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Working visit

Côte d’Ivoire and the ILO to step up cooperation in the fight against child labour

Redoubling efforts to eliminate child labour in Côte d’Ivoire by 2025.

Press release | 25 April 2016
GENEVA (ILO Info) – The International Labour Organization (ILO) and Côte d’Ivoire have decided to work even more closely together to fight child labour, especially in its worst forms.

They reasserted their joint commitment at the end of the visit on Monday to ILO headquarters by the First Lady of Côte d’Ivoire, Ms Dominique Ouattara, during which she met with the ILO Director-General, Mr Guy Ryder.

Ms Ouattara is also the President of the National Committee to Oversee Action in the Fight against Child Trafficking, Exploitation and Labour (CNS). She was accompanied by Mr Moussa Dousso, Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister for Employment and Social Protection.

First Lady of Côte d’Ivoire, Ms Dominique Ouattara
“I thank the ILO for working with us to combat child labour,” Ms Ouattara said. “I wish to strengthen our partnership, and in particular to heighten the awareness of parents, so that they understood what types of dangerous and prohibited work their children should not be exposed to, and to review together the criteria for measuring child labour.”

“I commend the First Lady of Côte d’Ivoire for her commitment in the struggle against child labour. We have to redouble our common efforts to eliminate child labour in Côte d’Ivoire by 2025, in keeping with target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals, and we have to create a global alliance to that end,” said Mr Ryder.

He added: “The conclusions of the talks between ILO experts and their counterparts from Côte d’Ivoire constitute a roadmap for both parties, which have agreed to intensify their cooperation with a view to eliminating child labour in Côte d’Ivoire .”

The ILO will provide technical assistance to the authorities in Côte d’Ivoire, in particular for the process of reviewing the list of dangerous jobs for which children under the age of 18 cannot be employed, which has already started, and for the process of drawing up the list of light jobs for which children between the ages of 13 and 15 may be employed , as set out in ILO Convention No. 138 and the Resolution concerning statistics of child labour adopted by the 18th International Conference of Labour Statisticians in 2008.

Both parties also underscored the need to collect reliable statistics on the forms of child labour to be abolished, through the National Statistics Institute. The statistics are needed to draw up the policies and programmes required to fight child labour effectively and to monitor progress towards implementation of target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Côte d’Ivoire also wishes to obtain ILO support for further surveys of child labour in the country.

Lastly, ILO will provide support to train labour inspectors to monitor the application of the lists of dangerous work and light work.