National Action Plan on Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Uganda 2012/13 - 2016/17.

The National Action Plan on Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour is a national policy with a multi-sectoral approach. This Plan primarily targets children engaged in the worst forms of child labour as well as Children at risk of Child Labour. The timeframe of the Plan is 6 years between 2012/2013 and 2016/2017. The overall goal of the Plan is to reduce the magnitude of the Worst Forms of Child Labour by 2017 by (i) promoting primary level education and increasing access to appropriate skills training programs for children, (ii) increasing access to social protection and social assistance services for households, (iii) raising public awareness on the causes and consequences of the worst forms of child labour, (iv) strengthening the legal, policy and institutional framework for prevention, (v) withdrawing and rehabilitating children engaged in the WFCL and integrating them back to their families and communities, and (vi) strengthening cooperation between among government, the employers and labour unions in addressing the problem of child labour.
In order to eliminate child labour in its worst forms, protective measures will be taken to prevent children from engagement in the worst forms of child labour in all sectors and to penalize those who exploit children’s labour in accordance with the law. Child labour issues will be mainstreamed into national policies and sector plans with a gender sensitive approach. Community based monitoring of child labour will be instituted with an effective coordinated data collection system at the national level to enable the analysis of changes in the prevalence of child labour. Access to education and vocational training for children will be increased to prevent child labour. Social and income security at the household level will be strengthened to reduce the dependency of households on children labour. Households will be trained to manage sustainable household income generating activities such as poultry keeping, animal rearing, bee-keeping and honey-making. Public awareness will be raised on the dangers and risks of child labour, the benefits of education, and the serious consequences of hazardous work for children. Institutional capacity building will be enhanced to enable effective delivery of elimination of child labour responsive programmes. Furthermore the capacity of Child Labour Unit will be enhanced to coordinate national child labour initiatives. A national communication strategy on child labour will be developed. Media campaigns on child labour will be conducted on print and electronic media. Cooperation between the key government agencies, employers’ and workers’ organisations, civil society and other partners will be developed to scale up action to combat child labour. Collective Bargaining Agreements between employers and unions will be promoted to prevent child labour among business enterprises. Programmes and activities will be implemented for withdrawal and rehabilitation of children involved in the worst forms of child labour and for referral and integration of them into school and within their communities. Child labour database will be harmonised with other child related databases. Monitoring and Evaluation system will be established for tracking elimination of child labour activities.
A National Steering Committee on Child Labour will provide national coordination and be comprised of the members from the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development and the Child Labour Unit. A Coordination Committee will be formed at the district level to improve partnership among the stakeholders. In order to ensure effective monitoring and evaluation system, reporting and feedback mechanisms will be established by the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development.