendations and
guidance on how to tackle the areas noted above
and thus contribute to the Thai governments
Education Reform Roadmap 20052008 and
onwards.
81
Career counselling to better prepare

disadvantaged young people for decent work
The second part of the project was implemented
by the NCYD in collaboration with Chiangrai
Provincial Labour Office and Chiangrai
Ratchapat University. The aim was to conduct
an analysis and develop models of intervention
on how the access and quality of education can
be improved and better prepare rural and hill
tribe children in northern Thailand for the local
labour market. These children are particularly
vulnerable to the worst forms of child labour.
The project process included a survey on the
needs of hill tribe and vulnerable children in
82
areas such as education and career development,

career-development opportunities and local
labour market responses. Eight schools were
selected for subsequent project activities, which
were cost-shared with other sources of funding
and included teacher training, careerdevelopment camps, exchange workshops with
relevant organizations, vocational training
for participating students, availability of noninterest loans for self-employment schemes and
the development of self-employment activities in
response to local labour market needs.
The survey was completed in March 2006 and
the report published in June 2006. Based on the
pilot experiences, the NCYD completed the

model training curriculum for career counselling
of rural youth with the aim of encouraging the
government to replicate this on a wider scale.
The curriculum is made up of four main
sections: background, objectives, process and
evaluation. It contains nine activity plans
covering the following areas: teamwork; career
understanding and perspectives; leadership;
career appreciation; community-based career
opportunity and local wisdom; career and life
incentives; self-employment opportunities;
career information analysis and choice; and
decision-making. The curriculum was tested in
career-development camps in all eight schools
involving over 600 young people. An analysis of
the pilot tests revealed the need to add a new
section on self-awareness to help young people
to better understand themselves, their needs and
their potential. A workshop was organized in
Chiang Rai to share experiences and review
curricula in this field, including those modules
developed by ILO-IPEC to raise awareness of
the risks of trafficking, gender equality, public
health and life skills. The Project Manager, as
well as local educational authorities and
planners, also took part. Please refer to the
diagram which outlines the model curriculum
for career counseling of rural youth.
took part in this event, including representatives

from the media, officials from government
ministries and agencies, NGOs and social
organizations from urban and rural areas.
Different information sessions covered a wide
variety of related subjects, including:
Viet Nam
Universal lower secondary education for

disadvantaged children
Second phase activities in Viet Nam built on the

alliances developed in the first phase, further
reinforcing awareness and understanding,
mobilizing key stakeholders and building
capacity through training and knowledge creation.
National advocacy plan for 20062010

In 2005, a two-day national workshop on
strengthening advocacy and awareness raising on
the prevention and elimination of child labour
for 20062010 was organized and conducted by
the Viet Nam Committee for Population, Family
and Children in Hanoi. Around 60 participants
the general situation of child labour;

baseline survey results on knowledge,
attitudes and practices towards street
children, child sexual abuse and the
prevention and elimination of the worst
forms of child labour;
education as an effective solution to child
labour; and
experiences and lessons learned from the
central and provincial media in broadcasting
programmes on advocacy and awareness
raising on child labour issues.
A significant outcome of this workshop was
agreement on the main issues of the plan of
advocacy and awareness raising. Building on the
projects first phase of awareness-raising
activities, this event encouraged participants,
particularly the media, to develop more targeted
messages on the importance of education in
preventing child labour and promoting the
Universalization of Lower Secondary Education
(ULSE) targets 20062010.
As part of its aim to highlight the critical link

between the incidence of child labour and the
implementation of education as an intervention
strategy, the project commissioned a research
study on the main constraints and obstacles to
the governments programme of ULSE facing
disadvantaged children, particularly child
labourers, in five different provinces. These
locations were selected on the basis of their
varied geographical features and included the
capital city Hanoi, Long An in the Mekong
Delta, Lao Cai in the mountainous region, Hue
in the central province and Dac Lac in the
83
central highland province. The study was carried

out by researchers of the National Institute for
Education
Strategy
and
Curriculum
Development of the Ministry of Education and
Training at the end of 2005. The research
methodology included interviews and
discussions with children, parents, teachers,
education administrators and local authorities,
as well as a desk review of relevant documents
and papers. A national workshop was organized
to share and discuss the reports finding with all
key stakeholders, which led to the consolidation
of recommendations for policies and
programming to support the achievement of
ULSE for disadvantaged children by 2010.
A pilot training workshop on the draft guide was

organized in Hue City in November 2005 for 30
teachers from both formal and non-formal
education settings in Thua Thien Hue, Dac Lac,
Hanoi and Lao Cai. Based on their practical,
hands-on experience in their different
classrooms, the teachers were able to assess the
effectiveness and appropriateness of the guide.
All participants were appreciative of the content
and indicated that it would be helpful in their
classroom preparation and activities. Based on
these comments and inputs, the implementing
agencies revised and finalized the resource
package, and around 500 copies were printed in
March 2006 for distribution.
The Project Manager participated in the first

phase of the research in Thua Thien-Hue in the
central province. While in Viet Nam, she met
the national APEC government focal point to
discuss the meeting of the APEC HRD Working
Group in Hanoi in May 2006 and to exchange
ideas on how the key messages of the project
could be included in the programme.
Considering Viet Nam is the host of APEC for
2006, the meeting was timely and discussions
were fruitful.
In addition, a video is being produced of

standard lessons demonstrating the different
learner-centred teaching methods that are
provided in the guide as a visual teaching aid.
The video will be distributed within the five
project sites and nationwide, and capacitybuilding workshops will be subsequently
organized for teachers in these areas.
Teachers resource supports

A consultative workshop was organized in 2005
to bring together education experts and
authorities to brainstorm ideas and inputs for
the development of a teachers guide on
child-centred pedagogical methodologies. The
main objective of this project component was to
provide teachers in Viet Nam with tools to help
them make their lessons more practical and
inclusive in order to attract working or at-risk
children to school and keep them there. A
working group of specialists from the National
Institute of Education Strategy and Curriculum
and the Ministry of Education and Training was
established at the workshop mandated to
develop the content of the guide based on the
outcome of the seminar.
84
As well as the development of a teachers guide,

the project in Viet Nam made extensive use of
the ILO-IPEC SCREAM education pack, as the
two programmes effectively complemented and
reinforced each other. The SCREAM education
pack was adapted to the context and situation of
Viet Nam and then translated. A pilot training
session was conducted with a target group of
children and young people from different social
backgrounds. As part of the adaptation process,
the education pack was also shared with a group
of specialists and experts in the fields of
education, the media, communications and
youth and womens organizations. Copies of the
Vietnamese version of SCREAM were printed
and shared among other agencies, including the
ILOs Mekong Sub-Regional Programme to
Combat the Trafficking of Women and Children.
A training-of-trainers workshop on SCREAM
was organized in May 2006 for the project
partners by the Research Centre for Family

Health and Community Development
(CEFACOM). The workshop invited key
officials working in the project sites, including
education officials, school representatives and
representatives from the youth and womens
union. A five-day training course was
established, which not only trained the
participants in the creative methodologies of
SCREAM, but also introduced them to the issue
of child labour in Viet Nam. The course was well
received by those involved. At the same time,

CEFACOM underscored the need for more
focused selection of potential trainers to attend
future workshops to ensure suitability and
sustainability. In addition, it was noted that the
participatory and arts-based methodology of
SCREAM was a completely new concept for
teachers in Viet Nam and it would take time
and further effort for this methodology to
be understood, adapted, accepted and
mainstreamed.
SCREAM activity in Viet Nam.
85
Chapter
ILO/Deloche P.
FINAL ASSESSMENT
Chapter
FINAL ASSESSMENT
The main aim of this project was to encourage
the APEC Member Economies involved to use
education to prevent and eliminate child labour
as part of their overall growth and economic
development strategy. Since 2001, the project
has been instrumental in building alliances to
promote awareness and action and to build or
strengthen national capacity in each country.
The regional alliance between the countries and
also at the APEC HRD Working Group level has
been established and activated. In its latter stage,
the project has capitalized on the increased
awareness and established partnerships to push
for policy development and reform to improve
access and quality of education to prevent and
eliminate the worst forms of child labour. Local
and national authorities in the project countries
are being encouraged to adopt an integrated
approach in efforts to combat child labour,
promote basic education and skills development
and alleviate poverty.
The project is an important undertaking, aiming
as it does to capitalize on a regional economic
forum, APEC. Owing to its limited resources, it
necessarily focused on leveraging the capacities
of previous or ongoing child labour and
education programmes, including ILO-IPEC
Country and Time-Bound Programmes, but also
inter-regional and global education programmes,
and on sustaining these by encouraging national
ownership of the project activities. It worked
through existing ILO-IPEC structures and
networks in each country, particularly in raising
awareness among key stakeholder groups and
society as a whole, and also in engaging the
commitment of these groups to tackle the issue

through education and skills training
interventions.
One of the major outputs of the projects has
been the integration of child labour and
education concerns in government structures,
either by establishing task forces where they did
not exist before, strengthening existing bodies
(for example, by developing local task forces
as in the Philippines), or by reinforcing
the capacities of existing committees established
within the framework of ILO-IPEC
programmes to include education authorities,
teachers organizations and other key
stakeholders in the field of education. This is an
important development as it emphasizes the
political commitment of the government and its
partners to ensure that child labour is
mainstreamed across all relevant policy
frameworks, including education and poverty
alleviation, and the long-term sustainability of
the projects outputs. This will ensure that efforts
to enhance national development include
preventing and eliminating child labour as a
priority and that education and skills training are
considered to be effective mechanisms to
support this objective.
Having
established
or
strengthened
education-related structures and networks, the
project facilitated the input of different
stakeholders in the design and implementation
of effective social mobilization campaigns on
child labour and the role of education in its
elimination. These included a range of resource
87
materials, from posters to videos to music, and

were disseminated as widely as possible by
engaging a broad group of partners, particularly
the media, which played a crucial role in the
overall communications strategy. As a result, the
project had a significant impact in creating
awareness of child labour and the importance of
education.
It has also been noted that the projects success in
sensitizing key stakeholders and partners and in
building capacity through targeted education
structures and networks has benefited other
child labour and education programmes,
including ILO-IPEC projects, in the
participating countries. The task forces have
either remained very active or have become
mainstreamed into national development
structures, for example in TBP countries, and
continue to provide support in a key
intervention area. In other countries, the project
has significantly benefited the establishment and
launch of child labour country programmes by
supporting preparatory efforts, such as raising
awareness or mobilizing key partners, including
the government, the social partners or civil
society organizations.
The second phase of the project has been
successful in consolidating the groundwork
described above and in strengthening the
activities and networks that were established
with stakeholders. It capitalized on enhanced
awareness and alliances to press for policy
development and enforcement on improving
access to and quality of education to combat the
worst forms of child labour. In addition, local
and national authorities were encouraged to take
an integrated approach to combating child
labour, promoting basic education and skills
development as well as alleviating poverty. APEC
representatives at country level were an
important part of these efforts, as the project
made significant progress in engaging APEC as
an institution, particularly through enhanced
communications and collaboration with the
APEC HRD Working Group.
88
Key communications products included the

publication of an information brochure and
project experiences, as well as a project web site
which will continue to promote activities and
outputs and, over time, integrate closer links
with APEC and the project countries. In
addition, the project will produce a regional
report on youth training and employment to
combat the worst forms of child labour based on
national studies in three of the project countries:
Indonesia, the Philippines and Viet Nam.
The sustainable impact of a project of this nature
will become more apparent over time, but the
mark of sustainability is the capacity of a project
first to put in place effective structures and then
to ensure the maintenance of these structures by
encouraging a sense of ownership and
commitment to the elimination of child labour
through education strategies. The process of
forming the alliances ensured a lasting transfer
of ownership to stakeholders, including
governments and employers and workers
organizations, and instilled the level of
motivation and commitment required to sustain
this not only at national level but also at local
level, closer to the communities that are at risk.
Some countries, such as Indonesia and the
Philippines, focused particular attention on
mobilizing local authorities, whereas others,
such as Mexico, gave priority to mobilizing the
trade union movement to wield their social and
political influence to lobby other stakeholders
and sway public opinion. In Thailand and Viet
Nam, research was undertaken to better
understand the barriers to education for those
vulnerable to child labour in order to feed into
policy reform and ensure that education systems
reach out to all children. Such research led to the
development of a school-based career
counselling model for disadvantaged youth to
help them realize their professional and personal
aspirations and has the potential to be replicated
across the country.
CHAPTER 9: Final Assessment
An element that has remained constant

throughout the project and across the different
countries has been that of innovation in the type
of activities and the manner in which they have
sought to generate strong support for the
prevention and elimination of child labour
through education and skills training. Peru, in
particular, has instigated a broad and singularly
creative social mobilization campaign in which it
has sought not only to influence the politicians
of today, but also those of tomorrow, to ensure
that continuity and consistency in policy
development and reform will remain. This is
critical to the long-term sustainability of a
project which seeks to embed change through
policy development mechanisms at national and
regional level.
In focusing on powerful agents of social change
in the field of education, the project has also
been conscious of the need to mobilize the
support of teachers, their organizations and the
media. Teachers are the frontline workers in the
education system, and they need to be convinced
of the need for change and the manner in which
this change is to be brought about. The use of
teachers information and resource kits
and specific training workshops has been
instrumental in building strong partnerships
with this key group. In addition, by
working closely with representative teachers
organizations, as well as the education
authorities, the project ensured that all partners
were equally informed and engaged in efforts to
ensure that the education system changes to
reach out to at-risk groups, to improve the
quality of education provided and to provide
appropriate training to those who work
one-on-one with the children in the classroom.
Again, certain innovative approaches succeeded
in reinforcing the confidence of the teachers as

well as the children, for example, the
introduction of a Gawad ACLAT (Anti-Child
Labour Award for Teachers) award in the
Philippines and the development of a
teachers guide on child-centred pedagogical
methodologies in Viet Nam. All projects sought
to engage the support of the media by paying
close attention to their needs and expectations
and designing appropriate capacity-building
programmes and knowledge products to support
and sustain these efforts.
Lastly, significant progress was made in ensuring
that the activities of the project at national level
became better known and promoted through the
APEC network of national focal points and
contributed to a stronger interest from and
engagement of the APEC HRD Working
Group. The project was able to engage APEC
more closely as an institution through the
Working Group creating the potential to
strengthen the regional network through
cooperation on specific areas. Increased
interaction with the HRD Working Group,
combined with increased cooperation with
APEC representatives at country level, has been
critical in facilitating closer engagement with
APEC as a regional body. To what extent this
will be reflected through APECs own structures,
networks, programmes and activities remains to
be seen, but the regular invitations to participate
in HRD Working Group annual meetings with
a view to continued cooperation on child labour
and possible future collaboration on youth
training and employment to combat the worst
forms of child labour constitute a positive
indication of the high level of regional interest
and should be followed up closely.
89
10
Chapter
ILO
THE FUTURE
Chapter
10
THE FUTURE
It is expected that the main message and
activities of the project will be carried on in the
future by APEC through its respective networks
dealing with labour (LPSN) and education
(EDNET) in the HRD Working Group. The
other Working Groups (i.e. Agriculture,
Fisheries, Tourism) can also join and strengthen
the regional network that has emerged within
APEC. The ILO will continue to work with
APEC and its Member Economies to use
education to combat child labour as part of their
overall growth and development strategies. The
regional mechanism, including the web site and
other forums for policy dialogue and the sharing
of good practices, can be managed by APEC in
collaboration with the ILO in the future. The
identification, documentation, dissemination
and replication of good practices which use
education to combat child labour will lead to a
multiplier effect in places outside the targeted
countries, which is critical to sustainability
beyond this projects lifetime.
The projects first pillar, which deals with
national and regional alliance building,
underpins its sustainability since it aims to
further strengthen and expand the community
of organizations and structures experienced in
action against child labour. As demonstrated in
the project evaluation (see chapter 6), these
partnerships can be strengthened by working
together, learning from each other and achieving
synergies and complementarities for sustained
action.
The second pillar of the project on building

capacity for joint and separate action at country
level is also crucial for engaging key stakeholders
to take constructive action over the longer term.
The focus on strengthening policy reform and
enforcement has created its own sustainability by
motivating key actors in child labour and
education to make lasting changes in their
labour practices as well as curricula, teaching
practice or education policy. All the country
based activities are being integrated into existing
and future child labour, education and youth
training/employment initiatives in Indonesia,
Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Thailand and
Vietnam.
APEC and the ILO can consider a more
broad-based partnership on all areas of common
interest in the future youth training and
employment, skills development, migration,
promoting broad-based participation in the
labour force towards increased productivity to
name a few. Encouraging Member Economies
to use education to combat child labour as part
of an overall growth and development strategy
should remain a key focus of this broad-based
partnership. The regional forum that has
emerged through this project can remain active
through face-to-face experience sharing
workshops, continued participation in APEC
and ILO events, development and dissemination
of publications and the web site. It is important
that the country based activities that have been
inspired by this project continue to motivate
needed policy reform and enforcement. These
91
activities can be showcased within APEC and

thus motivate its donor and recipient Member
Economies to contribute to the world wide
movement against child labour and in support of
Education For All.
The achievement of a high number of outputs
with limited resources was made possible
through the mobilization of local human and
financial resources. By involving a wide range of
relevant stakeholders at regional, national and
community levels, it will be important to
consolidate what has been initiated by the
project. This will require a modest external
funding base which can leverage from existing
resources.
There are future key events that can be
considered when planning for the future. Every
four years, the ILO Asian Regional Meeting
(ARM) brings together the political, economic
and social actors from some 29 countries in Asia
and the Pacific and 11 Arab States in West Asia.
At the invitation of the Government of the
Republic of Korea, the ILO Fourteenth ARM
will be held in Busan. Within the main theme
of Realizing Decent Work in Asia the subjects
to be explored include: competitiveness,
productivity and jobs in a globalizing context;
labour market governance for realizing decent
work in Asia; the Millennium generation: decent
jobs for young people; and labour migration:
regional strategy towards implementation of the
ILO multilateral framework. The ARM and
the 5th APEC Human Resources Development
Ministerial Meeting which is to take place in
Bangkok this October can provide platforms for
strengthened cooperation on areas of common
interested between APEC and the ILO.
Considering Australia is the host of APEC in
2007 and Peru in 2008, it will be important to
explore future opportunities in this regard.
92
The final project evaluation and sharing of

experiences workshop will take place from
August 8 10, 2006 in Jakarta, Indonesia. The
main purpose of the meeting is to review the
achievements and lessons learned since 2001 on
this collaborative initiative between APEC and
the ILO and its partners as well as chart a future
course of action to ensure the sustainability of
the initiatives accomplishments. This workshop
will provide an important opportunity to
exchange ideas and elaborate in more detail a
future course of action.
Through the project, the foundations have been
laid in the six APEC participating Member
Economies for effective action to remove
children from hazardous work and give them a
chance to benefit from education and training
that will open the door to a better life for
themselves and their children. The ILO is
grateful to the donor, the USDOL, to APEC and
the participating constituents for making this
five year awareness raising campaign possible.
The campaign has clearly demonstrated the
potential power in using education and training
to combat the worst forms of child labour.
The regional cooperation, and the national and
local activities initiated under the project, should
not be seen as a closed chapter, but rather as the
starting point for APEC and its Member
Economies to make ever greater contributions to
the world wide movement against child labour.
Raising awareness has been the first step in
achieving the ambitious goal of eliminating child
labour. The challenge now is to ensure that such
awareness continues to translate into concrete
action.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PUBLICATIONS
APEC: APEC at a Glance, Singapore, 2005
Azaola, Elena: Infancia Robada, UNICEF, Mexico, 2000
Government of the Philippines: statistics from the Department of Education, the National Statistics
Office and the National Statistical Coordination Board
Government of Viet Nam: Surveys on Living standards in 1992-1993, 1997-1998, 2002-2003,
Government Statistics Office (GSO)
ILO: Child labour briefing material, International Training Centre of the ILO, Turin, 2000
ILO: Eliminating the worst forms of child labour: A practical guide to ILO Convention No. 182
A Handbook for Parliamentarians, Geneva, 2002
ILO: ILO Jakarta Newsletter, Jakarta, September 2005 and May 2006
ILO: The end of child labour: Within reach, Global Report under the Follow-up to the ILO Declaration
on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, Geneva, May 2006
ILO: SCREAM Stop Child Labour! Education Pack, Geneva, 2002
ILO: Time-Bound Programme: Manual for Action Planning (TBP-MAP), various authors, Geneva, 2003
ILO-IPEC: Country briefings, Project Coordinators in Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Thailand
and Viet Nam, 2006
ILO-IPEC: Project Document of the APEC Awareness-Raising Campaign: Eliminating the worst forms of
child labour and providing educational opportunities, Geneva, October 2001
ILO-IPEC: Internal independent final desk review evaluation of the ILO-APEC project, Bangkok, January
2004
ILO-IPEC: Out of work and into school: Our development challenge, ILO-APEC Project Brochure,
Bangkok, 2006
ILO-IPEC: Project Technical Progress Reports of the ILO-APEC project, Geneva-Bangkok, 2001-2006
ILO-IPEC: Project Status Reports of the ILO-APEC project, Geneva-Bangkok, 2001-2006
93
ILO-IPEC: Report on Indonesias youth labour market and the impact of early school drop-out and child
labour on work and life experience, Jakarta, June 2006
ILO-IPEC: Summary report of the regional workshop to share experiences and lessons learned of the
ILO-APEC project, Bangkok, November 2003
ILO-IPEC: Summary report of the inter-regional planning workshop of the ILO-APEC project, Bangkok,
February 2006
ILO-IPEC: Summary report on intolerable forms of child labour for ILO-IPEC Project
INT/96/MO3/CIDA, Geneva, 1998
Inter-Agency (Global March Against Child Labour, ILO, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank): Emerging
good practices in the elimination of child labour and the achievement of Education For All, Geneva,
November 2005
Inter-Agency (Global March Against Child Labour, ILO, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank): From
Commitment to Action: An inter-agency working paper on the elimination of child labour and the
achievement of Education For All, Geneva, November 2005
Ministry of Labour, Peru: Surveys on Living Standards, Lima, March 2006
Moe, Levison and Knaul: Youth Education and Work in Mexico, World Development Vol. 29 No. 1, 2001
Sarkar, U.: Combating child labour through education, ILO-IPEC, Geneva, April 2004
Sarkar, U.: Powerpoint presentations of the ILO-APEC project to the APEC HRD Working Group Meeting
2005 (Pattaya) and 2006 (Ho Chi Minh City)
Taracena, Elvia: Les modles de scolarisation des enfants travailleurs au Mexique: Le cas des enfants dorigine
indienne travaillant comme ouvriers agricoles, paper submitted to the International Conference on
Rethinking Childhood, Bondy, France, November 2000
UNDP: Human Development Report, New York, 2005
UNESCO: Statistics in Brief Education in Viet Nam, Montreal, June 2006
UNFPA: State of World Population, New York, 2005
UNICEF: Censo de nios, nias y adolescentes trabajadores, Mexico, 2001
US Department of State: Background Note: Thailand, Washington, October 2005
World Bank: World Development Indicators Database, Washington, 2006
INTERNET WEB SITES
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) web site, Singapore, www.apec.org
ILO-APEC Project web site, Bangkok, www.ilo.org/apec
94

2006 Educ Field Out of Work Into School Asia Pacific en

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

2006 Educ Field Out of Work Into School Asia Pacific en

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Asia-Pacific

AND INTO SCHOOL

AND INTO SCHOOL

Copyright International Labour Organization 2006

The International Labour Organization and

First phase activities by country and region

Evaluation of first phase activities at national

Inter-regional planning workshop

Second phase activities by country and region

CD-ROM annex: Publication of Project Experiences

Anti-Child Labour Award for Teachers (Philippines)

The past decade has witnessed the emergence of

Working Group should be a forum to promote

The project recognized that there was an urgent

alliance and capitalizing on raised awareness and

development as it emphasizes the political

movement against child labour and in support of

says that if the current trends continue, child

Worldwide figures 2004(2000)

Overall reduction 2000-2004: 11%

It is the opportunities and experiences during

access to primary education is a childs basic

government authorities, employers and workers

While not explicit within various development

including APEC, in order to ensure synergy and

THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION

The work of the ILOs Governing Body and the

The International Labour Organization

Founded in 1919 following World War I

Tripartite structure: governments,

Each member State is required to submit all

The ILO mandate:

elimination of discrimination in employment

to such stakeholders as banking, investment,

ILO core labour standards and child labour

CHILD LABOUR AND ITS WORST FORMS

ILO Convention No. 182 concerning the

International Programme on the Elimination

Since it began operations, ILO-IPEC has

labour programmes is the expressed desire by a

The end of child labour Within reach

Within reach, says that an encouraging reduction

policy choices and the central involvement of

supporting and mainstreaming national

Education: a crucial component of global

The international communitys efforts to achieve

promoting EFA in the context of its Decent

Community Safety Nets

Registration & Protective Measures

Institutional Capacity Building

Labour & Social Policies

NATIONAL LEVEL PROGRAMME

It is widely acknowledged that in order to

the related programmes of child labour

APEC is the most economically dynamic region

Fact Sheet: About APEC, www.apec.org

CHAPTER 2: About APEC

In all, there are eleven Working Groups covering

CHAPTER 2: About APEC

While discussions on substantive issues are

workplace conditions and practices and strong

the Canadian International Development

The Human Resources Development Working