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Convening stakeholders to develop and implement strategies to reduce child labor in artisanal and small-scale gold mining - Final Evaluation

eval_number:

2563

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/2563

good_practices:

replication:

-

cause_effect:

.

themes:

theme:

Child labour

category:

Child labour, forced labour, human trafficking and slavery

---

context:

-

description:

The evaluation team considers the transformation of Malaya to be not only a good practice but a case study for how poorly managed ASGM operations can be transformed. In 2015, Human Rights Watch (HRW) produced a documentary based on interviews with children in Malaya. HRW found that children worked in unstable 25-meter-deep pits, mined gold underwater, along the shore, or in rivers, with oxygen tubes in their mouths (compressor mining). They also processed gold with mercury risking irreversible health damage from mercury poisoning. HRW also documented local rivers and streams colored milky white from mercury contamination. The project provided technical assistance to the Malaya mining association to adopt mercury-free ore processing and education on why child labor is detrimental to children and families. The project also organized a visit to another mining community to learn about agriculture. As a result of the project interventions, the Malaya mining association decided to use mercury-free methods (gravity concentration), ban children from working in the mines and provide them with education opportunities, and improve working conditions in the mines. The association also decided to invest in diversifying its livelihood strategy by introducing agriculture such as coconut trees and coconut products and animal farming such as ducks, chickens, goats, and fish. Malaya has served as a case study for how SSM can make transformations. Malaya can serve future ILO and USDOL CL prevention projects with important lessons and examples of how mining communities with a history of CL and environmental problems can transform themselves by addressing these issues with creative and focused actions. The evaluators consider Malaya to be a candidate for a case study activity to identify and document the factors that contributed to the transformation, which can be applied to similar situations in other projects implemented or funded by the ILO and USDOL.

links:

-

indicators:

-

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/practices/218650

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location:

country:

Inter-Regional

region:

Inter-Regional

---

eval_title:

Convening stakeholders to develop and implement strategies to reduce child labor in artisanal and small-scale gold mining - Final Evaluation