The End of Child Labour: Within Reach

1. The End of Child Labour: Within Reach Progress and Challenges in Ending the Worst Forms of Child Labour by 2016

2. The End of Child Labour: Within Reach! • Progress has been made in global efforts to end child labour • Child labour has declined by 11 per cent over the last four years to 218 million • The more hazardous the work and the more vulnerable the children involved, the faster the decline

3. What is child labour (1) Not all forms of work undertaken by children are considered child labour under ILO Conventions – it excludes the activities of children 12 years and older who are undertaking light work and those of children 15 years and above whose work is not classified as “hazardous”. ECONOMICALLY ACTIVE CHILDREN 318 M. (352)

4. What is child labour (2) Child labour in the global estimate is work that harms children’s well being and hinders their education, development and future livelihoods. In the estimate determinants such as age, type of work and hours of work were used

5. What is child labour (3) Hazardous child labour is work in dangerous conditions that could results in a child being killed, or injured and/or made ill as a consequence of poor safety, health standards and working arrangements. It is the biggest category in numbers of what we call WFCL.

6. Global trends in child labour by age group and year (millions) 246 million 2000 186 59 218 million 2004 52 166 200 250 100 50 150 0 Age groups: 5-14 15-17 New Global Estimates

7. Global trends in hazardous work (by age group and year) (millions) 2000 111 59 170 million 2004 126 million 52 74 200 100 50 150 0 Hazardous Hazardous 5-14 15-17 New Global EstimatesGlobal trends: children in hazardous work

8. Regional trends in the proportion of working children in the age group 5 – 14 years (%) 28.8 30 26.4 19.4 20 18.8 16.1 10 6.8 5.1 5.2 0 Latin America & Caribbean Other regions Asia and the Pacific Sub-Saharan Africa 2004 2000 New global estimates (Incidence of child labour by region)

9. Where is it declining? • Fastest progress: Latin America and the Caribbean. • Progress in Asia marginal. • Least progress: Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa.

10. Latin Americaand Caribbean Sub-Saharan Africa Asiaand the Pacific From 17.4 down to 5.7 million From 48 up to 49.3 million From 127.3 down to 122.3 million Absolute figures have gone down in all regions except in Africa Other regions: Down from 18.3 to 13.4 million

11. Key Factors for Progress (1) • ILO has been a principal engine: • progress in ratification and implementation of ILO standards (C138 and C182) • concrete action (projects) by ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour – IPEC

12. Ratification and Implementation • Rapid ratification of ILO standards (C138 and C182) • National Plans of Action and Setting of National Time-Bound Targets • Scaling Up of CL elimination strategies • Improved progress in monitoring

13. Key Factors for Progress (2) • A worldwide movement is now in place • governments, workers and employers • international agencies, NGOs and many others

14. Key Factors for Progress (3) • Key policies in tackling child labour concern: • Education • Improved earning opportunities for adults (decent work) • Awareness and understanding • Laws and enforcement

15. Policy choices matter • Countries cannot rely on economic progress alone to bring about the end of child labour • Countries that combine economic growth with the right policy mix make more rapid progress in tackling the problem

16. Asia and the Pacific • The Asia Pacific region has the largest number of child laborers in the world and has experienced slower progress in CL elimination compared to other regions. • Absolute numbers have dropped from127 million child laborers to 122 million, a 6% decline. • Significant numbers still in hazardous labor (6.2 million) and in the unacceptable worst forms (6.6. million). A serious challenge to achieve the fundamental goal of ending the WORST Forms of Child Labour by 2016.

17. Forms of Child Labour in Asia and the Pacific • Plantations and family farms • Manufacturing and domestic services • Construction and Fisheries • Hawking and other street based activities • Commercial sexual exploitation • Child Trafficking • Children in illicit activities

18. South Asia • The situation is particularly severe in South Asia, which has approximately three-quarters of all the children in child labour in Asia and the Pacific. • Informal sector • Agriculture or in the services sector • Child domestic labour • Trafficking of girls into the commercial sex sector

19. The Pacific Islands • No official statistics. Studies and reports on child labour suggest that situation is most prevalent in Papua New Guinea with cases of: • Child domestic labour • Exploitation in markets, hotels, subsistence agriculture, and coffee and tea plantations • Commercial sexual exploitation of children linked to tourism promotion in Samoa and Vanuatu • Concern over hazardous work in the PICs in : • Agriculture • mining, fishing, construction, small-scale workshops and manufacturing.

20. Asian Positives • Steep and steady decline in poverty rates across Asia • Expected declines in non-enrolment rates across the region • Ratification record and broad consensus on the imperative of continuing efforts to eliminate child labour, especially the worst forms

21. Asian Challenges • Continuing Barriers to Education • Informal Economy • Youth unemployment • Increased irregular migration • Conflict, civil unrest, climate change

22. Education Barriers Education policies insufficiently address barriers that limit access, e.g. direct and indirect costs, quality issues. There is need to improve reach in remote rural communities, indigenous communities, isolated workplaces such as households. Linkages between formal and non-formal systems need to be improved.

23. Informal Economy • The overwhelming majority in the developing economies of South Asia and, to a lesser extent in Asia and the Pacific in general, work in the informal economy or as contributing family workers • More vulnerable to economic risk – with little access to social or labour protection • Women, especially young women, are particularly likely to be working in the informal sector or in family-based business

24. Youth Unemployment • Asia-Pacific region has almost half the world’s unemployed youth • On average, youth in Asia are than three times more likely to be unemployed than adults (up to six times in Southeast Asia and the Pacific) • Cruel irony in the co-existence of child labour and jobless youth (15+ not in WFCL) • Premature entry into workforce can negatively affect livelihoods in later years

25. Youth Unemployment

26. Cross-border and internal movements for work • No longer a temporary, passing phenomenon, it is in fact an “established structural feature” of the region • Considerable importance in considerations of child labour and, especially, child trafficking. • Children from Lao PDR, Cambodia and Myanmar continue to cross into Thailand; • Children from Nepal are exploited in India • Children from Indonesia and Myanmar are in labour in Malaysia

27. Conflict and Civil unrest • The impact of any conflict or civil unrest needs to be quickly factored in to the incidence of child labour in the region. • The use of children as soldiers, porters, sex providers and general helpers for militias is a worst form of child labour

28. Climate change The MDG Progress Report notes that climate change is likely to impact seriously on achievement of the MDGs. In Asia and Pacific, where in the past decade climate change has considerably affected the people’s ability to secure a livelihood, including in the developed countries of the region.

29. Towards a Global Action Plan • Global goal and targets: • The elimination of all worst forms of child labour by 2016 • To this end, all countries design and put in place appropriate time-bound measures by 2008

30. Steps Ahead There is a need for: • greater national ownership, supported by employers’ and workers’ organizations • a more vibrant worldwide movement to put technical tools and frameworks to optimum use • stepped up effortsto mainstream child labour elimination into key development and human rights frameworks (MDGs and poverty reduction strategies)

31. Universal Ratification • Ratification of the two principal conventions relating to child labour should be universal in the region. • Seven countries have not ratified C. 182/C.182. • Five more countries have not ratified C. 138.

32. Translating Commitment to Improved Law and Practice • Set time-bound targets to eliminate the worst forms of child labour by 2016, with roadmaps (e.g. TBP processes, NPAs) – ensure budget allocations • Set time bound targets for free and compulsory education and of good quality till minimum working age; • Adapt legal frameworks to international standards and draw up a list of hazardous occupations • Scale up experiences and good practices to date

33. Advocacy • Broad campaigns that first, build a critical mass to reject child labour and through revised legislation and implementation, move towards attitudinal and behavioral change • Continue to focus on needed action to to address the worst forms of child labor, with specific emphasis on the girl child • Push for credible and comprehensive child labour monitoring and action on worst cases of abuse

34. Tri-partite Action • Set targets for the elimination of child labour • Businesses for responsible business practices • Trade unions strengthen efforts to campaign for greater freedom of association, meet the challenge of the informal sectors

35. It’s up to us all.. • It’s the ILO • It’s Member States • It’s Workers • It’s Employers • It’s NGOs • And it’s us – you and me. • Together we can reach the goal – an end to child labour in our time