As 2025 marks the glob­al year for the elim­i­na­tion of child labour un­der Tar­get 8.7 of the Unit­ed Na­tions Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals, Trinidad and To­ba­go is mak­ing strides in ad­dress­ing the is­sue.

The Min­istry of Labour (MOL), in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the In­ter­na­tion­al Labour Or­ga­ni­za­tion (ILO), has en­gaged a con­sul­tant to de­vel­op a na­tion­al pol­i­cy aimed at com­bat­ing child labour.

Dr. Kim­ber­ly-Ann Git­tens-Baynes has been ap­point­ed as the con­sul­tant for this ini­tia­tive, with the con­sul­tan­cy set to last nine months, cul­mi­nat­ing in the pol­i­cy’s com­ple­tion by No­vem­ber 2025. The pol­i­cy’s de­vel­op­ment aligns with the ob­jec­tives of the Na­tion­al Steer­ing Com­mit­tee for the Pre­ven­tion and Elim­i­na­tion of Child Labour, a mul­ti-stake­hold­er group com­mit­ted to safe­guard­ing chil­dren’s rights and well-be­ing.

At an in­tro­duc­to­ry meet­ing held on March 12, 2025, and chaired by Chief Labour In­spec­tor Spe­cial­ist Mr. Farouk Mo­hammed, Dr. Git­tens-Baynes pre­sent­ed her work plan to the Na­tion­al Steer­ing Com­mit­tee. Dur­ing the ses­sion, com­mit­tee mem­bers al­so out­lined on­go­ing ef­forts to com­bat child labour, in­clud­ing:

• For­ma­tion of sub-com­mit­tees in Trinidad and To­ba­go to de­vel­op in­ter-agency col­lab­o­ra­tion pro­to­cols.

• Es­tab­lish­ment of a To­ba­go-based sub-com­mit­tee to spear­head pub­lic aware­ness cam­paigns.

• Host­ing of con­sul­ta­tions to cre­ate Haz­ardous Child Labour and Light Work Lists.

• Strength­en­ing the ca­pac­i­ty of labour in­spec­tors to in­ves­ti­gate and pros­e­cute child labour vi­o­la­tions.

• Con­tin­ued pub­lic aware­ness ini­tia­tives.

• Or­ga­niz­ing fo­cus group ses­sions with key stake­hold­ers, in­clud­ing child en­tre­pre­neurs, child labour­ers (both lo­cal and mi­grant), and chil­dren en­gaged in fam­i­ly-run busi­ness­es.

• Mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­a­tion ef­forts, in­clud­ing da­ta-dri­ven ini­tia­tives to track child labour trends.

• Up­com­ing val­i­da­tion con­sul­ta­tions for the Haz­ardous Child Labour and Light Work Lists.

Dr. Git­tens-Baynes com­mend­ed the com­mit­tee for its proac­tive ap­proach, em­pha­siz­ing that their ef­forts are lay­ing a sol­id foun­da­tion for the pol­i­cy’s de­vel­op­ment. She ex­pressed en­thu­si­asm about work­ing along­side the team to ful­fill the Min­istry’s man­date of ad­dress­ing child labour through struc­tured pol­i­cy in­ter­ven­tions.

Ms. Re­sel Melville, ILO Co­or­di­na­tor for Child Labour and the or­ga­ni­za­tion’s lead on this ini­tia­tive, reaf­firmed the ILO’s com­mit­ment to pro­vid­ing both tech­ni­cal and fi­nan­cial sup­port. She stat­ed, “Trinidad and To­ba­go has been mak­ing con­sis­tent and sig­nif­i­cant progress in pro­tect­ing chil­dren from child labour. This pol­i­cy will fur­ther strength­en frame­works for tan­gi­ble pro­grams and ac­tions, el­e­vat­ing our com­mit­ments and en­sur­ing re­al, last­ing im­pact.”

In a state­ment, the Min­istry of Labour high­light­ed the sig­nif­i­cance of this ini­tia­tive, stat­ing, “These ef­forts po­si­tion Trinidad and To­ba­go on the path­way to pro­vid­ing chil­dren with the pro­tec­tion they re­quire, en­sur­ing they achieve their full po­ten­tial and are safe from un­der­aged or haz­ardous em­ploy­ment.”

The Min­istry of Labour is cur­rent­ly prepar­ing for the sec­ond phase of its Na­tion­al Mul­ti­par­tite Con­sul­ta­tion on the De­vel­op­ment of Haz­ardous Child Labour and Light Work Lists. This ini­tia­tive aims to en­sure the health, safe­ty, and rights of chil­dren un­der 18 who are em­ployed in var­i­ous sec­tors.