IPEC originated at a meeting in Bonn, in September 1990, between the ILO Director-General,
Michel Hansenne, and the German Labour Minister. The preparatory work carried out during 1991 led to the establishment of an initial programme. In
December 1991, ILO and the German Government signed an agreement on a
contribution amounting to 50 million Deutsch marks over five years. The
Programme was officially launched in 1992.
IPEC’s
overall objective is to gradually eliminate child labour by bolstering
national capacities to tackle the problem and to promote a global
anti-child labour movement. At present, IPEC acts through
technical cooperation in 88 countries. It is the most far-reaching programme of its kind worldwide and ILO’s largest operational programme.
Although IPEC’s initial objective was the gradual elimination of
child labour, it has since set as a priority the struggle against the worst
forms of child labour, as defined in the
Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182).