2021 marks International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour (IYCL).

In 2019, The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) unanimously adopted a resolution declaring 2021 as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. It is the time to Act – Inspire – Scale-Up.

Substantial progress towards the elimination of child labour has been achieved in recent years, largely because of intense advocacy and national mobilization backed by legislative and practical action. Between 2000 and 2016, there was a 38 per cent decrease in child labour globally. But progress has been uneven and insufficient; 152 million children are still in child labour.

The IYCL is an opportunity to reinvigorate efforts to achieve the global target to end child labour by 2025, agreed as the Sustainable Development Goal Target 8.7. IYCL was launched by Alliance 8.7 on 21 January 2021, under the banner: Act – Inspire - Scale Up, with a global call for Action pledges to end child labour by 2025. Alliance 8.7 is the official global partnership to achieve SDG Target 8.7. The International Labour Organization (ILO), is mandated to facilitate the organization and implementation of the International Year.

The COVID19 pandemic has made the challenge of eliminating child labour by 2025 even harder. Millions more children risk being pushed into child labour due to the COVID-19 crisis. This could lead to the first rise in child labour after 20 years of progress, according to a brief from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF: COVID-19 and Child Labour: a time of crisis, a time to act.

The purpose of this E-learning course is to enhance the understanding of participants regarding the sustained eradication of child labour. The course will also assist key global and national level actors to determine actions to be undertaken on the occasion of the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour (IYCL) and beyond, paving the way for a world where no child is subject to child labour or exploitation.

As a result of this course participants will have:

• Enhanced their  understanding of child labour, and the means of eradicating it
• Gained insights into best practice to address COVID-19 challenges to sustain the eradication of child labour
• Become more familiar with the key policy responses, global partnership platforms as well as other intervention models that have proved effective in eliminating child labour
• Understood how organisations, governments and other actors can accelerate results and be more effective in reducing CL through partnerships, especially in the COVID-19 context
• Identified a network of actors with whom they can further engage regarding the challenges they are facing  and potential actions they and others  can contribute during IYCL, the Fifth Global conference on Child Labour (in 2022), and beyond

Some of the topics that will be covered by this E-learning course (tentative):  

• Module 1: What is child labour? How is it defined in international conventions, national law and in practice? The latest global estimates on child labour, focus sectors and regions, and the impact of COVID19
• Module 2: How to tackle child labour: what experience has demonstrated, examples of  intervention models to address child labour: Child Labour Monitoring, National Action Plans, Sectoral and Area-based approaches including Child Labour Free Zones, Tripartite Social Dialogue. Special attention to be devoted to settings where child labour is especially prevalent: agriculture, domestic work, extractive industries, informal economy.
• Module 3: What can you/your organization do about child labour working alone or in cooperation or partnership with others as a means of improving the impact of your actions and of accelerating results. Alliance 8.7, Child Labour Platform, International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture (IPPCLA).
• Module 4: Sharing ideas with your peers on moving forward after this E-learning course including in conjunction with International Year on Child Labour

This new E-learning course is aimed at the staff of Specialized Agencies of the United Nations System, of bi- and multilateral development agencies (especially those applying environmental and social safeguards in their work) as well as representatives of international and regional organizations, the private sector, civil society organisations, and ILO constituents. Representatives of Alliance 8.7 Pathfinder Countries or ILO Members States willing to become a pathfinder country are especially welcome.

• Direct engagement with global experts with decades of international experience child labour
• Opportunities to interact online and network with a  other actors  to share learning and best practices on how to tackle child labour  
• Gain access to online resources and good practices on child labour

The course consists of a number of online modules to be offered through the ITCILO eCampus online from 12 to 30 April 2021 for an estimated total of fifteen (15) learning hours.

The course is divided into different phases:

• Flexible self-guided online learning time: This takes place on the  on the online platform learning: Flexible (asynchronous) learning on eCampus platform of the course and is composed of compulsory readings, videos, self-paced modules and a weekly knowledge assessment
• ‘Real time' learning: Live interactive sessions and engaging video presentations by experts working on child labour, blended with individual and collaborative group exercises, peer-to-peer assessment and online technical forums on eCampus 
• End of course assignment: Individual assignment applying to the participants’ context. Participants who successfully complete all of the knowledge assessments and the final assignment will receive a Certificate of Participation.