The United Nations system supports Côte d'Ivoire in its strategic planning of priority actions to combat child labour.
The challenge for the Government is to achieve a real synergy of action between all actors, both public and private, technical and financial partners and civil society organisations, at both central and decentralised levels
Abidjan (ILO News) - The Ministry of Employment and Social Protection, in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO), UNICEF and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), organized on 7 and 8 October 2021 in Abidjan, a workshop to identify strategic priorities to achieve Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Ivory Coast.
The Minister of Employment and Social Protection, Adama Kamara, President of the Inter-ministerial Committee for the fight against trafficking, exploitation and child labour
SDG Target 8.7: Côte d'Ivoire, a pioneer country.
Target 8.7 of the SDGs "calls on UN Member States to take immediate and effective measures to eliminate child labour by 2025 and forced labour, trafficking and modern slavery by 2030", explained at the opening, the Director of the Fight against Child Labour at the Ministry of Employment and Social Protection Martin Kouakou N'Guettia.
"Côte d'Ivoire volunteered to be a pioneer country of the 8.7 Alliance, a global partnership aimed at helping UN member states to achieve Target 8.7," Mr. N'Guettia said, adding that "pioneer countries are committed to going faster, further and leading by example.
On behalf of Philippe Poinsot, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in Côte d'Ivoire, the ILO Country Director for Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Togo, commended Côte d'Ivoire's efforts to go faster and further to achieve Target 8.7.
"We are all witnesses to the particular efforts of Côte d'Ivoire to eliminate child labour from the cocoa sector with, among others, the formulation of a national strategy on sustainable cocoa under the aegis of the Prime Minister's Office," said Frédéric Lapeyre, adding that Côte d'Ivoire "already stands out from other countries in the sub-region, and even in the African region, in terms of political will and national ownership, intensity of response, innovation and partnerships between public and private actors. Frédéric Lapeyre, ILO Country Director in Côte d'Ivoire The United Nations system alongside the government in achieving Target 8.7
Côte d'Ivoire is not alone in its efforts to achieve Target 8.7. The United Nations system is supporting it.
"Several United Nations agencies are participating and are mobilized at the global, regional and national levels in favour of achieving target 8.7 of the SDGs. These include in particular the International Labour Organization (ILO), whose office is the secretariat of the 8.7 Alliance, but also UNICEF, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), FAO, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)," Mr. Lapeyre said. Mr. Lapeyre said he was pleased to note that "for several years now, the ILO and UNICEF have been collaborating perfectly, supporting the Ivorian government's efforts to combat child labour, and that the IOM and UNODC are supporting efforts to combat human trafficking. Participants in group work
Progress towards target 8.7, but challenges remain
The Minister of Employment and Social Protection, who chairs the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) for the fight against trafficking, exploitation and child labour, recalled in his speech the government's actions that have enabled progress in the fight.
According to Adama Kamara, "a relevant legal framework on all the issues targeted by Target 8.7 of the SDGs; policies and strategies to fight against the root causes of these scourges through sectoral plans and the Government's Social Programme (PS-Gouv) and an institutional framework and operational mechanisms for coordination, implementation and monitoring-evaluation of programmes and projects.
Despite these efforts and progress observed, Côte d'Ivoire has not yet succeeded in eradicating these phenomena, noted the Minister of Employment and Social Protection. This is why he called for ''synergy of action, in an inclusive and coordinated framework in order to carry out programmes capable of bringing about structural transformations that have a productive impact''.
A synergy of action for more results
"The challenge for the Government is to achieve a real synergy of action between all actors, both public and private, technical and financial partners and civil society organisations, both at the central and decentralised levels," said Mr Kamara, hoping that "all actions on the ground will be harmonised in order to address in a complementary and synchronised manner, and with adequate means, the problems defined as priorities.
For two days, presentations on human trafficking and the Alliance 8.7 as well as discussions on the coordination of the fight against child labour, human trafficking, modern slavery and forced labour, monitoring, knowledge gathering and sharing, laws and policies that frame the fight and financing were on the menu of this workshop which achieved its objectives.
"The axes and orientations of the strategic plan were developed thanks to the commitment of all stakeholders, which will allow us to go faster and further to achieve target 8.7 of the SDGs," said Martin Kouakou N'guettia, the Director of the Fight against Child Labour.
For the prefectural body, this workshop is timely given the stakes involved in the issue of child labour. "We have touched on the work of children whose place is in school and not in the fields. At the end of this workshop, we, the prefectural body, measure our role, which has been strengthened in the fight against child labour. With the pooling of efforts, we will achieve Target 8.7 of the SDGs in Côte d'Ivoire," said Noclaire Zebré Lago, Sub-Prefect of Grand-Zattry.
