Name: Combating Exploitive Child Labor Through Education in Madagascar
Duration: September 30, 2008 – September 28, 2012
Donor: US Department of Labor (USDOL)**

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In Madagascar, exploitive child labor has increasingly become a nation-wide problem, with nearly 1.9 million child laborers forced to work in unhealthy and dangerous conditions. Recent years have seen an increased government response and the formation of the National Action Plan to Combat Child Labor.

The Worst Forms of Child Labor (WFCL) are found almost exclusively in the informal sector, which accounts for about 73% of the country’s economy. In 2005, a study by the International Labor Organization/International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour found that in the age bracket of 5 to 9 years, 20% of children work, while 50% of children ages 10 to 14 years work. The worst forms of child labor in Madagascar are mainly found in the commercial sexual exploitation of children, in stone quarries, in the mining sector, in domestic servitude, in the farm and fishing industry, and in dangerous and unhealthy urban and rural jobs.

Pact’s Approach
Pact’s strategy is to reinforce the National Action Plan to Combat Child Labor and improve Madagascar’s capacity to combat child labor in order to withdraw 4,500 children and preventing 4,500 children from entering WFCL. The program focuses on seven regions considered high priority: Alaotra Mangoro, Analamanga, Anosy, Atsinanana, Diana, Haute-Matsiatra and Vakinankaratra.

The root causes of child labor are poverty, a lack of schooling and cultural customs. Pact’s program addresses these three essentials elements using a holistic approach that 1) promotes and enables the education of children; 2) augments lasting alternative revenue streams for families; and 3) increases awareness and understanding of child labor legislation and its enforcement. In addition, Pact builds the capacity of the Madagascar government to gather and analyze statistical data and increase knowledge of the child labor situation.

Pact provides Direct Educational Services to targeted children. This includes the provision of school supplies, school fees, life skills training, nutritional support and education, and psychosocial counseling to reduce the pressures motivating child labor in the short term. Pact’s signature savings and literacy driven WORTH Empowerment Program then helps households sustainably increase their income and reduce financial stress in the long term, producing both immediate and lasting results.

To date, Pact has withdrawn and prevented up to 9,000 children from the worst forms of child labor, and among those 7,658 have been reintegrated into formal education. Moreover, 3,000 parents are now involved in Pact’s signature WORTH program.