Myanmar Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (My-PEC)

Through this programme, the ILO aims to establish a comprehensive, inclusive and efficient multi-stakeholder response to reducing child labor in Myanmar.

© ILO
The ILO’s Myanmar Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (My-PEC), a four-year project (2014-2017) funded by the US Department of Labour, endeavors to establish a comprehensive, inclusive and efficient multi-stakeholder response to reducing child labour in Myanmar by increasing awareness and knowledge about child labour, improving legislation and strengthen national and local capacity to address child labour in compliance with international standards. The project also seeks to improve the capacity of national and local networks and advocates to reduce child labour in target communities through direct interventions.

While the government of Myanmar ratified ILO Convention 182 in 2013, it lacks a model of direct interventions for child labourers, their households and their communities. The last component of My-PEC on direct services aims at developing, implementing and documenting replicable models of interventions in three selected communities of Myanmar.

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Ongoing efforts

  • Expanding knowledge base: The project provided support to the Labour Force Survey child labour report 2015 and conducted 5 key studies on child labour in the country. The project is currently conducting a Rapid Assessment on Child Domestic Work in Myanmar.
  • Increased Awareness Raising: The project is conducting awareness raising activities at the national and community levels to promote changes in the perception towards child labour and initiate a dialogue to properly address the issue. Since the beginning of the project, 87 awareness raising activities were conducted at national and community levels in different regions of Myanmar; 116 organizations participated in advocacy activities. World Day Against Child Labour on June 12 is commemorated yearly in Myanmar with the support of the project. The ILO programme Support the Children’s Rights through Education, Arts and the Media (SCREAM) has been translated into Myanmar language and is used by Community Based Organizations in different regions of the country.
  • Improved laws and capacity: MyPEC conducted a Legal review in 2015 that is regularly updated; Support to the Government, workers and wmployers organizations was provided for Myanmar first report on ILO convention 182; MyPEC is currently assisting the Government in the determination of the Hazardous Work List and the development of the National Action Plan on Child Labour as required by ILO C182.
  • Capacity Building on advocacy and networking: Capacity building to tackle child labour is provided to key stakeholders at national and subnational levels in order to encourage the mainstreaming of child labour concerns in ongoing and future. The project provides support to the Technical Working Group on Child Labour (TWGCL) that meets quarterly. The TWGCL is composed of Government, Worksers and Employers Organizations, Civil Society, INGO and UN Agencies.
  • Pilot Interventions in Target areas: The pilot direct services, implementing at village tract/ward level starting 2016, aim to increase the participation of child labourers and at risk children in quality education, increase access of children above minimum age for employment to safe work, and reduce vulnerability of target households to child labour. My-PEC is aiming at providing direct services to a total of 3,600 children or 1,200 children each from Dagon (Myothit) Seikkan Township, Yangon Region; Labutta Township, Ayeyarwady Region; and Ye Township, Mon State since 2016. These services must be able to remove 1,440 from the worst forms of child labour and to successfully prevent 2,160 who are at high risk of becoming child labourers.