BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The International Labour Organization (ILO) says it will be undertaking a South-South Cooperation Mission to St. Lucia and Brazil later this week.
The ILO said that the visits to St. Lucia from yesterday and today and Bahamas 9-10, are being undertaken in collaboration with the government of Brazil.
“This is the first of several planned missions within the framework of a regional capacity-building project for the Caribbean countries that are members of the ILO’s Regional Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour,” the ILO said in a statement.
It said the project, which focuses on apprenticeships, including school-to-work transition, as a response to child labour issues, commenced in July 2016 with the launch of Rapid Assessments of Child Labour in the Bahamas, Guyana, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.
The visiting delegation will be comprised experts and officials from the Ministry of Labour and Employment, and the Ministry of Education of Brazil, the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC); and the ILO Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean and ILO Brazil.
As part of the Mission, the national Departments of Labour, in collaboration with their respective Ministries of Education, have organized seminars and site visits that will allow for more in-depth information sharing by the Brazilian team and discussions with local stakeholders.
“The exercise will also be used to explore and identify other specific opportunities for the countries to receive targeted technical assistance from the Government of Brazil in the area of school-to-work transition,” the ILO added.