Implementation

El Salvador, Nepal, and the United Republic of Tanzania were the first three countries to implement TBPs. Three other countries, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and the Philippines, started implementation during 2002-03. Several additional countries have since begun the process, including: Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Ecuador, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Madagascar, Mongolia, Pakistan, Senegal, South Africa, Turkey, and Yemen. The experience acquired from the design and implementation of these programmes has helped to refine the TBP concept, for example in terms of content, emphases and relationships with ongoing interventions in areas such as macro-economic policy, poverty reduction and education. Refinement and further development of methodologies and strategies have also occurred on such aspects as integrating programmes, the role of monitoring and evaluation in building knowledge, the elements of a feasible impact assessment framework and the most appropriate systems for child labour monitoring. The specific roles that IPEC and other ILO units can play and the required capacity to fulfil these roles have also been clarified. Such issues have important bearing on the nature of coalitions and partnerships to be developed with government agencies, the social partners, NGOs, community groups and donors.

Programme development has also evolved in other ways. For example, the first three TBPs were developed as pilot programmes funded by one donor. Since then, there has been a gradual move towards joint funding of both preparatory activities and TBP interventions. Multi-donor funding is essential if more countries are to make significant progress towards the elimination of the WFCL. In parallel, the notion of the TBP as an umbrella strategic framework covering several projects and non-project interventions implemented by different agencies with different funding sources has been established. These developments have underscored the importance of building coalitions and networks at both national and international levels.

The mobilization of resources is a crucial prerequisite for large-scale interventions such as TBPs. As more countries seek to implement TBPs, it is evident that resources need to be pooled from a consortium of several donors. Domestic resources also need to be increased to support programmes that contribute to the attainment of TBP goals, for example in the areas of education and poverty reduction. In countries participating in the World Bank and IMF Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, it is useful to explore the possibility of channelling resources generated under this scheme into funding TBP interventions. Other possible sources include grant and loan funding from the international and regional financial institutions.

Financial support may take the form of either direct contribution to the budgets of TBP component projects or funding of complementary activities within ongoing programmes of national and international development agencies. There are also other important ways to expand the programme, for example through leveraging the resources of other development or social programmes that impact child labour. This is of particular interest in relation to education and poverty alleviation programmes. It involves joint targeting of beneficiaries and/or the incorporation of child labour indicators among those of other programmes, where feasible.

IPEC often assists in the process of mobilizing resources. In many cases ILO Sub-Regional Offices and IPEC staff at headquarters and in the field have direct contacts with donor agencies at the country level. They can provide information on donor priorities and requirements as well as technical input and know-how for producing necessary documentation.

To assist countries in TBP development and implementation, IPEC has produced the TBP Manual for Action Planning, a kit containing a number of guidelines and tools covering the various stages of programme design and implementation, such as data collection and analysis, awareness raising, stakeholder consultations and social mobilization, resource mobilization, target setting, policy options and strategies for different sectors and areas of interventions, and programme management, including monitoring and evaluation.