Jamaica Among 10 Countries Where CLRM Has Been Piloted

Jamaica is among 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in which the Child Labour Risk Identification Model (CLRM) has been piloted.    

The CLRM was developed by the International Labour Organizatiion (ILO) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and provides the opportunity for countries to take a proactive approach in addressing critical issues, such as child labour.     

Recently, Jamaica launched the International Year for the elimination of Child Labour.  This was done against the background of Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which speaks to taking immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and the elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and the use of child soldiers, and to end child labour in all its forms by 2025.    

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security has been collaborating with local and international stakeholders, such as the United States Department of Labour, ILO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), to provide a caring and supporting environment to prevent children from being abused.  

The Ministry has also developed a National Action Plan to eliminate child labour, which was done through rigorous and consistent consultation with all stakeholders. During her presentation at the launch of the International Year for the elimination of Child Labour, Senior Statistician at the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN), who also serves as a member of the National Steering Committee on Child Labour, Ieesha Graham McIntosh, said the CLRM is the first of its kind in Jamaica and will help the country in its drive to eliminate child labour.   

Explaining how the CLRM was formulated for Jamaica, Ms. Graham McIntosh disclosed that data from the Jamaica Youth Activity Survey (JYAS), conducted in 2016; the 2011 Population and Housing Census and administrative records from ministries, department and agencies (MDAs) were used.   

The JYAS, which commenced in January 2016, was conducted by STATIN in partnership with the ILO.  

A sample size of 8,693 dwellings was surveyed and from this amount, 4,271 had children aged five to 17 and of that number, 74.6 per cent of the households responded to the survey instrument.    

Ms. Graham McIntosh pointed out that the objectives of the survey were to collect comprehensive information on children engagement in economic activities; improve information on working children, child labour and hazardous work at the national and regional levels; and strengthen the capacity of the Government of Jamaica to conduct future data collection, research and analysis in the child labour area on a sustainable basis.   

She added that the information collected is also useful in monitoring the SDG Target 8.7. According to the Senior Statistician, the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child and the ILO Convention 182, on the worst forms of child labour, designate individuals less than 18 years as children.   

Therefore, a child aged five to 17 years is considered working if he or she is engaged for at least one hour during the reference period in the production of economic goods and or services, whether for pay or profit or without pay in a family farm or business. A child is also considered to be working if he or she did not work but had a job or business from which he or she was temporarily absent. 

Child labour refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children and interferes with their schooling.  

“The CLRM is a tool that is useful to design and implement child labour-prevention strategies with impact on a local level, as a key instrument for the use in the context of the agreed Policy Acceleration Framework for the elimination and prevention of child labour,” said Ms. Graham McIntosh.    

She further explained that the model identifies the geographical areas of Jamaica with a more probability of child labour and estimates the weight of risk indicators. It also determines on which geographical areas and population groups prevention efforts must be focused and defined, and which multisectoral actions are more relevant in breaking the child labour trajectory.    

Implementation of the model begins with identifying child labour-related factors that allow for estimating the probability of the occurrence of child labour.  The next step is the elaboration of the logistic model using data from the 2016 JYAS.  

Ms. Graham McIntosh pointed out that the logistic regression statistical model is then integrated with the most recent data from the 2011 Population and Housing Census to develop territorial characterisation in the form of maps. These maps identify geographical areas and population groups of focus towards the elimination of child labour in Jamaica. 

“The logistic regression statistical model estimates the probability of child labour occurrence, based on a set of variables that allow us to predict if a child works or does not work,” Ms. Graham McIntosh said. Determinants used in the model for Jamaica were sex, age, place of residence – classified as urban or rural – whether children in the home had siblings who attended school or did not attend school.  

The education level of the head of the household, their work situation, the industry in which they work, and the work situation of the spouse of the head were also factors used in the model.  

Results from the pilot done have shown that, currently, at the county level, the high-risk area for child labour in Jamaica is Surrey (Kingston, St. Andrew, St. Thomas and Portland). The ILO and UNICEF recently released the 2020 Global Estimates Report, which revealed that approximately 160 million children are presently engaged in child labour worldwide. It is reported that approximately 38,000 children aged five to 17 years are affected by Child labour in Jamaica.    

However, this amount excludes the “worst forms of child labour” other than hazardous work.  These forms of child labour include child trafficking, co-marital sexual exploitation, child slavery and the involvement of children in illicit activities.