ILO-IPEC welcomes Gordon Brown Report on child labour and education

The report “Child Labour and Educational disadvantage –Breaking the Link, Building Opportunity” says that efforts to tackle child labour must be accelerated if the 2015 targets on Education for All are to be met.

The report sets out what it describes as “an ambitious but achievable agenda for change”. It stresses the need to move from the level of policy commitments to the development of credible national action plans which set out the required steps and financial requirements to reach children in child labour. These plans will have to be backed by additional multilateral financing. It also calls for strengthened international cooperation on child labour and education through the Global Task Force on Child Labour and Education for All and for high level international discussions to mobilise an effective coalition against child labour.

ILO-IPEC has welcomed the report and its call for action. The Roadmap for eliminating the worst forms of child labour by 2016 adopted at the Hague Global Child Labour Conference called for measures to extend and improve access to free, compulsory and quality education for all children and the new Report’s detailed analysis provides important support for this objective.