The Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Hon Ignatius Baffour Awuah together with Director General of International Labour Organisation (ILO), Gilbert Houngbo and two Federal Ministers of Germany,  Svenja Schulze and Hubertus Heil has signed a joint declaration of intent to curb the menace of Child Labour and Illegal Migration in Ghana.

The Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Svenja Schulze and Minister of Labour and Social Development, Hubertus Heil were accompanied by the German Ambassador, Daniel Krull and the Head of the European Union Delegation to Ghana, Irchad Razaaly. 
 
A letter of intent was signed to deepen their commitment in curbing child labour in the cocoa supply chain and illegal migration in the country.   According to Hon. Baffour Awuah, exposing the child to extreme hazardous activities is not accepted by law in any country and for that matter Ghana.   He noted that hazardous activity framework which lists activities that qualifies child labour is under review to give children enhanced protection from activities that inhibit their development and  “very soon we will outdoor a new hazardous activities framework to guide the fight against child labour to help us have a deeper understanding of works that constitute child labour” he stated.

The Minister for Employment and Labour Relations made this known when the Director General of ILO Gilbert F. Houngbo and the two Federal minsters for Economic Cooperation and Development, Hon. Svenja Schulze and Labour and Social Affairs, Hubertus Heil paid a three day courtesy call on Monday, 20th February to Wednesday, 23rd February, 2023 in Accra.

He indicated that Government is committed to implement policies that would stamp out child labour and ensure that children have opportunities to develop their potential. He however stated that under the hazardous framework not all activities especially light work were considered as child labour.  He further indicated that several measures have been introduced by the Government since 2006 to ensure that no child is disadvantaged when it comes to education. This include introduction of capitation grant at the basic level where no school going child pays fees to access education, the free Senior High School etc.

The Hon. Minister called on the dignitaries to guard against adopting sectorial approach to tackling the menace of child labour in the cocoa supply chain but all-inclusive approach in the fishing and artisanal mining in fighting child labour.  He mentioned that Ghana has leveraged on the expertise of other countries in the area of sensitization of the citizens on illegal migration because some Ghanaians cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe and in the process lose their lives.  He added that the middle belt of Ghana which is the epicentre of illegal migration has the Public Employment Centres refurbished to educate citizens on illegal migration.

The two Federal Ministers said that Ghana and Germany is implementing global compact for migration which is safe, regular and can promote prosperity that benefits of both countries.  The joint initiative will also contribute to development-oriented management of migration and child labour by bridging existing information gap as well as building capacities of state and non-state stakeholders. 

On his part, Mr. Houngbo said about 75 percent of child labour occurred in the agriculture sector and therefore it was important for countries to take serious steps to deal with this menace.  He said one way to deal with child labour was to help reduce the levels of poverty so that children could have opportunities to thrive. He further stated that there is a big nexus between a child and poverty and noted the more we address the root cause of poverty, the better in dealing with child labour.

As part of the visit, Minister Schulze and Minister Heil together with the Head of the European Union Delegation to Ghana, Irchad Razaaly renamed the Ghanaian Centre for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration to the Ghanaian-European Centre for Jobs, Migration and Development.