ILO tackles child labour in Africa

The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) ACCEL Africa project has established Community Child Labour Monitoring Committees (CCLMC) to monitor and eliminate child labour in Niger State.
 
This is aimed at eliminating child labour in supply chains within the cocoa and artisanal gold mining communities. Traditional leaders, women and youth leaders, headteachers and teachers of schools from Kpmapma, Kuchiko, Kukalo and Nakurpe communities of Shiroro and Suleja local government areas of the state were trained to accelerate this move.
  
Speaking at the event, the National Project Officer, ACCEL Africa, Lydia Eke, said it was important to train and set up CCLMCs in communities where children are engaged in artisanal small-scale gold mining.

“The participants were selected from communities where prevalent mining activities are being carried out and not just being carried, but involving children in mining activities,” she said.

According to her, the trainees would serve as monitoring committees to help track child labour activities within their communities and ensure compliance with the National Action Policy of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
 
The Desk Officer for Gender and Child Labour of the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel, Amina Shaba, said the training was to carry out activities of ACCEL project for communities.
 
She added that the essence is to ensure community ownership and sustainability of the project in their communities as the project ends in 2022.
 
“The participants are from communities where their work is mainly mining, and you see children also participating in mining. The training is to tell them the hazards of child labour and how it affects children’s health,” she said.
 
Shaba said the participants would help to monitor prevent, protect and report cases of child labour to agencies that deal with child protection.
 
One of the participants, Ayuba Lagodo, from Galadimgoko in Shiroro, said the event had exposed him to how to eliminate child labour.