Mali
Programme initiatives to tackle child labour
Early in the project discussions took place with partners in Mali to identify the best approach for the project to take and how to maximise cooperation with other programme activity underway at that time.As a result several new Action Programmes were implemented by the project with a focus on education services to children and mobilising community action against child labour. One programme focussed on reaching younger out of school children through a programme of accelerated education, aiming to reintegrate children in education. Other programmes focussed more on the needs of older children, including needs for skills training.
The security and political crisis in Mali during the project period had some impacts on the project, but overall the project was able to complete planned activities.
Capacity of partners to promote effective action
The project helped to increase contacts and cooperation on child labour issues between the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Education. Both Ministries had opportunities to see the programmes that were being supported and engage with the local partners involved. The Ministries also participated in activities with local councillors which sought to ensure integration of attention to child labour in community development plans.The project also worked with the national teachers’ trade union SNEC, which had developed a series of model lessons on child labour.
National partners also participated in capacity building and knowledge sharing workshops involving the four project countries and held at the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITC-ILO) in Turin.
Knowledge sharing
A number of meetings of project partners have been held in order to facilitate knowledge sharing. In April 2014 a national workshop was held on the theme of mainstreaming child labour in education policies and programmes. This enabled local experiences from the project to be fed into discussions with the national partners.There was also exchange of experience between the areas of Kéniéba and Sikasso (which both have in common the problem of children working in traditional mining). The exchanges involved elected municipal officials, school authorities, the Ministry of Labour and civil society.