UI partners ILO, LWR to train parents, teachers, community leaders on child labour

The University of Ibadan has mainstreamed the adapted International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) SCREAM-‘Supporting Children’s Rights through Education, the Arts and the Media’ module as a course in the GES programme of the institution.

This was made known at the opening of the six-day workshop held between Tuesday, February 26 and Friday, March 2

The workshop was organised by the International LabourOrganisation (ILO) in collaboration with the University of Ibadan and supported by the Lutheran World Relief (LWR) to train parents, teachers and community leaders from Idanre and Ifedore Local Government Areas in the cocoa and artisanal mining sectors held at the Balogun Subomi Conference Centre of the university.

In her remarks at the opening and commencement of the six-day workshop, the country director of ILO, Ms Vanessa Phala, noted that the training marked the third phase of the certificated SCREAM Module.

The director, represented by the national project coordinator for the ACCEL AFRICA, Dr Agatha Kolawole, while disclosing that through the ILO/UI partnership, the university now has the SCREAM Module as a course mainstreamed in the GES programme in the university.

 She added: “It is indeed an indication of progress on our partnership in the coordinated campaign to urgently eliminate the child labour menace from the Artisanal Gold Mining (ASGM) and cocoa value chains, and by extension, our Nigerian and African societies.”

She noted that child labour had remained a global phenomenon despite efforts at different levels to eliminate it, adding that “globally and especially in Africa, estimates have continued to soar and are further worsened by the declining global economy. According to the latest global estimates, there are now more children in child labour in Africa than in the rest of the world combined.”

“In the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region, nearly 23 percent of all children are estimated to be in child labour. Nigeria has its fair share of this figure. Recent data by the National Bureau of Statistics Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2021, estimates that about 31 percent of children in Nigeria, aged between five and 17 (two of every five) are engaged in child labour. The Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment in 2022 puts the figure at “more than 15 million.”

“The 2021 report points to a significant rise in the number of children aged five to 11 years in child labour, who now account for just over half of the total global figure. The number of children aged five to 17 years in hazardous work has risen by 6.5 million to 79 million since 2016,” she stated.

According to her, the agriculture sector accounts for the 70 percent of children in child labour (112 million), followed by 20 percent in services (31.4 million) and 10 percent in industry (16.5 million). Nearly 28 percent of the children between the ages five and 11 and 35 percent of the ones between ages 12 and14 in child labour are out of school. The prevalence of child labour in the rural areas (put at 14 percent) is close to three times higher than the ones in urban areas (put at five percent).

She hinted that the recently conducted National Child LabourSurvey and Forced Labour Survey, supported by the US Department of Labour (USDOL) and the Netherlands Government is expected to be launched on April 18, saying  that “the survey report will give us an empirical picture into the prevalence of child labour in Nigeria.”

She appreciated the management of the University of Ibadan and it’s ACCEL team led by the deputy vice chancellor (Academics), Professor Ronke Baiyeroju, for their consistent support as well as the Lutheran World Relief and its team led by the Deputy Chief of Party, Mr Olawale Awoyemi, for their spirit of partnership towards the project.

While reiterating the ILO’s commitment towards the promotion of decent work and a child labour free zone, she appealed to the participants for cooperation and full participation at the training as they mind their moral responsibility as change agents and influencers of the future in this regard.

Declaring the workshop open, the vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Kayode Adebowale asserted the readiness of the institution to play its part in supporting and executing the Child Labour Education and Resilience (CLEAR) project of the Lutheran World Relief (LWR) targeted at addressing the child labour saying “such a great vision is good for humanity.”

While noting that there had been global concerns on the concept of child labour and the damage it had caused children as individuals or and communities globally, the VC said “it is gladdening to see that the International Labour Organisation(ILO) and the Lutheran World  Relief (LWR) have taken the lead in taking deliberate steps in eradicating child labour and as such have  become pacesetters in Nigeria in this regard.”

The efforts of the LWR in partnering with the Federal Government to reduce the global number of child labourers in the cocoa value chain estimated at 1,56million globally, he noted, had been impressive.

He added that also that its launching of the ‘Ondo State Child Labour Education and Resilience (CLEAR) project in October 2023 and following it up with a six-day training at the University of Ibadan, focusing on the cocoa sector is an indication that  the organisation is really committed to  the elimination of child labour.

He assured the participants of a rewarding training, stating that the SCREAM module was developed by best professors of the institution and equally facilitated by them namely, Professors Akin Odebunmi, Ayobami Hammed and  Ifeanyi Onyoenoru and alongside the entire Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETel), University of Ibadan team on the project.

“The curriculum will not only focus on the theory but the practice of the principles being taught and will practically make you experience how to be a child in our society as well as the implication of hazardous labour in agriculture, your role and our role in cocoa agriculture and how gender affects how these ideas  are explored, among other things,” the VC told the participants.

Speaking about the LWR and its CLEAR project, funded by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Deputy Chief of Party of the organisation, Mr Olawale Awoyemi said that the goal is to significantly reduce the incidence of child labour practices among cocoa farmers in Ifedore and Idanrelocal government areas, by creating awareness on its negative impacts among the parents teachers and community leaders; to improve the socio-economic status and resilience of the community members and affected households as well as to improve the entrepreneurial skills of the children in the 10 selected schools in the two selected LGAs.

The director, Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETel), University of Ibadan, Adedoyin Aguoru in her welcome address noted that the specialised SCREAM training aligned with the CLEAR project to support sensitisation, capacity building and entrepreneurship in schools and requisite workplaces.

She thanked the former director of CETel, who doubled as the technical lead of the facilitating team, Professor Akin Odebunmi as well as Professors Ayobami Hammed and Ifeanyi Onyoenoru for putting the SCREAM module training together.

In her address at the at the closing ceremony of the training workshop on Friday March 2, the UI Accelerating Action for the Elimination of Child Labor in Supply Chain in Africa (ACCEL), team lead and deputy vice chancellor (Academic) UI, Professor Ronke Baiyeroju, noted that the University of Ibadan team had worked tirelessly towards developing a nonexistent SCREAM module and adapting the existent one on agriculture to the Nigerian environment.

“Since it was launched in 2002, the SCREAM initiatives have been executed in about 80 countries of the globe through collaborative endeavours among the ILO and its numerous collaborators.

“We are particularly proud that our team is responsible exclusively for the development of the module on artisanal mining which will be touring the whole world on the bill of the ILO as a tool to combat child labour in all relevant climes.

“This trail blazing excellence is a mark of the institution,” she said.

Commending the participants for making themselves available for the programme and partaking in the various activities lined up by the facilitators and freely contributing their expert opinions and lived experiences, she appealed to them to contribute conscientiously to realising the objectives of the training.

In their comments at the end of the training, the trio of  MrGeorge Abiodun, a guidance counsellor, Mr Omololu Ijanusifrom Ondo State and Mrs Funmilola Adekanye, from Igbara-Oke, Ifedore LG, who spoke on behalf of others thanked the organisers of the programm for choosing them as beneficiaries of the third SCREAM module training.

They stated that the training was an eye-opener as they were being engaged by the professorial team of the premier university. They promised to be change agents in their various households, schools, fields, organisations, communities and be worthy ambassadors of SCREAM and CLEAR projects.