In 2016, Panama identified 23 855 boys, girls and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 17 in child labor and an incidence rate of 2.5%, the lowest in its history. Part of this achievement is sustained by the work and commitment of the International Labor Organization (ILO) which, with the support of the United States Department of Labor (USDOL), between 2012 and 2018 provided technical assistance for the development of effective tools and practices to reduce the number of children involved in child labor.

Under this cooperation agreement, and in coordination with the Ministry of Labor and Labor Development (MITRADEL), a strategy was implemented aimed at strengthening the capacities of local public actors and improving the effective withdrawal of children and adolescents from the child labor; in the same way, it contemplated the provision of specific services to vulnerable households exposed to child labor.

In addition to the permanent technical assistance from the ILO, it is worth highlighting the support provided by the Partners of the Americas organization , which provided educational services that have allowed 2,700 Panamanian girls and boys to be withdrawn from child labor through initiatives such as the application of the Quantum Learning methodology .

However, the applied strategy also achieved achievements at the public administrative level, since it has made more than 200 officials from 12 institutions work in an articulated and coordinated manner under the same objective.

Among the achievements, in 2016, the updating of the list of hazardous jobs under a simple and cross-cutting approach that facilitates the identification of hazardous activities stands out. For this, it counted with the collaboration of public institutions, employers 'and workers' organizations and civil society.

Local care routes were also created to better manage the care and restitution of the rights of working children and adolescents. Its application implied the prior realization of a free training course for officials involved in the identification of cases of child labor and provision of services. Until 2018, 155 people were trained and nine local care routes were implemented.

These routes also helped identify the weaknesses of some institutions and improve their actions and services against child labor. An example is the National Secretariat for Children, Adolescents and the Family (SENNIAF), which was able to update its procedures and incorporate new ones to verify the status of withdrawal of child labor.

Another of the actions to be highlighted is the review and update of digital tools for the development of a child labor registry and monitoring system, which was considered in the construction of the SENNIAF route of restitution of rights for child labor cases.

All of this has been key to taking advantage of the favorable trend in the reduction of child labor in the country, reducing political gaps, taking into account and serving the most vulnerable children, and positioning Panama as one of the countries closest to declare yourself free from child labor.

To learn more about the actions implemented within the framework of the cooperation agreement, the ILO makes available a publication that summarizes the various actions carried out in Panama during the 2012-2018 period. In this way, the ILO demonstrates the strategic value of this type of alliances and initiatives and promotes their replication in other countries of the region to achieve Goal 8.7 of the 2030 Agenda on ending child labor by 2025.

To see the publication, go  here .

-------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- --------------

Related information notes:

• "Panama reduced to 2.5% child labor rate"
• "Panama launched two facilitating tools to end child labor in the country"