From 4 to 29 October, the ILO and ITCILO organized the Academy on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (FPRW) to support the ILO constituents in meeting their obligations to respect, promote and realize FPRW. The Academy was held online and brought together over 100 officials, policy-makers and practitioners from ministries of labour and related ministries, including labour inspectors; representatives of workers’ and employers' organizations and private sector institutions; staff from the ILO, international and non-governmental organizations.

In the framework of the Academy, two sessions were held on the role of cooperatives in eliminating child labour on 18 and 25 October. These sessions aimed to: enhance knowledge among participants on the basics of cooperatives and the role and comparative advantage of cooperatives in eliminating child labour; showcased experiences of cooperatives that have taken steps to eliminate child labour in their own operations and in their communities, and; provided an overview of the ILO’s approach and tools to support cooperatives in the elimination of child labour.

The first session focused on the work of the Regional Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour in combatting child labour in agriculture and the Child Labour Risk Identification Model developed by the ILO and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) to design and implement preventive strategies at the local level. The session also provided an overview of the ILO’s intervention model to raise awareness and support cooperatives’ actions in tackling child labour. A practical case that was featured was a women’s coffee cooperative CEMCAVIR from Villa Rica, Peru that raised awareness and engaged with its members for the elimination of child labour.

The second session focused on the ILO’s programme Accelerating action for the elimination of child labour in supply chains in Africa (‘ACCEL’) and the intervention model developed in delivering on its cooperative component. The session presented the objectives and approach of ACCEL’s activities with cooperatives. It focused on the work done around the cocoa supply chain in Nigeria.