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Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, on Tuesday said Ghana is losing the fight against child labour, partly due to insufficient efforts to sustain the fight.

“It is either our efforts are not enough or we are pretending to be working and the problem keeps surfacing,” he said.

“We are losing the fight and it is an indictment on everyone, especially children who are at the receiving end.”

The Employment Minister was addressing Civil Society Organisations and other stakeholders at the validation of protocols and guidelines on the establishment of Child Labour Free Zone in Accra.

The event was sponsored by Government of Ghana, Deloitte-Japan, Action Against Child Exploitation and International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Mr Awuah asked stakeholders to sit-up and carry-out interventions that would have bigger impacts to help reduce the occurrence and not the contrary.

After 10 years of the existing protocol, he said figures on child labour meant efforts of government and Non-Governmental Organisations were not yielding the results needed.

He called for collaboration with relevant stakeholders to ensure a child labour free home, community, district, region and country.

The Minister tasked stakeholders to report any form of slavery in the communities for action, especially activities of some families who sent their children to work against their will to pay debts of parents.