From April 24 to 26, the third meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development will take place in the city of Santiago, Chile. This event, sponsored by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), is a regional space to monitor and evaluate progress in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, as well as to follow up on the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development.

During the forum, governments, the private sector and civil society will meet with ECLAC, development banks and other United Nations agencies with the aim of identifying common goals, exchanging good practices and promoting mutual learning to face the challenges. in the implementation, institutionalization, planning and budget allocation for the 2030 Agenda. 

The conclusions and recommendations resulting from the meeting will be presented to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, as one of the regional contributions to the global monitoring and evaluation process of the 2030 Agenda. 

Within this framework, the International Labor Organization (ILO), in its capacity as technical secretariat of the Regional Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labor, will hold today the side event “Put an end to child labor. Innovating in interagency action to achieve Target 8.7 in Latin America and the Caribbean ”. This panel will be broadcast live from the @SinTrabinfantil account   on Twitter at 1:00 p.m. in Chile (GMT-4).

The achievement of Target 8.7 on ending child labor by 2025 is interconnected with the achievement of 35 other targets of the 2030 Agenda; Therefore, to achieve it, the involvement of various actors committed to the different areas of development is required. 

In this sense, the parallel event will discuss the results in addressing the key issues associated with the persistence of child labor in the region, which have been achieved through collaboration between agencies of the United Nations system, such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and ECLAC.

The agencies in question, in coordination with the ILO and the Regional Initiative, have worked together to generate knowledge, strengthen capacities and develop tools for creating evidence-based policies against child labor, among others. 

Specifically with FAO, coordinated work has been carried out with its offices in Chile and Rome, which has made it possible to carry out subregional workshops on agriculture and child labor. Also, the  first regional study on agriculture and child labor was completed  and the virtual course "Putting an end to child labor in agriculture" was adapted into Spanish.

With the IOM, studies have been carried out on the link between migrant children and child labor, as well as on human trafficking and labor exploitation. In addition, forums and events have been organized  in Central America  and an interagency group on migrant children has been formed. 

On the other hand, with ECLAC, a project on child labor, poverty and inequality has been implemented, which includes information on regional trends in child and adolescent labor and the development and implementation of  the Child Labor Risk Identification Model . 

In this way, the Regional Initiative aims to demonstrate the value and benefits of cooperation and coordinated interagency action to generate, based on a joint vision and analysis, inputs that help the constituents in decision-making and that promote the creation of innovative concrete proposals based on specialized experience. 

The panel will be made up of Juan Hunt, Officer in charge of the ILO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean; Rodrigo Martínez, Senior Officer of Social Affairs of ECLAC; Águeda Marín, IOM Senior Regional Specialist in Assistance and Protection to Migrants; Luiz Carlos Beduschi, FAO Rural Development Policy Officer; and, on behalf of the Regional Initiative, Zavia Mayne, Vice Minister of Labor and Social Security of Jamaica. 

Leaving no one behind is an objective shared by all the agencies and the constituent countries; Therefore, in line with the interdependent nature of the Sustainable Development Goals and their goals, promoting synergies to find solutions with greater impact is a potential way to build a better future and ensure the first generation free of child labor. 

In this sense, it is expected that the open dialogue between the participating agencies and the public will promote and provide better criteria to provide inter-agency responses that prioritize the groups, territories and productive sectors most vulnerable to child labor.