The ILO organised another Child Labour Forum at Sigatoka’s Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort from Monday February 25th to Wednesday February 27th. All stakeholders to the TACKLE Project the Ministries of Education, Labour and Social Welfare,the Juvenile Unit, Human Trafficking Unit, Bureau of Stats, Fiji Commerce & Employers Federation , FTUC, Save the Children Fund, Partners in Community Development, Homes Of Hope and other notable NGOs were present.

They each were partners to eliminating Child Labour in their own way through access to the communities they serve or represent.

The meeting was opened by the EU Representative in Fiji, Jerome Pons, and guest speakers were the ILO Director, David Lamotte and the Minister of Labour, Jone Usamate with relevant ministries’ Permanent Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries also in attendance.

Organizations shared their experiences and challenges faced in trying to eliminate child labor and other participants were requested to comment on the progress of the projects and propose good practices from their experiences that could be implemented.

The FTUC made a comprehensive presentation on the current TACKLE Project,-what worked and what did not, outlining future activities yet to be completed. We also highlighted the need for sustainability of activities under the project to ensure its full implementation and success.

The meeting ended with recommendations made to ILO to secure additional funding to undertake activities on a bigger scale and that those were sustainable and promoted local ownership of activities.

The FTUC delegation comprised of the TACKLE Project Coordinator Ms Jotika Sharma, FTU General Secretary Mr Agni Deo Singh and President Mr Gounder. National CL Forum groupshot_25th -27th Feb