Promoting social dialogue to eradicate child labour and strengthen quality education provisions in Mali

Cooperation Projects

Promoting social dialogue to eradicate child labour and strengthen quality education provisions in Mali

Implementing Country: Mali

Description

Development of a child labour free zones in Tiakadougou Faraba, Daracoro and Siramana (district of Ouelessebougou), Mali.

Objectives

Development of a child labour free zones.

Activities

4 training for 40 teachers on child labour, the zone approach, social dialogue and teaching methods.
Awareness raising on child labour for 50 teachers from 7 schools.
Setting up of anti-child labour clubs.
School directors develop education programmes which include issues related to child labour.
Setting up of spaces for social dialogue in the villages. They include representatives of the mayor, of the local education authorities, of the association of mothers of pupils, of the monitoring committee, of the young people, of teachers and of the school management committees.
2 training sessions for 40 members of the school management committees, social dialogue spaces and associations of mothers on child labour issues and child rights conventions.
Lobby to improve local school infrastructures.
Setting up of associations of mothers of pupils.
6 radio debates related to child labour on local radio.
Lobby to better integrate child labour in the Ministry of Education planning.

Outcomes

104 ex-child workers (55 girls, 49 boys) were brought back to school in the 10 schools from July 2021 to June 2022, mostly thanks to the intervention of the focal point teachers, the associations of mothers of pupils, and the spaces for social dialogue.

The SNEC project has mobilised more than 200 community members through associations of mothers of pupils and spaces for social dialogue.

Teachers have improved their pedagogy, for instance their capacity to create more active and participatory classrooms.

In at least one school (Siramana), the space for social dialogue decided that the pupils who walk every day across the bush to the secondary school would be escorted by armed men, following an attempted sexual assault on a teenage girl. The armed men are supported by the village. In many similar cases in Mali, in the absence of such a project that has raised awareness of the importance of education, the victim of this kind of aggression is withdrawn from school instead of being defended.