International Workshop for Practitioners on Child Domestic Labour:
Promoting good practice in interventions

Bangkok, Thailand, 22-24 November 2004

Organised by:

Anti-Slavery International and Visayan Forum Foundation on behalf of the CWA Task Force on Child Domestic Work

Background

Child domestic workers are children (under 18 years) who work in other people�s households, doing domestic chores, caring for children, running errands and sometimes helping their employers to run small businesses from home. Child domestic workers are large in numbers, yet remain invisible and marginalized both economically and socially because of the myths still surrounding their employment. While it is conventional to regard domestic work as a �safe� form of employment, in reality a wide range of abuses � including physical, verbal and sexual � accompanies this type of work.

Children as young as five years old are in domestic service. Despite some children entering domestic work in the hope of continuing their schooling, most are deprived of opportunities for education and are working in conditions that can be considered amongst the worst forms of child labour. Worldwide, the majority of child domestic workers are girls, and many have been trafficked, or are in debt bondage.� Child domestic workers are isolated from their families and from opportunities to make friends � and are under the total control of employers whose primary concern is often not in their best interests as children.

While concern about the situation of child domestic workers is growing, in many parts of the world it is not being matched by real improvements in the lives of child domestic workers � and this is in part because government agencies, NGOs and others often do not know appropriate ways to intervene.

An international meeting of people working directly with child domestic workers is being organised from 22-24 November 2004 in Bangkok (Thailand) as part of a three year project being implemented by Anti-Slavery International and project partners in Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean.[1] The project follows on from the work of Anti-Slavery International and its partners in promoting research and advocacy on child domestic labour since the early 1990s.

The overall objective of the project is to identify what interventions are most useful to child domestic workers and which offer them the best protection from abuse and exploitation.[2] It is intended that by identifying what interventions work and don�t work, and why � we can: (1) improve the quality and scope of services currently provided to child domestic workers and to their employers, parents and other stakeholders; (2) help NGOs and others who want to intervene to consider the most appropriate and effective support they can give to child domestic workers; (3) encourage organisations to develop local service projects.

In order to fulfil these objectives Anti-Slavery International and its partners have designed a series of activities to promote and provide the tools for good practice in interventions in this sector. This� involves: (1) mapping existing interventions from around the world; (2) gathering and disseminating the views and experiences of child domestic workers; (3) sharing of information and experience amongst practitioners for the benefit of others providing services or intending to intervene in this sector � through an international practitioners meeting and subsequent handbook on good practice; (4) developing region-specific training materials to build local practitioner capacity; and (5) through field exchange programmes to encourage local organisations to take action.

Objectives of the meeting

The international practitioners meeting is a venue for those with direct experience of working with child domestic workers to come together, share experiences and to define good practices in this sector. Specifically, the meeting has the following objectives:

1. To provide information for a handbook on �good practices� in intervening to improve the situation of child domestic workers, especially actions that minimize their vulnerability to exploitation and abuse and which enable them to make decisions about their future.

2. To create a stimulating environment for practitioners to share information, ideas, experiences and lessons learned on practical measures to improve the situation of child domestic workers.

3. To strengthen the �network� of NGOs and others working with and for child domestic workers.

Interventions that will be discussed at the meeting will include:

� Crisis intervention methods. For example, medical, counselling, places of safety/shelter, hotlines, practical assistance to victims of trafficking, removal/rescue and access to legal redress;

� Interventions which improve conditions of work for older children. For example, codes of conduct, mediation, regular contact with employers, social security assistance, registration;

� Rehabilitation/reintegration interventions. For example, counselling, returning to families, skills and vocational training, schooling;

� Prevention methods. For example, with parents and communities of origin, income generation/micro-finance initiatives, education;

� Outreach and organising among CDWs and adult domestic workers to better protect themselves and monitor abuses.

� Education strategies. This is a cross-cutting theme.

In examining different interventions the meeting will explore practitioner responses to a number of issues, in particular:

� How to better identify the needs of child domestic workers;

� How to involve child domestic workers in the design and implementation of services;

� How to make services more accessible to the youngest and most isolated children;

� How to improve communication between local-level service providers;

� How to develop child protection systems for service users;

� How to ensure that interventions are consistent with international legal standards.

How will the views and experiences of child domestic workers be represented in the international practitioners meeting?

The meeting will be informed and guided by the results of an earlier process of consultation with more than 200 child domestic workers and former child domestic workers from more than 10 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America - which has involved listening to their views and experiences about their individual situations and about what interventions helped them most and least. The project was designed in this way, as this approach was considered to be more participative, more representative and less traumatic than involving a small number of child delegates in the international practitioners� meeting.

Since child domestic workers will not be present at the meeting, even greater effort will be made by the organisers to ensure that the results of the consultations are central to the agenda and play an important part in discussions. In addition to playing a defining role in the output of the meeting, the results of the consultations will also be used in their raw form as material for developing the good practice handbook. It is in this way that the experience and opinions of child domestic workers will influence the process and outcome of the international practitioners� meeting and the good practice handbook.

Proposed participants

Key: * = French speaking; # = Spanish speaking

	Africa	Asia	Latin America/ Caribbean	Others	Support staff
1	ESAM (Benin) *	Ain O Salish Kendra (Bangladesh)	Cedeca Ema�s, (Brazil) # (can participate in Spanish?)	Anti-Slavery International (Organiser) 1	Logistics organiser
2	Sinaga Centre (Kenya)	VCAO (Cambodia)	Taller Abierto (Colombia) #	Anti-Slavery International (Organiser) 2	Elizabeth Protacio de Castro (evaluation team)
3	BAYTI (Morocco) *	Arunodhaya (India)	Defensa de los Ni�os Internacional (Costa Rica) #	Visayan Forum Foundation (Organiser)	Agnes Camacho (evaluation team)
4	Kivulini (Tanzania)	National Domestic Workers Movement (India)	Foyers Maurice Sixto (Haiti) *	Comic Relief � funder	Maggie Black � meeting rapporteur
5	Kiwohede (Tanzania)	Rumpun Tjoet Njak Dien (Indonesia)	Dos Generaciones (Nicaragua) #	Oak Foundation � funder	Documentor � still to be identified
6	Kuleana (Tanzania)	YKAI (Indonesia)	IDEMI (Panama) #	CWA	Lead Facilitator 1 (Visayan Forum)
7	WAO Afrique (Togo) *	CWIN (Nepal)	�Global Infancia (Paraguay) #	? ECPAT International	Facilitator 2 � CWA
8	WAYS (Uganda)	CWISH (Nepal)	Asociaci�n Grupo de Trabajo Redes (Peru) #	? ILO/IPEC (up to 3 staff - at own expense)	Facilitator 3 (Anti-Slavery International)
9	Participant to be decided	SACH (Pakistan)	CESIP (Peru) #	? Save the Children	Translator 1 (whispering translation -French)
10		Visayan Forum Foundation (Philippines)		? PLAN Asia	Translator 2 (whispering translation � French)
11		SLIMG (Sri Lanka)		? UNICEF	Translator 3 (whispering translation � Spanish)
12		Foundation for Child Development (Thailand)			Translator 4 (whispering translation � Spanish)
13					Translator 5 (whispering translation � Spanish)

Draft outline agenda

Reminder: for the purposes of this project �Interventions� = activities with child domestic workers that have a direct impact.

Day 1:

• Introductory session:

- Welcomes;

- Introductions � organisers, funders, facilitators, translators, support staff, meeting rapporteur, documentor, partners, participants;

- Meeting working methods;

- Expectations; [Highlighting the importance of reflecting on what the results of the consultations � what child domestic workers have said]

• �Levelling off� session:

- Presentation on overview of current situation, range/scope of current interventions and areas of debate (Anti-Slavery International);

- Presentation on project � objectives, activities, results of baseline survey and consultations with child domestic workers and former CDWs (Anti-Slavery International)

• Group work: responses to presentations in sub-regional groups � share understanding of regional situation, provide feedback on results of baseline survey and consultations

• Plenary: sharing results of group work

• �Marketplace� or other method for ensuring that organisations have the opportunity to share what they are doing - Either in one go (e.g. Day 1 afternoon), or scattered throughout three days)

• Review of day 1

Dinner for all participants hosted by organisers

Day 2:

• Summary of day 1 and plans for day 2

• Presentations by partners: types of intervention on CDL

- Outreach (WAO Afrique?)

- Education (DNI Costa Rica?)

- Centre-based interventions (Asociacion. Grupo de Trabajo Redes?)

- Initiatives by child domestic workers (Visayan Forum Foundation?)

- Community initiatives (Kivulini?)

• Exploring participants/ experiences:
• What are the similarities between our interventions, and what is unique?
• What makes an effective strategy? /What interventions work best and why?

• Results of consultations: what child domestic workers think
• Discussion

• What works? What makes an effective strategy?/What interventions work best and why?

• Who do we need to mobilise to best deliver services/interventions?

• Review of Day 2

Day 3:

• Summary of Day 2 and plans for Day 3

• International organisations: Opportunity for international organisations to share plans for activities on child domestic labour: including ILO/IPEC, Plan, Save the Children, UNICEF, etc etc.

• Open forum/discussion

• Where do we go from here? Rapporteur to present preliminary workshop conclusions and draft outline of interventions handbook. Followed by Discussion.

• Presentation about next steps for project, and open forum for feedback from participants on plans for field exchanges and training materials

• ? Opportunity for regional/sub-regional planning and networking

Solidarity night

MEETING ENDS

---

[1] Project partners are: Defensa de los Ni�os Internacional, for Costa Rica and Central America; Foyers Maurice Sixto (Haiti); Grupo de Trabajo Redes, for Peru and for South America; Visayan Forum Foundation, for Philippines and Asia - as Convenor of CWA Asian Regional Task Force on Child Domestic Workers; WAO Afrique, for Togo and West Africa; Kivulini, for Tanzania and East Africa.

[2] By �intervention� is meant any practical activity which has an impact on the child�s situation. It refers mainly to services which are provided to child domestic workers and which are intended to improve their situation. Interventions are taken to include: crisis intervention methods; activities to improve conditions of work for older children; rehabilitation/reintegration methods; activities to prevent children from entering/continuing with domestic service; outreach and organising activities.