Development Network

Call for Proposals to fight Child Labour

By Development Network, on Sep 2^nd, 2010

As part of the “Investing in People” Programme, the European Commission has launched a call for proposals to providing funding to projects fighting child labour in developing countries. Accordingly, child labour worldwide is causing terrible hardships for children leading to their exploitation and risking their lives to work hazards. It is also damaging their physical, mental and emotional growth. Children also succumb to worst forms of child labour such as trafficking, armed conflict, slavery, sexual exploitation and hazardous work.

The European Commission has adopted several approaches for promoting the rights of children at the international level. “The EU Guidelines on the Rights of the Child 5 underline that child labour, as one of global problems, needs to be tackled by the EU in its external policy towards children.” “In June 2009 the Fourth European Forum on the Rights of the Child7 focussed on how to effectively address child labour, in particular in the EU’s external relations, through EU instruments by addressing the theme of child labour both from the perspective of social protection and from the angle of corporate social responsibility (CSR).”

Under this context, this call for proposals has been issued to address the child labour problem by advocating effective policies and strengthen partnerships especially with the private sector by promoting the CSR against child labour.

Objectives and Priorities: Fighting Child Labour -EC Call for Proposals

The European Commission’s call for proposals to fight child labour has an overall objective of contributing towards eradicating child labour. Specifically, it seeks to “promote effective policy dialogue aimed at eradicating child labour, bringing victims of child labour, trafficking or violence into full-time quality education/vocational-education training and reintegrating them into society” and “to support partnership and networking between key stakeholders, in particular non-State actors, public entities and the private sector, by promoting corporate social responsibility in the area of child labour.”

Funding will be prioritized to project actions that:

1. Promote the ratification and implementation through legislation and enforcement of ILO

•              conventions against child labour: Conventions 29 on forced labour, 105 on the abolition of forced

•              labour, 182 on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour and 138 on the minimum age for admission to employment.

Activities under this priority may include:

•              Lobbying, advocacy and awareness raising activities to advance the ratification;

•              Support to the development and monitoring of effective measures to implement the ILO conventions against child labour;

2. Link child labour and social protection. Activities under this priority may include:

•              Identification, exchange and dissemination of best practices, lessons learned and innovative approaches for strengthening and monitoring the development and implementation of social protection policies to fight child labour and reduce children’s vulnerability, including gender-specific vulnerability;

•              Awareness raising and campaigning;

•              Promotion of children’s educational attainment;

•              Enhancement of socio-economic safety nets for families and communities, including policies on prevention and reintegration of victims of child labour;

•              Capacity building of local non-State actors in beneficiary countries.

3. Sustain Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) against child labour.

Activities under this priority may include:

•              Creation and strengthening of partnerships and networking between non-State actors, government policy-making institutions, agencies and local authorities, private companies, local communities, child ombudspersons at local, national and/or international level.

•              Activities to encourage, develop, implement and monitor social protection interventions and projects preventing and/or countering child labour;

•              Awareness raising about responsibilities of private companies and duty bearers vis-à-vis children’s rights and assistance to child labour victims;

•              Monitoring of private companies’ social behaviour and duty bearers’ policies and actions, elaboration of codes of conducts, monitoring and independent verification of companies’ behaviours and advocacy on CSR policies and research on child labour.

Call for Proposals against Child Labour

Participation and involvement of children in a sustainable manner in project actions against child labour will render added value to proposals under this EC call for proposals fighting child labour. The child participation methodologies and approaches should be developed in such a manner that they should “effectively foster genuine and meaningful child participation that is based on clear purposes that are well understood by participating children and adults, is of voluntary nature and takes children’s views seriously while promoting these within safe mechanisms and structures for consultation.”

The other necessary requirement for applying for this call is partnership. Partnership is critical to implementing actions under the call and partnerships can be with local NGOs, government organizations and private companies. There is particular importance attached to the quality of partnership.

Expected Results:

Some of the expected results are:

•              Increased ratification of ILO conventions against child labour and greater effectiveness in their application

•              Enhanced understanding, stronger analysis and greater dissemination of effective policy choices, best

•              practices and lessons learned impacting on both preventing and combating child labour are based on

•              sound integration of social protection measures for children and their communities;

•              Increased public-private partnership and networking to effectively combat child labour;

•              Greater recognition and support of the added value of children’s participation by stakeholders and duty-bearers of children’s rights.

•              Stronger capacity of local non-State actors in the area of prevention and combating child labour.

•              More Information: EC Call for Proposals against Child Labour

•              The minimum amount of the grant request is EUR 250,000 and the maximum amount is EUR 1,000,000. The European Commission will fund up to 80% of the total costs of the project and the remaining has to be financed from other sources of funding. However, in exceptional cases, it can also fund more than 80% of the project costs or even providing full funding to the project provided that there is sufficient justification from the applicant.

•              This is a restricted call for proposals which means that all applicants should initially submit only concept notes. Full proposals will only be requested from selected applicants only based upon the review of the concept notes. The application format for the concept note is available in the Grant application form at below link.

•              All applicants submitting concept notes should be registered at PADOR. For registering at PADOR, visit this link. At the full application stage, the partners mentioned in the proposal should also be registered in it.

•              Concept notes have to be submitted by email (given in the grant guidelines document).

•              The deadline to submit concept notes is 10 September 2010.

•              For information about grant guidelines and the grant application form, visit this link.