Accra, Aug. 20, GNA - Mr Stephen Amoanor Kwao, Minister of Employment and Social Welfare has expressed concern about the way Ghanaian children were not given the opportunity to reach their full potential due to their engagement in the worst forms of child labour at very early ages. He said there was evidence of the engagement of children in various activities classified as child labour, including fishing, agriculture, small-scale mining, quarrying, child domestic servitude, commercial sexual exploitation and customary or ritual servitude and street hawking. Mr Kwao said this at the ministerial briefing on the national plan of action for the elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, (WFCL).

In 1999, the ILO identified an important category of child labour, referred to as the WFCL and adopted a new convention, (182) to help in its elimination as a matter of urgency. The Convention calls on member states to develop National Action Plans (NPA) by 2008 to eliminate the WFCL by 2016. Ghana ratified and signed the Convention affirming her recognition of the problem and commitment to address the menace. He said the Ghana Child Labour survey conducted by the Statistical Service showed that, out of a population of 6.4 million children between the ages of five to seventeen, 2.47 million, (nearly 40 per cent of the age group) were economically active with about 1.27 million in activities classified as child labour. About 242,000 are engaged in hazardous activities.

Mr Kwao said government recognized child labour as a challenge to achieving national and international goals in areas such as education, human resource development, poverty reduction and human rights protection. He added that steps had been taken through legislation, policies and programmes to protect the rights of children and promote their well-being. He said the Ministry with technical support from the International Labour Organization initiated the process to develop a comprehensive National Plan of Action to eliminate the WFCL with an output of a strategic programme impact framework to guide child labour interventions. He said in November 2007, a 25-member multi-sectorial National Task Force composed of relevant Ministries, Department and Agencies, Civil Society Organisations and Development Partners was put up to draw the plan.

The National Plan of Action would become the national policy to tackle all forms of child labour. It would provide the necessary focus and impetus for eliminating the problem in a timely, effective and sustainable manner, Mr Kwao added. He noted that government was already implementing the national programme for the elimination of child labour in the Cocoa Sector as a component of the National Plan of Action, Targeting the WFCL in the cocoa industry.

Lessons learnt from this model will be replicated in other sectors where child labour is endemic. He said the next stage of the NPA development process was negotiations with mandated institutions to get the final endorsement of the lead institutions on their roles and responsibilities under the NPA and sign MOUs with each of the lead agencies to facilitate effective collaboration.