RP, ILO seek to reduce child labor by 75%

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines and the International Labor Organization are teaming up anew in a new project that seeks to reduce the worst forms of child labor by as much as 75 percent, Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz said over the weekend.

“From 2005 to 2008, the Gender Statistics on Labor and Employment posted a 7-percent downward trend in the number of children 5-17 years old who are economically active. But while the GSLE generates data on working children, there still seems to be a dearth in data on children who are in the worst forms of child labor,” Baldoz said in a news release.

The project between the Department of Labor and Employment and ILO-International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor, and similar partnerships with Unicef and other international organizations is expected to help the country eliminate the worst forms of child labor by 2016.

The new project entitled Strengthening National Capacities to Support the Philippine Program Against Child Labor’s Vision of a Child Labor-Free Philippines has four components: knowledge management, effective partnership, area- based services in the provinces of Quezon, Masbate, Northern Samar, and Bukidnon, and sustainability.

The four mentioned provinces have the biggest concentration of working children. –INQUIRER.net