Domestic Child Labor Prevention in Indigenous Populations

A delegation from Colombia’s Ministry of Labor travelled to Guatemala to learn more about the Guatemalan experience in approaching domestic child labor in indigenous populations. The themes treated included: decentralizing politics in indigenous territories and the methodologies used to seek the implementation of public policies in local governments’ development and action plans. The cooperation included an on-site visit to an indigenous community.
 
Some main results and lessons learned in this exchange were the leadership and active participation of Guatemala’s Ministry of Education in preventing and eradication child labor, the inclusion of prevention and eradication of child labor in the rural educational system, and the active participation of the target communities and their involvement in the formulation of the project. Colombia also identified the need to define approach lines by the Ministry of Labor and the wayuu indigenous community of the Uribia municipality in the Guajira, which is the objective community of the project developed in Colombia, and the need to identify and consolidate strategic alliances that through economic and human resources allow it to finance and carry out the project.