The National Orientation Agency (NOA) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) have solidified their partnership in the battle to eradicate child labour in Nigeria.
The agreement was executed in Abuja by Vanessa Lerato Phala, Country Director of the ILO in Nigeria, along with Garba Abari, Director General of the NOA.
Under the framework of the Dutch government-supported initiative Accelerating Action for the Elimination of Child Labor in Supply Chains in Africa (ACCEL Africa), the alliance involves the execution of the National Social Behaviour and Communication Change strategy.
The Nigerian Accel Africa initiative is focused on abolishing child labour in the nation’s artisanal gold mining and cocoa farming sectors.
During the contract signing, the NOA’s Director-General pledged that the organization would initiate a grassroots campaign to inform stakeholders and modify behaviours in the project’s target communities.
He remarked that the initiative aligns with the Federal Government’s primary goal of ensuring that every child has access to education within their first twelve years.
Specifically through the enactment of the NSBCCS, he asserts that the Agency will leverage its grassroots framework, which spans 36 states and 774 local council areas of Nigeria, to educate the populace about the dangers of child labour in general and its impacts on communities, the economy, and children themselves.
The agreement specifies that the ILO will support the NOA’s Community Orientation and Mobilization Officers (COMOs) and other relevant personnel in enhancing institutional capability to execute community awareness-raising initiatives.
In addition, NOA will, as part of their cultural and orientation efforts, apply the National Behavioural and Communication Strategy in these local communities;
Moreover, as an aspect of the Agency’s comprehensive public education programme, NOA will integrate initiatives to boost public consciousness regarding child labour;
The Agency will implement particular programmes devised in collaboration with Accel Africa and the NOA aimed at alleviating the issue of child labour in Nigeria.
The Durban Call to Action, which seeks to hasten collaborative efforts to avert and eliminate child labour, especially its most severe forms, end child labour in agriculture, ensure the right to education for every child, and attain universal access to social protection, corresponds with the Accel Africa initiative in Nigeria, which concentrates on the three states of Ondo, Osun, and Niger.
