Occupational accidents and diseases lead to devastating impacts on workers, enterprises and entire communities and economies. Despite many improvements, the prevention of accidents and work-related diseases continues to have considerable importance on a global scale. Renewed collective commitment and action towards the protection of workers against sickness, disease and injury arising out of employment is needed. The global affirmation of the importance of safety and health at work was expressed in June 2022, when the International Labour Conference (ILC) decided to include a safe and healthy working environment in the ILO’s framework of fundamental principles and rights at work (FPRW), designating the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155) and the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187) as fundamental Conventions.

The ILO Constitution sets forth the principle that workers must be protected from sickness, disease and injury arising from their employment. Yet for millions of workers the reality is very different. According to the most recent ILO global estimates, 2.78 million work-related deaths are recorded every year, of which 2.4 million are related to occupational diseases. In addition to the immense suffering caused for workers and their families, the associated economic costs are colossal for enterprises, countries, and the world. The losses in terms of compensation, lost workdays, interrupted production, training, and reconversion, as well as health-care expenditure, represent around 3.94 per cent of the world’s annual GDP. Employers face costly early retirements, loss of skilled staff, absenteeism, and high insurance premiums. Yet, many of these tragedies are preventable through the implementation of sound prevention practices.

1. 2. Elimination of Child Labour (CL)

Child labour remains a persistent problem in the world today, which is a violation of fundamental human rights and has been shown to hinder children’s development, potentially leading to lifelong physical or psychological damage. Evidence points to a strong link between household poverty and child labour, and child labour perpetuates poverty across generations by keeping the children of the poor out of school and limiting their prospects for upward social mobility. This lowering of human capital has been linked to slow economic growth and social development. Recent ILO studies have shown that the elimination of child labour in transition and developing economies could generate economic benefits much greater than the costs, which are mostly associated with an investment in better schooling and social services.  The latest global estimates indicate that 160 million children – 63 million girls and 97 million boys – were in child labor globally at the beginning of 2020, accounting for almost 1 in 10 of all children worldwide. Seventy-nine million children – nearly half of all those in child labour – were in hazardous work that directly endangered their health. The international community has recognized the importance of ending child labour as part of achieving SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth. Under this goal, target 8.7 is to end child labour in all its forms by 2025. Ending child labour will also contribute to progress on many other SDGs, especially on education and health.

Afghanistan is one of the countries with a high number of child labour; where many of the children are employed in jobs that can result in illness, injury or even death due to hazardous working conditions and poor enforcement of safety and health standards. Child labour is on ongoing challenge in the country and is likely to increase significantly due to the ongoing humanitarian and economic crisis, where more children drop out of school and families slide deeper into poverty. This translates into more child labour risks in production settings.

2. The Training Methodology

Considering the alarming statistics and ground realities, the ILO in Afghanistan, as a part of its capacity building initiatives, is planning to organize a 3 days OSH ToT, and 3 days Child Labour ToT workshop as a hybrid mode (ILO Technical Specialists deliver interactive online session and the participants will be gathered in a conference specified by ILO Mazar-i-Sharif, attend physically, interact trainers, facilitators, and course mates).

1. 1. OSH

The OSH training workshop will apply an ILO’s participatory OSH training methodology, named WISE (Work Improvements in Small Enterprises). In addition, on the ground examples of low-cost improvement will be shown through photo slideshows. The participants will carry out group work for discussing practical improvement proposals in workplaces.

1. 2. Child Labour

The CL ToT will be based on three tools: a) the ILO-IOE Child Labour Guidance Tool For Business; B) The ILO-IOE Eliminating Child Labour – Guide For Employers; and c) Training Manual on Child Labour in Afghanistan, but will also draw from various other ILO resources that are particularly relevant to the context of Afghanistan. The tools will be used in a simplified manner that emphasizes on practical on the ground application. Plenary sessions, Q&A sessions, group work, and other techniques will be used for the workshop.

3. Aim of the training

To build a pool of female OSH and CL trainers who are interested to provide training and act as promoter OSH and Ambassador for elimination of CL in their own area and beyond.

4. Target

The ILO is implementing the UN-Women-funded Road to Decent Jobs for All Afghans Phase II Project and is committed to empowering women. The Project targets mainly women and other disadvantaged groups including persons living with disabilities and youths. The Project is expecting to receive applications from Balkh province and a maximum of 25 female participants will be accepted to this training; a preference will be given to the trainees from the Project’s geographical target within the province including Shortepa, Kaldar, Dawlatabad, Khulm, Chahar Bolak, Balkh, Dehdadi, Chimtal, Sholgara, Chahar Kint, Kishindih, and Zari.

• College and or university attendance even without completion
• College Diploma and or bachelor’s degree in any related field is an added advantage.
• At least 1 year experience in trainings will be an added advantage.
• If a candidate is an owner, manager, and workers of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, and the candidate could demonstrate to promoting OSH and elimination of CL in her workplaces and operations, will be added value.
• Participants with experience as a trainer of adults and youth using participatory methodologies.
• Participants with a good communication skill.
• Participants should be fully committed to attend the entire Training of Trainers.
• Participants should be committed to support the implementation of the OSH and CL trainings.
• Participants should be proficient in English.

You are invited to submit your CV/Resume to tenders.af@ilo.org and your email subject must include title, reference number, and district name (OSH&CL TO-Reference #: 003/MZ-district name) in the subject of your email before 01/Feb/2024. Only CV sent via the provided email address will be considered.

A selection committee from ILO and UN Women  “Roads to decent jobs for all-2” technical team will select 25 female participants. The decision of the committee will be final and only selected candidates will be contacted.

tenders.af@ilo.org