Evaluation Learnings Search

Learning Description

The parents’ role in supervising children’s activities is critical to withdrawal/prevention.

Learning Description

Working through community forums, the project has learned that poverty is not the main cause of street work. The key reasons are lack of knowledge among children and parents about the dangers and risks involved with street work, and lack of enforcement of child protection and compulsory education laws by police and community leaders.

Learning Description

Under EXCEED, CSECs stay in shelters for two weeks and then must be reintegrated with their families. The EXCEED project has learned through experience that it takes approximately three months to rehabilitate the children from substance abuse, trauma, or sexually transmitted infections; to assess the family structure; and to rebuild the childparent relationship. If children go back home before they are ready, they will immediately return to CSEC.

Learning Description

The Hotline Surya NGO has tracked the root causes and lifecycle of a CSEC. They have learned that the root of the problem begins with family conflict or abuse at home and then escalates to promiscuity, substance abuse, and enjoying the night scene, all of which lead to high absenteeism and eventual dropout. Once out of school, children are vulnerable to pregnancy; self-induced abortion; working in nightclubs or cafes where they become highly susceptible to CSEC; and, if they continue down this path, their lives may be at risk due to being trafficked or infected with HIV. The NGO learned that the intervention period of the EXCEED project is too late. The focus should be on prevention and at an earlier stage. When the children start skipping school, that is the first indicator of becoming at risk. The NGO wants to start by identifying at-risk families and providing them with life skills education on topics such as gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS, sexuality, and parenting. The Hotline Surya NGO has received funding from USAID for a new life skills and HIV/AIDS prevention program and will integrate the lessons learned from the EXCEED project.

Learning Description

Regarding project design, a project that addresses child labour must be designed with less ambitious goals and phases (each phase 3-4 years). A first phase should be focused in sensitizing and developing capacity; a second one should be oriented towards the consolidation of inter-institutional articulation at local level in selected areas, and a third one, implementing an exit strategy, resulted in established programs and networks aimed at Action programs in child labour in public and private institutions, as well as in the communities. Developing targets according to a local diagnosis has proved essential in designing an intervention.

Learning Description

Regarding the strategies, the experience showed that differentiated strategies are required for “family work” and for commercial agricultural work (i.e. international and national markets) because specific characteristics of child work are present in each one. Developing material locally, from children and adolescents and their families themselves is key for the adoption of the matter in a culturally appropriate manner.

Learning Description

Regarding local migration, it is key to understand local migration from its origin, transit and destination to articulate interstate strategies regarding social support strategies to migrant families, tracking specific groups of families to see their evolution and type of support treatment considering the three levels of government (local, state and federal).

Learning Description

Regarding development of institutional capacity, Federal and state Departments of Labour and Social Welfare’ (STPS) leadership is essential for summoning ECL actions. Without them inter-institutional articulation and mutual agreements will be several affected. Exchange of experiences, as well as learning tours in migratory areas, enhances the adoption of experiences and allows for the creation of links between equal parts (i.e. authorities). In this sense, presenting results along the way, and not at the end of the experience, strengthens actions to eliminate child labour.

Learning Description

Regarding direct action programmes, Institutional agreements for service provision in a territory are a prerequisite to implementation in order to guarantee an adequate and timely service. One additional learned lesson is that the coordination between different authority levels is basic to address the child labour issue and specially to develop decision-making capacities on it. The weak inter-institutional articulation at state level and the absence of basic services (especially education, health and nutrition) in rural areas affects withdrawal and protection of working children and adolescents, reducing the efficiency of the programmes. It is fundamental to subscribe inter-institutional agreements to settle articulation at local level. The willingness of local authorities has a decisive influence in programme operation. When children and adolescents are withdrawn from work without an effective educational system, alternative labour training (such as vocational training) and a system of rights protection can result in reversion to the initial situation due to the absence of viable short term alternatives.

Learning Description

Regarding commitment with the employer sector, It is important to obtain commitments and to grant accreditation to motivate entrepreneurs on the elimination of child labour, including verifications in the entire value chain, in sugarcane, coffee and horticulture. The accreditation is not enough if they do not commit with specific actions, in relation to training of the youngsters, which come out of work in production areas. Employers should agree that frequent labour inspections will be implemented and that the accreditation badges on child labour free products would be periodically renewed. Local agreements between employers and unions to address child labour in a joint manner, together with local authorities and social programmes as well as prominent participation of children and adolescents and their families, requires more support to achieve effective commitments regarding children withdrawal of CL situations.