Introduction

The programme Towards the Elimination of worst forms of Child Labour (TECL) supports South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland in their efforts to prevent and eliminate child labour.

Because TECL’s existence is so closely bound with the national child labour initiatives of these countries, this website is in a real way jointly owned by the national child labour steering committees of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland.

TECL is a project of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), jointly with the governments and social partners in each of the countries it works in. It forms part of the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, also known as IPEC.

We focus on assisting the governments of the participating countries to meet their obligations as states that have ratified the ILO Conventions on the Minimum Age for Employment (Convention 139) and the Prohibition and Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour (Convention 182).

Parties to the latter convention have committed themselves to taking urgent time-bound actions to end the prostitution of children, the trafficking of children, the use of children to commit crime and other worst forms of child labour, including those that the countries themselves rate as particularly harmful.

In all the countries that it supports, TECL works under the direction of a national committee headed by the national government department or ministry responsible for addressing child labour. These committees consist not only of representatives from a range of government departments, but also of representatives of business, labour and other civil society formations.

Our role differs slightly from country to country, because our approach is to build on work that has already been undertaken to improve the situation of children, including specific activities to combat child labour:

In South Africa, where a comprehensive Child Labour Programme of Action (CLPA) had already been formulated, TECL is strengthening capacity to implement this programme and has helped to develop a second phase to the plan.
In Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland, we are assisting in the development of national action programmes on the elimination of child labour (APECs) as the basis for mobilising concerted action against worst forms of child labour.

TECL was established in 2004 and comes to an end in June 2008. A second phase of TECL, for the period 2008 to 2012, is being planned. The second phase will focus on support to the following countries: South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. It is referred to as TECL II - for more information, CLICK HERE. [Update]

Funding

The production of this website was partly funded by the United States Department of Labor (US-DOL), under cooperative agreement number E-9-K-3-0005. This website does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of governments of the countries where TECL operates, or of the US government, nor does mention of organizations or products imply endorsement by any of these governments.

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Introduction

Funding