The International Labour Organisation (ILO), through its International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has commissioned a two year project to assist the government of Ghana to reduce child labour to the barest minimum. The project dubbed “Support for the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour in the Cocoa sector” was launched in Juaboso last Friday, January 21st 2011. It will focus on the prevention and withdrawal of children from hazardous work on cocoa farms as well as providing additional livelihood support for vulnerable families and the establishment of a child labour monitoring system that will help ensure that rather than doing dangerous farm work, children will be in school Speaking at the ceremony, the Chief Technical Advisor of ILO in Ghana, Mr. Francesco d’Ovidio observed that about 215 million children were engaged in child labour globally, with 115 million of these in hazardous work. He explained that although child labour was still declining, the rate has slowed and if this continues the global goal of eliminating worst forms of child labour by 2016 will not be achieved. He said Agriculture is the sector in which the most children were engaged in labour, indicating that in Ghana about 57% of child labourers are in farming, fishing and/or forestry. Mr. d’Ovidio emphasized the need to ensure that the project is sustained through mainstreaming and local participation and ownership. The District Chief Executive Mr. Solomon Fauchie expressed government’s gratitude to the ILO support, indicating that the District was very concerned about the engagement of children in hazardous work. He mentioned that the District Assembly had mainstreamed child labour interventions into its medium term development policy and was already participating taking steps to stop the menace. The District Magistrate, Mr. Osei Kweku admonished the beneficiary communities to be wary of child labour perpetuators and help to enforce the law by reporting offenders to the appropriate authorities. The Project is being implemented by Kuapah Kokoo, under the auspices of the National Steering Committee on Child Labour. It will last two years. Source: Myjoyonline.com/Ghana