After announcing its accession in 2016, Saint Lucia became the 27th country in the region to join the  Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Initiative free of child labor . The official signing of the  Declaration of Constitution  took place on February 14, 2017.

This intergovernmental cooperation platform, which has the active participation of employers and workers, was created in 2014 with the aim of accelerating the rate of reduction of child labor and for this it proposes eight priority action topics called  “acceleration factors”  that are : indigenous communities, youth employment, migration, agriculture, education, decentralization, value chains and new technologies.

It has been two years since the first 24 countries in the region officially signed the Declaration of the Constitution of the Regional Initiative in Lima-Peru during the 18th American Regional Meeting of the ILO. The addition of Saint Lucia as the 27th country of the Regional Initiative is yet another achievement to jointly and articulate  goal 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals  and have the first generation free of child labor at the regional level by 2025 .

About Saint Lucia

Member of the Caribbean Community and the Organization of American States (OAS). In December 2000, it ratified Convention 182 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on the prohibition of the worst forms of child labor and, according to a  report from the United States Department of Labor , by 2014 Saint Lucia has reinforced its efforts in the compliance with said agreement, but the legal framework has yet to be perfected.

In Saint Lucia, studies on the reality of child labor in the country are still limited, but it can be identified that underage labor predominates in agriculture and in the worst forms of child labor, such as commercial sexual exploitation.

Faced with this situation, the government of Saint Lucia implemented in 2014 programs that may have an impact on child labor, among these is the program to improve school attendance through the delivery of books, meals, and transportation subsidies. Also, an after school academic and recreational activities program. Likewise, assistance shelters for victims of trafficking were implemented for both boys and girls, and the government, through its NGO, financed a shelter for girls.