Yesterday heralded the launch of the social mobilisation partners against the worst forms of child labour.

The Social Mobilisation Partners Against Child Labour project has been initiated by the UN run International Labor Organisation to strengthen the relationship between social partners, faith-based organisations, NGO groups and government agencies to better facilitate their fight against the menace of child labour in our society.

"This is a platform to asses, evaluate and articulate our great concerns about child labour, no meaningful change can take place within society without the participation of social partners”, announced Affail Monney, Vice President of the Ghana Journalist Association at the press launch of SOMOPAC.

Mr Monney also described how government and the press had come a long way in refuting the allegations from the global market, but the focus must remain on eliminating the worst forms of child labour which are still existent within Ghana.

“The allegations lack the contextualization of the situation, conversations about slave like conditions in the Western world connotes that kind of activity in Ghana. Many of these people have never been to Africa so they don't even know the kind of farming situation that we have. If you look at Ghana some of the farming is in small family holdings of just a few acres so it would not be possible for children to be working in slave-like conditions”, explained Frema Osei-Opare, Deputy Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment to The Statesman.

The mobilisation partners were all in agreement with Mrs Osei-Opare and believed that certain experiences within the workplace were beneficial in the vocational sense for children of a certain age.

However, the Ghanaian constitution prohibits the involvement of children in exploitative labour. Such exploitative labour will deny the child of its education, health and social development.

Figures released by the ILO state that over 126 million children worldwide are currently involved in the worst forms of child labour.

Kwame Mensah, spokesperson for the ILO, stated that his organisation will tackle child labour in a holistic manner, providing educational and vocational skills training as well as greatly improving the capacity of social mobilisation partners.

Steps have already been taken by such mobilization partners to minimise the effect that exploitative labour can have on children. Field officers regulate the use of child labour in rice producing centers, coco, rubber and palm-oil plantations.

The Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs is also part of the SOMOPAC collaborative process. In a statement read at the press launch the Ministry hopes to have repatriated over 1000 children back to their families in a bid to reduce child labour.

The Ministry has identified the areas including mining, quarrying and deep sea fishing as key workplaces where children are most at risk.

Mrs Osei-Opare said that the launch of SOMOPAC was a long awaited event in Ghana and she hoped real change would be possible.

The social partners and faith based organisations present included the Ghana Muslim Mission Women’s Fellowship and the Federation of Muslim Councils in Ghana who were both in agreement that the days of selling children into labour for GH¢ 30 are long gone.

SOMOPAC begins its work with the launch of a website and an extensive training programme to advocate against child labour and to secure the safety of Ghana’s future generation.