The National Project Coordinator of the International Labour Organization (ILO) for the ACCEL Africa 2 Project in Nigeria, Oni Celine, has urged state governments to leverage the findings and recommendations of a recent study to develop and implement policies that will strengthen social protection for households affected by or at risk of child labour.
Oni made the call during a stakeholders’ validation meeting held in Akure, the Ondo State capital, where participants from Ondo, Osun and Niger states, as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), joined physically and virtually to review a report on social protection coverage for households affected by or vulnerable to child labour in Nigeria.
The National Project coordinator also called for the development of policy briefs from the report to provide practical guidance to governments, employers, workers, academia, civil society organisations and development partners on strengthening social protection and tackling child labour.
The validation meeting, organised with the support of the ILO, provided an opportunity for stakeholders to examine the findings and recommendations of the situational analysis and make contributions towards improving the final report.
Speaking after the meeting, Oni said the exercise was aimed at ensuring that the report accurately reflected the realities and challenges faced by households affected by or vulnerable to child labour.
She explained that the consultant presented the report to stakeholders, who reviewed its findings and recommendations and provided inputs aimed at making the document more comprehensive and useful to governments, employers, workers, civil society organisations and community leaders.
According to her, the report is expected to guide efforts to expand social protection coverage for vulnerable households as part of measures to address the root causes of child labour.
Oni said inadequate access to social protection had been identified through data as one of the major underlying factors contributing to child labour, stressing the need for stronger interventions to protect vulnerable families.
She said, “This meeting that we just had with stakeholders participating from three states in Nigeria, including the FCT, is a meeting for the stakeholders to validate a report on situational analysis on specific modalities of social protection coverage for households affected or at risk of child labour in Nigeria.”
She noted that the study had passed through several stages, including the preparation of an inception report, field data collection, submission of microdata and analysis before the draft report was produced.
Oni added that the report was further reviewed by ILO social protection technical experts at the regional office and headquarters in Geneva, alongside the research team, before being presented to stakeholders for validation.
She described the validation exercise as successful, noting that stakeholders made state-specific inputs and deliberated on practical ways of translating the findings into effective interventions.
Oni disclosed that the study was supported by the ACCEL Africa Project and the FMM2 West Africa Project under the ILO, as part of efforts to strengthen social protection and contribute to the elimination of child labour in Nigeria.
She stressed that effective social protection remained critical to addressing the vulnerabilities that push children into labour and protecting families at risk.
The ILO coordinator said the report was comprehensive and addressed fundamental issues surrounding social protection and child labour.
“We are looking forward to the state steering committees implementing these reports in the states and other states as well,” she said.
State representative from the three states including FCT Abuja were The Nigeria Police, NSCDC, Save the Children, NOA, Ondo state ministry of Agric. SUBEB, TUC Labour,NATEB,NUJ NAWOJ, SUCO, ROTDOW, Kids and Teens
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