New report addresses twin challenges of child labour and youth employment in Lao PDR
This report examines the related issues of child labour and youth employment in Laos. Guided by observed outcomes in terms of schooling, work activities and status in the labour market, the report considers the economic as well as the social determinants of child labour and youth employment difficulties.
Understanding Children’s Work (UCW) – a joint research partnership between the ILO, UNICEF and World Bank – has released a major new report highlighting the need for accelerated action to overcome the twin challenges of child labour and youth employment in Lao PDR.
Using data from the recent 2010 National Child Labour Survey, estimates presented in the report indicate that some 71,000 Lao children aged 6-13 are in employment, the vast majority of which have either dropped-out of or never attended school. At the same time, the report highlights the severe deficit of decent work opportunities for young people in the country, with only an estimated one out of every four youth earning enough to escape poverty. These phenomena are strongly inter-connected – when children drop out of school to work they are less likely to acquire the skills needed to obtain decent work, while a lack of decent youth employment opportunities sharply reduces incentives for children to enrol and stay in school.
These challenges are particularly severe in rural areas, where children are four times more likely to be engaged in child labour than those in urban areas and youth are twice as likely to be under-employed than their urban counterparts. Evidence from the report also highlights other groups of children and youth who are in need of special attention, including girls and young women, children and youth from linguistic and ethnic minorities and children and youth from the poorest households.
Tackling these issues is of upmost importance for fulfilling Lao PDR’s national goals for education, poverty reduction and economic development. For example, achieving the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary school attendance by 2015 requires a concerted effort to tackle the underlying reasons why children drop out of school to work, while the national goal of graduating from ‘Least Developed Country’ status by 2020 will only be achieved through comprehensive action to upgrade the skills and productive potential of children and youth.
Indeed, the UCW report offers several recommendations for action, following an integrated ‘life-cycle’ approach whereby school is promoted as an alternative to child labour, and children enter adolescence equipped with the skills to successfully transition into decent work. These include:
Using data from the recent 2010 National Child Labour Survey, estimates presented in the report indicate that some 71,000 Lao children aged 6-13 are in employment, the vast majority of which have either dropped-out of or never attended school. At the same time, the report highlights the severe deficit of decent work opportunities for young people in the country, with only an estimated one out of every four youth earning enough to escape poverty. These phenomena are strongly inter-connected – when children drop out of school to work they are less likely to acquire the skills needed to obtain decent work, while a lack of decent youth employment opportunities sharply reduces incentives for children to enrol and stay in school.
These challenges are particularly severe in rural areas, where children are four times more likely to be engaged in child labour than those in urban areas and youth are twice as likely to be under-employed than their urban counterparts. Evidence from the report also highlights other groups of children and youth who are in need of special attention, including girls and young women, children and youth from linguistic and ethnic minorities and children and youth from the poorest households.
Tackling these issues is of upmost importance for fulfilling Lao PDR’s national goals for education, poverty reduction and economic development. For example, achieving the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary school attendance by 2015 requires a concerted effort to tackle the underlying reasons why children drop out of school to work, while the national goal of graduating from ‘Least Developed Country’ status by 2020 will only be achieved through comprehensive action to upgrade the skills and productive potential of children and youth.
Indeed, the UCW report offers several recommendations for action, following an integrated ‘life-cycle’ approach whereby school is promoted as an alternative to child labour, and children enter adolescence equipped with the skills to successfully transition into decent work. These include:
- Improving school access and quality, particularly for underserved groups such as girls and those in rural areas. Such measures should focus on increasing the practical value and relevance of schooling and on dismantling the pervasive cost barriers to education.
- Strengthening the overall policy framework on child labour and building institutional capacity to tackle child labour and youth employment challenges. Special attention needs to be given to integrating child labour and youth employment concerns into the work of different ministries and agencies, including those responsible for education and rural affairs.
- Direct action to prevent children from entering child labour; remove and rehabilitate children facing hazardous exploitation; and to prevent working children from dropping out of school or becoming involved in more hazardous areas of work.
- Promoting decent work for youth in rural areas, including improving school-to-work transitions through the increased provision of technical and vocational education, entrepreneurial support, equal opportunities for female youth, and developing school curricula suited to the needs of agricultural and rural communities.