Girl child labour in agriculture, domestic work and sexual exploitation: rapid assessments on the cases of the Philippines, Ghana and Ecuador (vol. 1)

This study analyses the situation of girl child labour in three areas: agriculture, domestic work and sexual exploitation. Through a series of Rapid Assessments in the Philippines, Ghana and Ecuador, the study presents the following:assessment of the local magnitude of girl children in the three target sectorsdscription of the work processes, conditions and arrangements involved in the sectorsidentification of policies, programmes or initiatives that address the concerns of working girl-childrenrecommendations toward the formulation of appropriate policies and programmesThe study reviews the economic and social background of each and describes the infrastructure and legal framework relevant to each sector of work.Some main recommendations for each sector include:there is an urgent need for a multi stakeholder framework for action to address children in domestic work. The first step is to address the lack of national and institutional policies to combat child domestic work. It is not only necessary to set up a governmental framework for action, but also to involve a wide range of stakeholders in the policy making processmost child related policy interventions made in Ghana, Ecuador and the Philippines have excluded children in the design, planning, implementation, monitoring and follow-up phases. An effort should be made to ensure that the participation of children is integrated into the processes if future policies are to have any meaningful impactlocal government is in a better position to serve and protect the child worker in agriculture than regional or central agency of the national government. It can easily establish a registration programme so that the children and their employers may be identifiable, not only for purposes of facilitating research but for monitoring the withdrawal of children from the worst forms of child labour as well