Anti-child labor advisory body meets to strengthen ARISE project

With support from the ILO-Japan's ARISE-Child Labour Project, the Project Advisory and Review Committee (PARC) led by the Ministry of Labor and Employment in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao held its first meeting for the calendar year 2024 in Cotabato City Monday.

The PARC discussed the progress and initial outcomes of the ongoing awareness-raising initiatives such as the Child Labour Training for duty bearers and stakeholders, and the Supporting Children's Rights through Education, the Arts and the Media (SCREAM) roll-out.

Both trainings are implemented in BARMM with technical support from the ILO through its implementing partner, the IRDT. To date, over 530 duty bearers and stakeholders have been trained on child labor concepts and laws, while more than a hundred have been capacitated on SCREAM.

The PARC also reviewed their Terms of Reference and discussed the next activities under the ARISE-Child Labour Project, which include improving access to education, a community-based child labor monitoring system (CB-CLMS) and community infrastructure programs (CIP). The PARC members were encouraged to continue working together and further strengthen their collaboration by pooling their efforts to address a very complex issue such as child labor.

Director General Ross Alonto of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism (MTIT) and Director General Abdulrakman Asim of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) were present during the meeting, reconfirming their commitment to addressing child labor in the Bangsamoro region.

Various BARMM ministries and offices such as the MBHTE, MPOS, MILG, MPW, MTIT, MOST, BWC, BYC, BHRC, etc., and NGO such as CFSI were also represented during the meeting.

With funding support from the Government of Japan, the ILO is supporting the BARMM government to eliminate child labor through the ARISE-Child Labour Project.