JAKARTA, 28 August 2020 – The ASEAN Secretariat, together with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), U.S. Mission to ASEAN and the International Labour Organization (ILO) on 26-27 August organised the Regional Inter-Sectoral Workshop on the Renewal of the ASEAN Roadmap for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour by 2025.

Over 80 participants from relevant ASEAN bodies and multiple stakeholders attended the virtual workshop to exchange views on regional issues, best practices, and challenges in improving workplace compliance towards zero child labour.

Participants discussed the ways forward and areas of cooperation to implement the ASEAN Roadmap in the next five years. The renewal of the Roadmap is built upon achievements of the previous Roadmap and aims to support a better quality of life for the people of ASEAN.

The Roadmap will boost ASEAN’s collective resilience and agility in promoting the livelihoods of the people and well-being of children in particular.

The workshop highlighted the stakeholders’ interest in cooperation in the following areas:

 (i) capacity building on how to detect and monitor child labour practices on the ground and develop effective sector-specific approaches;

(ii) sharing knowledge and strategies in eliminating child labour in agriculture and supply chain – where cases are high;

(iii) raising awareness to promote responsible consumers that will create pressure on the demand side;

(iv) promoting private companies’ compliance to international labour standards;

(v) strengthening the coherence of anti-child labour policies with other relevant sectoral policies and national action plans such as; poverty eradication and education;

(vi) improving labour inspection in hard-to-reach sectors and domestic work, where cases of child labour are often undetected and under-reported;

(vii) strengthening gender responsiveness of strategies and actions to eliminate child labour.

Representatives from the ASEAN Senior Labour Officials Meeting, ASEAN Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights, ASEAN Commission on Prevention and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children, Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime, Senior Officials Meeting on Social Welfare and Development, Senior Officials Meeting on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication, Senior Officials Meeting on Education, and Labour Inspectorates of ASEAN Member States participated the workshop.

Tripartite partners from the ASEAN Trade Union Council, ASEAN Confederation of Employers, and speakers from ILO, UNICEF, civil society and private companies were also present.

Moving forward, the Roadmap will be submitted to the ASEAN Labour Ministers for adoption. Under this project, a partnership conference involving various stakeholders is also planned in 2021 to discuss the Roadmap’s follow-up actions.