GENERAL BRIEFING NOTEREGIONAL INITIATIVE: LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN FREE OF CHILD LABOUROctober, 2014Core Points1. According to global estimates on child labour 2012,[footnoteRef:1] Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is the region which showed the greatest progress in the fight against child labour, achieving a reduction of 7.5 million working children and adolescents. [1: ILO, 2013. Marking progress against child labour: Global estimates and trends 2000-2012 http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---ipec/documents/publication/wcms_221514.pdf ]

2. However, according to the most recent global estimates, regarding the region,[footnoteRef:2] there are still 12.5 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 in child labour. 9 million of them are involved in hazardous work, putting at risk their health, safety, moral development and, in some cases, their own lives. This constitutes 8.8% of the total population of the region in that age range: A number still too large for us to let up in our efforts and check off a reduction. [2: Ibid, ILO 2013 ]

3. These same estimates also reflect a stagnation in the reduction of child labour and an increase in hazardous child labour in a context of slowing economies and a high rate of child poverty (42% of children and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean live in poor households).

4. Still, the region remains the first region in the developing world on its way to becoming child-labour free. Becoming so would constitute a global milestone with multiplier effects for other regions.

5. In a scenario where economic growth in recent years contrasts with the persistence of child labour, the countries of the region have shared a concern about the stagnation in the reduction of child labour, and have identified the need to seek new formulas that will ensure urgent responses to the regional situation. 6. The Latin American and the Caribbean region is reacting strongly to meet the goal of eliminating the worst forms of child labour by 2016.

7. The region took great advantage of the opportunity of meeting at the III World Conference (Brazil, October 2013) to make a new joint commitment to accelerate pace of child labour elimination.8. This commitment was embodied in a new instrument for cooperation: The Regional Initiative: Latin America and the Caribbean free of Child Labour through which the countries, represented by their ministers of labour, exercise leadership on the issue and appropriate the challenges implied by the acceleration toward the goal of eliminating the worst forms.

The Regional Initiative has so far achieved ... The involvement of 25 countries committed to the need to step up actions to reduce urgently the child labour indicator in the region

The development of a Framework Document as the result of the joint work among the countries and a process for identifying the obstacles to more and better progress, which defines objectives, expected outcomes and main lines of action. A bank of 8 priority regional interventions to respond to the outcomes of the Regional Initiative, identified by the countries as acceleration factors in reducing the child labour indicator, and for which it is necessary to mobilize public and private resources at both the national and international levels.

A strategy for mobilizing public and private resources (in the process of completion), which includes the countries for resources mobilization. Public funds, both domestic and those coming from traditional donors, as well as from private sources, from partners that meet the requirements for public-private partnership under the framework given by the agenda on aid effectiveness, are being considered.[footnoteRef:3] [3: The concept of Aid Effectiveness refers to the ability to contribute to development results that demonstrate positive, significant and sustained changes in the living conditions of individuals, including reducing poverty and a more effective exercise of their rights. Aid Effectiveness is therefore a means, not an end in itself, in the service of the Millennium Development Goals. More information at: http://www.musol.org/images/stories/archivos/manualeficacia012.pdf (page 19 et seq.) ]

A minimal, streamlined and efficient structure, composed of a Meeting of High-Level Authorities made up of the Ministers of Labour and representatives of employers and workers organisations; a Focal Points Network, made up of the Directors General appointed by the Ministers of Labour, responsible for leading and promoting the Initiative; and a Technical Secretariat hosted by the ILO Regional Office, at the request of the countries.The Regional Initiative: Latin America and the Caribbean free of Child Labour is an action that... Provides a response to one of the most serious and visible situations of inequality and lack of decent work in the region: working children and adolescents, especially those who do so in the worst forms (9.8 million)

Addresses child labour, seen as a brake on the achievement of development goals for children and adolescents and their families, communities and countries.

Is based on the accumulated experience of the countries and social partners during the past 20 years, which has helped to reduce child and adolescent labour by 7.5 million individuals.

Takes on the challenge to step up to the maximum the pace of response to this reality in the context of the commitments assumed by all countries to eradicate the worst forms of child labour by 2016 and all forms by 2020 (the Hague Roadmap and Hemispheric Decent Work Agenda).

It calls for a broad commitment and mobilization of all institutions, agencies and actors involved with the present state of children and adolescents and with the future of the region.

It is aligned with the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals, as they include an indicator referred to child labour elimination, especially in its worst forms, on goal # 8, Promote strong, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and decent work for all.

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