GENEVA (ILO News) – Well designed social protection policies, sensitive to children’s needs, can make a real difference in the fight to eradicate child labour, said the International Labour Organization on the occasion of World Day Against Child Labour.
According to the latest ILO global estimates, 59 million children in Africa - more than one out of every five children aged 5-17 years – are child labourers. A staggering 28.8 million African children are engaged in hazardous labour, which puts them in immediate and very serious danger of irreversible harm and even risk of losing their lives.
“Social protection, along with universal compulsory, formal, quality education at least up to the minimum age for work, decent work for adults and youth of working age, effective law and strong social dialogue together provide the right response to child labour”, said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder.
Jeopardized potential
World Day Against Child Labour comes a few days after the ILO released its World Social Protection Report 2014/15, which shows that many children do not receive the child and family benefits they need to realize their potential.
Underinvestment in children jeopardizes their rights and their future, including their right to be protected from child labour, the report said.
Governments allocate an average 0.4 per cent of GDP to child and family benefits – ranging from 2.2 per cent in Western Europe to 0.2 per cent in Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
Facts and figures
Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region with the highest incidence of child labour, even though there has been a decline there. For the overall 5-17 years age group, child labourers number almost 77.7 million in Asia and the Pacific. For the same age group, there are 59.0 million child labourers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In relative terms, however, the biggest concern remains the Sub-Saharan Africa region. There, more than one in five children (21 per cent) in the 5-17 years age group is in child labour.
According to this earlier report, cash and in-kind child and family benefits, especially when combined with access to education and health services, can be decidedly effective in addressing child labour.
These cash transfer programmes for children and families have been implemented widely in Latin America, and also exist in other parts of the world. Examples include Brazil’s Bolsa Família programme, the universal child benefit programme in Mongolia and the South African Child Support Grant.
Building up social protection systems
Despite the recent extension of cash transfer programmes, in the case of Africa, the low proportion of expenditure on child and family benefits is particularly striking, considering the high proportion of children in the total population (children under 15 make up 42 per cent of Africa’s population).
Underinvestment in the social protection needs of children is particularly critical in low-income countries, which is likely to have negative effects on the future productivity of these countries’ workforce, and their future economic and social development prospects.
Several cash transfer programmes for children and families exist in Africa (e.g. in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and South Africa). In many countries in Africa, behavioural conditions are nominally part of the design of cash transfer programmes, yet are not fully implemented and monitored in practice.
In sub-Saharan Africa, more than a quarter of childbearing women did not receive any antenatal care provided by skilled health personnel; the same is true for one in five women in North Africa.
However, health coverage that ensures access to health care does not only improve people’s health, it also protects households from the risk of falling into poverty due to health costs. Integrated development policies are crucial to foster synergies between the provision of cash transfers, access to health and other social services, and public investment. A number of French-speaking African countries have implemented measures to ensure universal effective access to health care for children and young mothers.
Social protection is a crucial instrument in addressing all forms of poverty. Cash transfer schemes have successfully reduced poverty in Africa. For example, South Africa’s non-contributory grants have reduced the poverty gap by more than one-third.
There is also a strong evidence of the positive impacts of social protection on hunger and nutrition.
The ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202) reflects the global consensus on nationally-defined basic social protection guarantees as a basic right for all. It calls on the ILO’s 185 member States to guarantee that all people have, at the very least, essential health care and basic income security throughout their lives.
Activities to mark the day
World Day activities in Africa will involve the ILO’s tripartite constituents, children and partners in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe. More than 40 countries will highlight worldwide the movement against child labour. They will include high level meetings, public rallies, and media, sports and cultural events, including numerous concerts dedicated to the Music against Child Labour Initiative.
This phase of the campaign will run from the opening on 12 June of the football World Cup to the 2016 Olympics, starting with a social media “Thunderclap" and events in Brazil and New York.
