01 August 2008
Ending Child Labor: A Global Priority
Steven J. Law is deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor.
Millions of children worldwide are trapped in mind-numbing subsistence-level labor of little economic value but which saps the creativity and learning potential of entire communities of future workers. While removal of children from the worst forms of child labor is an immediate objective, further interventions are needed to ensure that families have meaningful, sustainable alternatives of support that keep children from returning to hazardous and exploitive labor situations.
The United States has been a leader in the international effort to combat exploitive child labor and promote education for former child laborers. The country is the largest donor to the International Labor Organization's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor. Since 1995, the United States has provided approximately $255 million for technical assistance projects. Capacity building is essential to the long-term sustainability of child labor projects. By developing the capabilities of national and local leaders and institutions, national efforts to combat child labor will have a better chance of succeeding.
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has written a compelling book entitled The World is Flat, in which he argues that technological change, global supply chains, and labor "outsourcing" have flattened the modern world. This has dramatically reduced the cost of many goods and services, but it also puts a premium on workforce investment: ensuring that people obtain the education and training they need to compete in an increasingly sophisticated global economy.
Tragically, more than 200 million children today have no hope of benefiting from the dynamic worldwide economy because they are locked in a degrading, dead-end subculture of child labor. Many of these children, who are between the ages of five and 14 work under exploitive conditions including abduction by armed bands to serve as soldiers; being trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation; and being exposed to extreme workplace hazards and disease. Hundreds of millions of childhoods are wasted away in mind-numbing subsistence-level labor that produces minimal economic value while leaching away the creativity and learning potential of entire communities of future workers.
THE U.S. GOVERNMENT ROLE
Efforts to combat child labor gained momentum in 1999 with the adoption of International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. The convention identifies the worst forms of child labor, which include bonded labor, drug trafficking, prostitution, and other work that poses serious threats to children's health, safety, and well-being. The convention also requires that ratifying governments take immediate and effective measures to eliminate these forms of child labor in their countries. The U.S. government took an active role in promoting the passage of the convention, and as of March 2005, 153 countries had ratified it, making it the fastest ratified convention in the ILO's 82-year history.
Even before passage of Convention 182, the United States had begun taking important steps to eradicate child labor. The U.S. Department of Labor's (USDOL) International Child Labor Program (ICLP) was created in 1993 to investigate and report on child labor around the world. Over the years, ICLP's expertise in global child labor issues has expanded, and its portfolio of activities has increased exponentially. Research and reporting on international child labor, in support of U.S. foreign policy, trade policy, and development efforts, remain the ICLP's core functions. Awareness-raising within the United States about global child labor has also become an important part of the program. For example, in May 2003 Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao hosted representatives of the world community at "Children in the Crossfire: Prevention and Reintegration of Child Soldiers," a conference that highlighted the scandal of child soldiers in armed conflicts.
Perhaps the most dramatic results have been achieved through the USDOL's International Technical Assistance Projects. Since 1995, ICLP has funded more that $400 million in technical assistance projects in some 70 countries to rescue and rehabilitate children from the worst forms of child labor and provide them educational opportunities.
EFFECTIVE INTERVENTIONS NEEDED
Overcoming child labor requires an in-depth understanding of the factors that force children into inappropriate forms of work, as well as effective interventions suited to each unique socio-cultural and economic environment. Because the problem of child labor is complex, most USDOL projects employ multiple interventions that are integrated with one another. Of course, at the heart of each project is the removal of children from the worst forms of child labor, but further interventions are needed to ensure that children and their families have meaningful, sustainable alternatives that keep children from returning to hazardous and exploitive labor situations.
The experience of the USDOL confirms that only holistic approaches to combating child labor can hope to achieve meaningful, long-term results. And the foundation of every successful intervention is solid research. That is why ICLP funds several projects to determine the incidence and nature of child labor worldwide. These projects provide governments, international organizations, and the public with reliable quantitative and qualitative data on the nature and extent of child labor and its relationship to education, gender, and other factors. Data collection also provides a foundation upon which to target, design, and evaluate the effectiveness of other interventions.
Another important component of child labor eradication programs is the inclusion of community awareness-raising activities in project design. For example, a public awareness campaign to educate parents, local organizations, community leaders, and the media about hazards associated with child labor and its detrimental long-term effects on the local economy can help bring community members on board and pave the way for a project's success.
Clearly, one of the most effective interventions is the provision of quality education. Once children have been removed from labor situations, basic education offers a meaningful alternative and equips them with the skills and knowledge to obtain safe, better-paying jobs in the future. USDOL project staff work with children to determine their educational needs, which can include formal education, non-formal education, or vocational training. Such options are important: while some former child laborers are ready to enter formal schools, others may need to spend time in a non-formal, transitional educational setting before becoming part of the formal system. Regardless of the type of intervention, projects track children's enrollment in, and completion of educational programs. Many projects focus not only on children's participation in education, but also on the quality of education. Interventions to improve educational quality include teacher training, development of classroom materials, and alternative methods of material distribution.
LOOKING BEYOND EDUCATION
In addition to education, many children are in need of rehabilitative services such as healthcare, nutritional support, and counseling following their removal from labor situations. Depending on the needs of particular beneficiaries, projects may provide rehabilitative services through family visits or establish residential centers where children can live and receive care while in transition.
Another crucial feature of many USDOL projects is the establishment of a child labor monitoring system. The gravitational pull of poverty and culture often draw children back into exploitive labor, and effective monitoring can help alert project managers to the need for further intervention.
Typically, the need for additional family income is a common cause of child labor, and removing children from the workforce means that families must have other ways to meet their sustenance needs. For that reason, USDOL-supported technical assistance looks at family needs, rather than just at the needs of the working child, and attempts to address those needs through some form of alternative income generation, such as skills training for family members or micro-finance opportunities that enable families to generate income through business activities.
Another intervention focuses on changing hazardous production methods that may be widespread in a particular industry that utilizes child labor. For example, "homework"—the practice of giving employees tasks such as sewing or project assembly done in the home—is common in poor communities. Homework sometimes promotes hazardous child labor because working in the home increases the likelihood that children are working alongside their parents, and that makes health and safety monitoring nearly impossible. Particularly hazardous types of homework include the manufacture of products using dangerous chemicals or explosive materials, such as fireworks. To combat this practice, USDOL-supported projects may dedicate funding to the construction of safe workshops or work to educate community stakeholders on the long-term advantages of building and maintaining safe workplaces.
A final strategy that is essential to the long-term sustainability of child labor projects is capacity building. By developing the capabilities of national and local leaders and institutions, we can increase the likelihood that efforts to combat child labor will continue without outside assistance. As part of capacity building, some projects work closely with national governments to develop a national child labor policy, help design national child labor strategies and action plans, and help incorporate the issue of child labor into other national policies, such as those dealing with poverty reduction, education, and disaster relief.
A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP
In its global efforts to eradicate the worst forms of child labor, USDOL frequently partners with, and is the largest donor to, the ILO International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC), providing approximately $255 million in funding for technical assistance projects since 1995. Launched in 1991, IPEC works toward the progressive elimination of child labor by strengthening the ability of countries to address the problem and by creating a worldwide movement to combat it. IPEC projects focus on children in hazardous work conditions and on particularly vulnerable groups such as girls and children under age 12. Because of its status as an international organization affiliated with the United Nations, ILO-IPEC often can work with both national governments and the international employer community.
ILO-IPEC helps implement USDOL child labor technical assistance projects using several models. Country Programs provide technical assistance to countries that are committed to making the elimination of child labor a national policy. Sector Programs actively target specific hazardous occupations and troubled regions that warrant urgent attention and dedicated resources. Timebound Programs aim to incorporate child labor into national strategies for poverty reduction and education, and eliminate some of the worst forms of child labor within a committed time from of five to 10 years. Many ILO-IPEC projects include technical assistance to help countries develop Child Labor Action Plans and other national policies that affect working children. In all cases, ILO-IPEC collaborates with indigenous organizations that are familiar with local realities.
TOWARD A BETTER FUTURE
The USDOL has built a considerable foundation of research, best practices, international partnerships and multilateral campaigns aimed at eliminating the worst forms of child labor. Our implementing partners, including ILO-IPEC, nongovernmental organizations, and faith-based groups, have developed innovative, effective, and sustainable strategies to combat child labor. Together, we are giving children and their families hope for a better future, and helping to equip nations and communities with a workforce that is better prepared to meet the challenges of today's dynamic global economy.
From the May 2005 edition of eJournal USA
