#EndChildLabour | - CCMAR -

#EndChildLabour

The United Nations has set 17 Sustainable Development Goals for Humanity to achieve by 2030. One of these goals, the Sustainable Development Goal 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth, includes a target that touches everybody's heart: "implement effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking, and secure the prohibition and elimination of all forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms". 
CCMAR is committed to contributing to this goal by promoting activities and initiatives to tackle school dropouts.

 

Initiative #EndChildLabour

This initiative aims to raise awareness among the population and school community about the problem of school dropouts and integration into the labour market of young people of school age (under 18) in the Algarve, and implement regional and national partnerships to mitigate this problem and end child labour in the region. The Algarve is one of the regions with the highest school dropout rates in the country, mainly between the ages of 15 and 17, and the integration of these young people into the regional labour market is strongly conditioned by the seasonal nature of the regional tourism economy. This regional context, added to the disproportional effect that the COVID19 pandemic is having on the region's economy, significantly increases the risk of school dropout of young people in affected families with less economic resilience, as well as the possibility of being exploited in precarious jobs and without any labour protections.

CCMAR joins a network of partners who are committed to "promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and dignified work for all" so that, by 2025 and in alignment with Sustainable Goal 8 of the United Nations 2030 agenda, end child labour in all its aspects in the region. This network of partners includes, in this first phase, the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Algarve, the Algarve Centre for Marine Sciences (CCMAR), the João de Deus School (AEJD), and the Escola de Paço de Arcos but intends to embrace more entities and partners in the region.  At the international level, this network of partners joins the Alliance 8.7, a global partner determined to achieve Goal 8.7 of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

 

How to participate in the #EndChildLabour initiative? 

All entities that wish to participate, including schools clusters, schools, municipal councils, associations and NGOs, research centres, universities and companies, should contact Rute Martins, the CCMAR researcher who is coordinating the initiative.