Risk of child labour in microfinance: findings from the ILO and 60 Decibels

Approximately 160 million children worldwide (almost 1 in 10) are in child labour. The ILO deploys a range of tools and approaches to combat this scourge, including access to finance. The logic is that, if parents have access to enterprise training and appropriate financial services, they can increase household income and manage risks more effectively, and perhaps not have to resort to child labour. But, in some circumstances, access to finance can have the opposite effect, and actually create a demand for child labour. Research by the ILO's Social Finance Programme and 60Decibels yielded interesting findings about the impact and risk of child labour in microfinance.