A. Introduction

As discussed in Chapter II, children, their families, and society at large stand to benefit from sending children to school instead of work. Nevertheless, child labor remains a persistent problem in many countries. Chapter III described some of the factors that lead children to work. As the chapter outlined, the causes of child labor can be broadly traced to three main issues: a poverty of resources, a poverty of opportunities, and the availability of work for children. This chapter identifies broad policies and targeted strategies that are indicative of the types of action that can be taken to overcome specific barriers to children leaving work for school. The chapter describes how national and international initiatives seek to address child labor, and at the local level, considers examples of targeted action projects.

umerous targeted efforts to end abusive and exploitative child labor are supported by governments and NGOs around the world. As illustrated in Volume V of the Department of Labor’s By the Sweat & Toil of Children series, the importance and value of these efforts cannot be overemphasized.¹ This chapter, however, draws primarily on the diverse experience of one initiative—the International Labor Organization’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO/IPEC)—to illustrate how targeted projects can be designed to address various barriers to withdrawing children from exploitative work and placing them in school. The U. S. Department of Labor has funded ILO/IPEC child labor programs since 1995. As such, the focus on ILO/IPEC examples in this chapter draws upon the Department of Labor’s significant experience in this area. It is important to note that many other agencies and organizations such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID),² the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),³ and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)⁴ are also active in promoting educational opportunities for children in developing regions.

The ILO/IPEC projects described in this chapter generally represent ongoing efforts. Accordingly, it is too early in most cases to evaluate their full impact. Evaluation of the outcomes of these child labor projects is critical for determining which strategies are most effective and which should be replicated in future projects. At present, IPEC is working to enhance its evaluation process with support from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Policies and strategies that target child labor can be carried out at many levels: internationally, nationally, and at the local or project level. This chapter is intended to promote further discussion on the most effective means at each level for addressing the various barriers that exist to withdrawing children from exploitative work and offering them better alternatives for the future.

B. Overcoming a Poverty of Resources

Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together, and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time.

Grace Abbott
First Director of the Department of Labor’s
Children’s Bureau (1924)⁵

Financial poverty is the most often cited cause of child labor. For many children and their families, a lack of financial resources makes it difficult, if not impossible, to choose school over work. But as Grace Abbott responded during testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives three-quarters of a century ago when similar arguments were being made, poverty is also exacerbated and perpetuated by child labor.⁶ As such, the two phenomena cannot be dealt with separately since one inevitably contributes to the other.

There is no one solution to financial poverty. It requires appropriate policies at the international, national, and local levels. This section begins by briefly addressing the potential impact on child labor of macroeconomic policies that promote economic growth. The chapter then provides examples of targeted action projects that seek to address the barriers created by a poverty of resources.

1. Policies for Economic Growth

Macroeconomic policies that seek to promote economic growth can be effective in addressing the most commonly cited cause of child labor—namely, financial poverty. Economic growth can create more and better-paying jobs. This in turn increases household income, making child labor less likely and schooling easier to afford. There is widespread consensus that the most effective long term approach to eliminating child

labor is through poverty reduction.⁷ Macroeconomic policies that encourage increased investment and savings and keep inflation low and employment high, can pave the way for economic growth and development.⁸ Through the pursuit of sound macroeconomic policies, governments can help lay the necessary foundation to support long-term solutions to the problem of abusive and exploitative child labor. The long-term nature of such policies, however, suggests the need for short-term strategies that can make a difference today in the lives of the millions of children currently working under brutal conditions. Such strategies, particularly when they encourage schooling, can, in turn, promote long-term economic growth. In much the same way that financial poverty and child labor contribute to each other, policies that promote economic growth and reduce child labor can be mutually supportive.

The international community plays an important role in encouraging countries to follow sound macroeconomic policies. Organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank frequently require countries to implement certain policies as a condition for obtaining financial support. These policies are generally referred to “stabilization” and “structural adjustment policies” (SAPs) and, in tandem, they seek to correct macroeconomic imbalances⁹ and restore the conditions necessary for economic growth. Stabilization policies generally focus on reducing or eliminating balance of payments deficits by reducing government expenditures and devaluing currencies. SAPs generally include components such as reducing barriers to foreign trade and investment, removing domestic price controls and subsidies, privatizing and reforming state owned enterprises, and reforming the financial sector.¹⁰

Critics believe that these macroeconomic policies can have a negative impact on the most vulnerable sectors of society, particularly in the short term. According to UNICEF’s 1997 State of the World’s Children Report, the costs of structural adjustment programs often fall hardest on the poorest members of society, those most likely to resort to child labor. In Zimbabwe, for example, both the government and the ILO have linked the large increase in child labor to structural adjustment programs.¹¹ In the Republic of Tanzania, the ILO reports that only 15-20 percent of the urban population is benefitting from increased foreign and domestic investment, and only an established upper class and small middle class are achieving higher standards of living. The remaining 80-85 percent has actually experienced a marked decline in living standards, accompanied by growing numbers of children engaged in child labor.¹² 

Countries implementing SAPs often cut spending on public education. A recent study of 16 Sub-Saharan African countries undergoing IMF programs found that 12 of these countries had cut public spending on education.¹³ The study noted that the IMF’s regional program in Sub-Saharan African, the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF), has been associated with a one percent per year reduction in per capita spending on education by the 24 countries involved. In several countries, including Zambia and Zimbabwe, governments have reduced educational spending by over 20 percent.¹⁴ An IMF study also showed decreases in average annual change in real per capita spending on education and health in many countries in Africa under SAF/ESAF supported programs.¹⁵

In response to criticism that the poor were suffering disproportionately from the short term costs of adjustment, the Bank and the IMF have put greater emphasis on minimizing adverse effects on the poor, such as by providing for well-targeted social safety nets.¹⁶ The IMF states that “to ensure sustainable per capita income growth and reduce poverty, IMF supported programs have also increasingly provided for an increase in the level and quality of public expenditures in social services, including primary education and health.”¹⁷

This change is reflected in the IMF’s description of their structural adjustment policies as generally seeking “to accelerate growth by boosting national savings, achieving and maintaining single digit inflation, accelerating structural reforms, and shifting the composition of fiscal expenditure in favor of health, education, and other priority sectors.”¹⁸

While the debate over the actual impact of these policies on the poorest sectors continues, there is wider agreement that policies for economic growth promoted by international institutions and national governments are not enough. The economic growth that is the goal of these policies does not in and of itself ensure that poor households will be made better off. According to the World Bank, Vital to achieving progress against harmful child labor are (i) effective efforts to reduce poverty generally and (ii) the economic and social policies, programs and results that are the underpinning for success in poverty reduction. But these broad measures, while important, take time and are not sufficient by themselves. Additional actions focused specifically on child labor per se are also needed (Emphasis added).¹⁹

Because the benefits of macroeconomic policies may not directly reach working children during their school years, a need may exist for targeted strategies that help the families of working children earn enough income in the short term to be able to afford schooling for their children. The next section provides examples of several targeted projects that seek to address the financial poverty that affects working children and their families.

2. Targeted Strategies for Addressing A Poverty of Resources

Families of working children frequently resort to child labor to supplement household income to meet their family’s basic needs. To help alleviate such extreme economic need, targeted projects employ a number of strategies. Some projects pro- vide skills training for families with working children or promote alternative income generating activities that aim to reduce reliance on income earned by children. Other projects provide direct subsidies to families that withdraw their children from work in the form of stipends, scholarships, or school meal programs.

a. Alternative Income Generation

Alternative income generating opportunities can take many forms. Projects may provide skills training for adult family members or assist families in acquiring income producing assets, such as livestock, in order to help these families generate income without relying on children’s labor.

• In Guatemala, an IPEC project targeting children at work in stone quarries trained approximately 60 families in income generating activities.²⁰ Families were shown how to earn income through activities such as sewing, running a bakery, and starting a stone chipping business.²¹ The project also provided families with training in administrative, accounting, and marketing techniques.²²

• In Peru, an IPEC project targeting children working in the gold mining industry²³ supported income generating activities in a number of ways. In the community of Mollehuaca, the project trained women in jewelry making and weaving.²⁴ In Santa Filomena, the project bought kneading machines and ovens for a local women’s group. The project trained members of the group to use the machines and helped them start a bakery. As a result, the members of the group prepare bread daily, supplementing their families’ diets and at the same time increasing their income through sales of baked products.²⁵

• In the Brazilian state of Bahia, a project begun in 1996 by IPEC in collaboration with the Union of Rural Workers of Retirolândia provided goats to families that agreed to send their children to school instead of work. The project provided over 60 goats to approximately 30 families that had previously relied on income earned by their children working in the sisal industry. The project trained families to breed goats, and as part of the arrangement, parents agreed to use goat milk to feed their children. Families earned income from the livestock, offsetting income previously earned through child labor. The project helped more than 100 children leave hazardous work in the sisal industry and attend school.²⁶

• In Bangladesh, a project targeting children working in the garment industry²⁷ supports income generating activities for the families of working children. Currently, the project provides adult family members with three to six months of training in skills such as basic tailoring, carpentry, electronics assembly, and motor vehicle maintenance.²⁸ Projects are also being planned that will provide potential entrepreneurs with training on how to start small-scale businesses.²⁹

• Working with IPEC, the Development Foundation of Turkey (DFT) trained the families of 56 boys in income producing activities such as beekeeping, turkey breeding, and greenhouse agriculture. ³⁰ Prior to the start of this project, these boys had been rented out to affluent families for periods of up to five months to herd livestock, work with tobacco, and do chores such as cutting wood.³¹ The additional income earned from the IPEC initiated activities helped replace—and in many cases even exceeded—the income previously earned through the renting out of children.³²

b. Subsidies

Subsidies are another way in which child labor projects can try to encourage and enable families with limited resources to choose school over work for their children. This form of economic incentive is intended to make education more affordable by directly offsetting income lost when children leave work to attend school. Some subsidies come in the form of direct payments—or stipends—to families that transition their children from work to school. Others include tuition scholarships and school meal programs that help offset the costs associated with sending children to school.³³ Debate remains, however, about the effectiveness and efficiency of such incentives, as illustrated by the following IPEC examples.

• In India, an IPEC-supported project initially used stipends, but ultimately determined that they were not essential for achieving the project’s goals. IPEC found that incentives did not always reach the desired target group. In some cases, financially better-off parents actually sent their children to work so that they could take part in IPEC’s project and gain financially from stipends intended for lower income families.³⁴

• In Brazil, an IPEC-supported project initially used stipends to provide assistance to children working on sugar cane plantations. During the project’s first six months, children received a monthly stipend equal to US $30. Overall, the project succeeded in enrolling 330 children in public schools, but IPEC decided to end the stipend component because it was considered unsustainable without

IPEC support. The project instead focused on income generating activities for families, vocational training for children over 14 years, and the strengthening of NGO capacity to administer the project—activities IPEC saw as having impacts lasting beyond the length of the project.³⁵

• In Indonesia, a project provided former working children with school meals. IPEC found, however, that nonformal education centers³⁶ that provided free meals became competition for the formal schools that did not have any food programs for children. Children already enrolled in formal schools actually began switching to nonformal schools because of the meal program.³⁷

These examples illustrate some of the potential weaknesses of subsidies as a strategy. In general, subsidies may require a long-term commitment to be effective, perhaps until children complete their educational requirements. Partnerships with either government or other local partners may be needed to ensure such financial assistance can be continued until children complete educational requirements. Similarly, restricting the provision of economic incentives to families with working children may actually encourage poor families whose children do not work to send their children into the workforce in order to gain access to such programs. To avoid this, subsidies may need to be made more widely available, for example, by offering them to all poor families.

C. Overcoming A Poverty of Opportunities

While financial poverty creates formidable barriers to educating working children, children may also work because they lack alternatives. Effectively addressing child labor means not only withdrawing children from work, but ensuring that alternatives to work exist and are accessible to these children. This section provides examples of policies and strategies that seek to broaden the opportunities available to children and their families. It begins by considering the impact that national education policies can have in promoting schooling as the best option for children. It then describes several targeted projects that seek to increase opportunities for working children and their families.

1. National Education Policies

At a national level, education policies can play an important role in making primary schooling a more attractive and accessible option for families. Laws or policies that establish primary education as universal and free promote schooling and provide alternatives to children withdrawn from work. The argument is often made, in fact, that efforts to eliminate child labor in a country can only succeed once primary education has been made mandatory.³⁸ In addition, as discussed in Chapter II, since returns to schooling are likely to accrue not only to individuals but to society more generally, governments have a vested  interest in ensuring that investments in primary education occur.

There also needs to be consistency between national laws that establish schooling requirements and child labor laws since discrepancies can create loopholes that may actually encourage children to work. For example, if children in a given country are required to stay in school through the age of 15 but can legally begin full time work at age 14, they may be encouraged to join the workforce early, neglecting their studies or dropping out of school altogether. By contrast, consistent schooling and minimum work age laws can actually reinforce one another and support the goals of reducing child labor while promoting schooling.³⁹

Public funding for education can make schooling more accessible for families, particularly those in financial need who would find it most difficult to afford tuition and other school related fees. While national spending on education does not necessarily indicate a country’s relative success in promoting children’s education, it does provide a reflection of the emphasis a country places on education as a national priority and can provide a measure of a country’s commitment to policy objectives such as achieving universal primary education. Table IV-1 presents recent indicators on educational expenditures for sixteen countries.⁴⁰ As the table indicates, funding for education varies widely across countries.

Funding levels offer one indicator of national priorities, but where educational funding goes—for example, which educational levels and which educational needs are made priorities—can also determine its effect on children and their families. Directing more resources toward primary education can have an important impact on child labor. In many countries, building schools in rural areas can provide rural children with their first opportunity to attend school. Programs that enhance the quality and relevance of instruction through teacher training, meanwhile, can help make school a more valuable and attractive option for many children and their families.

While national policies are important for creating an environment supportive of schooling, the barriers that working children face are often difficult to overcome without more focused strategies. The next section considers examples of targeted projects that aim to make schooling more accessible for working children.

2. Targeted Strategies for Addressing a Poverty of Opportunities

a. Increasing Access to Schools

In many communities, especially in rural areas, schools are not easily accessible. Lack of schools or inadequate school facilities can leave children with few options to child labor.

• In Retalhuleu, Guatemala, schools were located far away from quarry sites where children lived and worked, and school curriculums were often inadequate. Children who worked in the stone quarries seldom attended school and were often illiterate. An IPEC funded project targeting these children used mobile educational units set up near the quarry sites to reduce the distance children needed to travel to attend school. The project provided children with nonformal education and skills training. In addition, depending on their economic need, some families receive financial support to facilitate school attendance.⁴¹

• In the gold mining town of Mollehuaca in Peru, children could not attend secondary school because the nearest school was twelve kilometers away. To overcome this obstacle, an IPEC supported project acquired a van that now carries children from the town of Mollehuaca to secondary school every day.⁴² The projects also provided scholarships for approximately 500 school age children in the community of Mollehuaca to help make education a more affordable option for families.⁴³

• In India, IPEC works in collaboration with an Indian trade union, the RashtriyaKhan Mazdoor Union (RKMU), to support a project combating child labor in stone quarries and brick kilns through the building of schools. In the stone quarries of Faridabad, one reason children accompanied their parents to work was a lack of schools close to the quarries.⁴⁴ As part of this project, RKMU set up six schools in the stone quarries of Faridabad and two schools at the brick kilns of Lohari in Meerut District of Uttar Pradesh. The project also appointed teachers, supplied educational materials, and supplemented the nutritional needs of children enrolled in the program. During the project’s first phase, RKMU withdrew 327 children from hazardous work, provided them with nonformal education for eight months, and helped them transition into regular schools. During the project’s second phase, another 300 children were withdrawn, and these children are now participating in nonformal education programs.⁴⁵

b. Raising the Quality and Increasing the Relevance of School

Ensuring working children access to school is a critical first step to transitioning them from work to school, but what those children are exposed to while in school is at least as important as helping them to get there. Schooling that is of poor quality or that lacks relevance to children’s lives may not be considered a worthwhile investment either of children’s time or of a family’s limited financial resources.⁴⁶

To enhance school quality, many targeted projects support the training of teachers, often placing particular emphasis on the special needs of working children.

• In India, the M. Venkatarangaiya (MV) Foundation, with government funding and the support of various organizations including IPEC, supported teacher training workshops that addressed specific problems faced by working children.

The workshops aimed to make education more relevant for children attending schools for the first time.⁴⁷ The MV Foundation also sought to make instruction more relevant for children enrolled in its “bridge camp.” The camp teaches all of the subjects prescribed by the government, but involves children in developing the curriculum. Children help steer lessons to topics which they find particularly interesting, enjoyable, and useful.⁴⁸

• In Guatemala, IPEC’s stone quarries project has sought to improve the quality of education children receive by providing training to over 700 local teachers.⁴⁹

c. Overcoming Discrimination

i. Gender roles

As discussed in Chapter III, children’s gender is an important determinant of the kinds of work they are likely to do and the sorts of barriers they are likely to face. Given the special barriers girls often face in schooling, many targeted projects make girls a special focus (See Box IV-2). For example, ILO/IPEC identifies girls as one of its priority target groups.⁵⁰ A critical first step in helping working girls is raising awareness within communities about the hazards child labor poses for girls, the value of educating them, and the kinds of social and cultural constraints that girls face in trying to pursue an education. The following discussion provides examples of strategies that can be employed by targeted projects to withdraw girls from exploitative work, promote their attendance in school, and ensure their equal participation once there.

• In North Thailand, a project implemented by the Development and Education Programs for Daughter and Communities Center (DEPDC), with the support of IPEC, organized activities to prevent commercial sexual exploitation of girls.⁵¹ DEPDC provided education relevant to the lives of these girls, including job skills training, as an alternative to prostitution.⁵² The project offered school scholarships for girls at risk, safe shelter in schools, jobs and general counseling services, and stipends for traveling between home and school for the girls who did not need shelter.⁵³ The project also promoted the active participation of teachers and the local community. It developed classroom materials about child labor, its effects on children’s health and safety, and information on applicable laws. IPEC also supported an assessment of the educational needs and interests of these girls as a basis for redesigning curriculum. As a result, teachers have been trained to identify girls at high risk of being trafficked for sexual exploitation and to conduct face to face campaigns with parents and children to encourage them to explore alternatives to prostitution. Girls identified as high risk have been given places to continue their education or vocational training.⁵⁴

• In Nairobi, Kenya, an IPEC supported project sought to help girls working in the streets by creating a safe environment for the girls it served. It established a rescue center known as “Peace House” that served as a temporary place of safety for street girls who worked under hazardous conditions. The project provided girls with counseling and guidance services, clothing, food, medical care, and shelter. The youngest girls are placed in nursery schools, while those who are old enough are placed in primary schools, and those beyond primary school age receive vocational training in existing nonformal institutions. These girls learn home economics, carpentry, and garment making. They are also provided with career guidance and entrepreneurship training.⁵⁵

ii. Ethnicity, social class, and language

Other forms of discrimination that create barriers for children leaving work to pursue schooling may be based on either ethnicity or social class. Targeted projects aim to expand and enhance educational opportunities for such children.

• In Romania, a recently approved IPEC country program will target children from the Rroma (Gypsy) ethnic group, a group amongst whom child labor tends to be particularly common. The program aims to improve the quality of education for Rroma children by accounting for their special needs, including the learning of the dominant Romanian language. Since their native language is not Romanian, Rroma children often require additional attention to overcome this potential language barrier. Rroma children are also affected by cultural attitudes within Romanian society. To address this issue, the program will place particular emphasis on integrating Rroma children into classrooms that include many non-Rroma children.⁵⁶ In addition, the program calls for the development of a new curriculum that will specifically focus on the needs of Rroma children and help make education more accessible to them.⁵⁷

d. Community Awareness Raising Initiatives

In many countries, cultural attitudes are a major determinant of whether children work or attend school. Targeted projects can be used to address social attitudes through awareness raising campaigns that focus on the extent and nature of child labor, the cost it imposes on children, and the benefits forgone in terms of schooling. By changing attitudes that accept or encourage child labor, such projects aim to encourage families and communities to withdraw children from exploitative work and support investment in children’s education.

• In Tanzania, IPEC supported projects provided 36 members of the media from rural areas with training on child labor issues. The project provided five-day training workshops for discussion of strategies to encourage local community involvement in defining child labor problems, formulation of community based intervention, and preparation of newspaper supplements and radio programs on child labor in rural settings.⁵⁸ Training was also given to community development workers to encourage them to address child labor issues when drawing up plans for community development.⁵⁹ By working closely with groups at the community level, these IPEC supported efforts sought to change attitudes that played a role in keeping children in rural Tanzania working and out of school.

• In IPEC’s gold mining project in Peru, awareness raising activities took place in schools. Children in primary school painted pictures about the types of work they had done. The project also supported a photography exhibit dedicated to child labor issues, the health risks that children encounter in mines and the importance of women in development.⁶⁰ These efforts attempted to raise community awareness about the dangers of child labor and the benefits of children attending school.

• In Indonesia, a public forum on National Children’s Day, supported by IPEC, sought to raise awareness and encourage support in the fight against child labor. Students, teachers, parents, and representatives of government and nongovernmental organizations, took part in the event, which included a video illustrating types of work in which children are engaged in Indonesia and the kinds of hazards these children face. IPEC also organized a press campaign and stickers with a child labor message were produced and placed on public buses.⁶¹ These efforts aimed to raise the profile of child labor problems in Indonesia and encourage support to confront the problem at a national level.

• In Nepal, IPEC supported several awareness raising efforts. One project involved a radio serial broadcast by Radio Nepal that dealt with child labor and bonded labor issues. Another effort used songs and stage plays to raise aware- ness about the trafficking of girls and the plight of children working under bonded conditions. One activity involved students at a women’s college staging a musical play at a prominent theater in Kathmandu on the problem of trafficking in girls and prostitution.⁶²

Organizations such as trade unions can play an important role in raising awareness about the dangers of child labor.

• In India, the Central Board for Workers’ Education (CBWE), with support from IPEC, sought to raise worker awareness about child labor. The CBWE developed and incorporated child labor modules into all its ongoing worker training programs; the CBWE trains approximately 150,000 workers every year in 48 regional centers.⁶³

• In Kenya, the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) has set up a Child Labor Section at the national level, conducted a survey of child labor practices, and integrated child labor issues into the educational programs of the COTU.⁶⁴

These examples illustrate some of the concrete ways child labor projects attempt to raise awareness about child labor and promote schooling as the best investment in children’s future.

e. Enhancing Access to Credit

By providing the families of working children with the opportunity to access credit to start small businesses or other income generating enterprises, certain targeted projects aim to help families overcome dependence on child labor.

• In the Dominican Republic, an IPEC project uses a credit fund to help children leave hazardous agricultural work in the municipality of Constanza. The project established a committee to administer a rotating fund and provided committee members with training on how to select beneficiaries. Only families who have enrolled their children in school and demonstrated a commitment to eliminate child labor—for example, by attending project meetings—are eligible for loans. Loans vary in amount from $200 to $500. The committee has already received 57 applications for loans, including proposals to start businesses selling prepared foods and a motorcycle “taxi” service to a town where bus service is currently unavailable.⁶⁵

• IPEC’s Guatemala stone quarries project also included a credit access component intended to help families of working children earn alternative income and enable them to send their children to school. The project allocated $61,000 for a revolving credit fund. Under the program, to receive a loan, families must promise to withdraw their children from work and enroll them in school.⁶⁶ Among those helped by the project, a group of ten families borrowed jointly to purchase a stone chipping machine and start their own business.⁶⁷

Strategies to promote credit access and provide skills training are also being replicated in new IPEC projects.

• A recently funded project in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines will provide training and credit access to families as part of efforts to withdraw 4,500 children from the informal footwear industry. First, the project will assess the skills of adults in these children’s families and offer employment related training. A feasibility study will then assess the market for products and services that these individuals might be able to provide. Finally, the project will seek to improve access to credit for families that withdraw their children from work.⁶⁸

f. Summary

This section dealt with strategies for expanding opportunities available to working children and their families. These strategies aim to make education accessible, affordable, and valuable for children and their families. Where barriers are related to discrimination, cultural attitudes, or a lack of access to credit, projects seek to ensure that children are given the opportunity to pursue available schooling. These examples are indicative of the kinds of strategies targeted projects use in seeking to overcome barriers related to a poverty of opportunity.

D. Availability of Work

In order for child labor to exist, not only must children be willing to work, but employers must be willing to hire them. The decision to hire a child is affected by many factors, including child labor laws; what is acceptable in the community; the perceived savings from hiring children as opposed to adults; and the availability of children for work. Efforts to address the demand for child labor are underway at the international, national, and community level.

The following discussion considers how strategies at each of these levels can have a significant impact in reducing the availability of work that exploits children and puts them in harm’s way.

1. International and National Initiatives

At the international level, bodies such as the ILO can help focus public scrutiny on the problem of child labor and send a unified signal as to what are and are not acceptable activities for children. The unanimous adoption by the ILO of Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor on June 17, 1999, sends a clear signal that child labor is a global issue that can neither be denied nor ignored. The Convention identifies the types of child labor that should be illegal and requires that ratifying countries “take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor as a matter of urgency.”⁶⁹ This type of international action is an important step towards eliminating child labor. Earlier conventions such as the ILO’s Minimum Age Convention (No. 138) and the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child similarly assert the importance of protecting children from exploitative work. These international agreements, by raising awareness about child labor, establishing minimum standards, and encouraging action by governments, maintain pressure within the international community to address this global problem.

On a national level, the passage and enforcement of laws prohibiting employment of children to work under a specified age and particularly in hazardous industries can also make it more difficult to hire children. Child labor laws provide an institutional framework for addressing child labor within a country. Minimum work age laws can contribute even more effectively to the elimination of child labor when combined with mandatory education laws.

2. Initiatives Addressing the Demand for Children’s Work

While international and national efforts to address the demand for child labor help create an environment conducive to change, targeted projects can often provide more immediate action in sectors where child labor is particularly prominent or harmful to children. In the most extreme forms of child labor, such as the commercial sexual exploitation of children, rescuing children may be the highest priority (See Box IV-3). In general, projects utilize a variety of strategies to reduce demand for child labor. The following section considers three of the most prominent: (a) collaborative efforts with employers to remove children from exploitative work; (b) monitoring of such collaborative efforts to ensure positive results; and (c) promoting technological alternatives to child labor.

a. Collaborative Efforts

By encouraging collaborations with industry, employer, and worker organizations, targeted projects seek to address the hiring practices that permit recruitment of children. Such projects also help make employers more aware of the extent and nature of child labor in their industry, the dangers to which working children are exposed, and the benefits that working children forgo by not attending school.

• For example, as part of the IPEC country program in Tanzania, the Association of Tanzania Employers has promoted dialogue on child labor with employers from tea and coffee plantations. Workshops on child labor were organized to enlist cooperation and collaboration in addressing child labor.⁷⁰ The workshops involved discussions on a variety of topics, including the causes and hazards of child labor on plantations, the role plantation owners can play and the strategies they can use to prevent child labor, and how to formulate and implement plans of action.⁷¹

• On July 4, 1995, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the ILO, and UNICEF signed a Memorandum of Understanding to take actions to eliminate child labor in Bangladesh’s garment industry. The project initially aimed to withdraw approximately 10,000 child workers under 14 years of age from 2,000 garment factories and provide them with educational opportunities.⁷² Since it started, the BGMEA project has enrolled about 8,281 ex-garment child laborers in nonformal schools.⁷³

• In Pakistan, industry groups have been actively involved in efforts to eliminate child labor in the soccer ball industry. In February of 1997, the Sialkot Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the ILO, and UNICEF signed a Partner’s Agreement to Eliminate Child Labor in the Soccer Ball Industry in Pakistan. The agreement included a provision to withdraw children from work once educational alternatives were available for them. The project established a monitoring system to ensure that industry members did not employ children in violation of the agreement. Initially, 22 manufacturers participated in the program; a figure that has since grown to 52 manufacturers.⁷⁴

• In Kenya, the Federation of Kenyan Employers (FKE) has worked in collaboration with IPEC to establish a Child Labour Unit. This unit has conducted research on the hazardous conditions children face working on sugar, coffee, and rice plantations. The project has sought to make employers aware of the need to reduce their reliance on child labor and improve working conditions. FKE members have also worked with the Kenyan government towards promoting children’s attendance in school; incorporation of universal compulsory primary education into the country’s Education Act; and improvements in work conditions through the provision of health care, longer rest periods, the use of protective clothing, and the establishment of day care centers.⁷⁵

By encouraging collaboration with trade unions, some projects seek to promote the inclusion of labor standards within collective bargaining agreements with employers.

• In Brazil, IPEC supported the efforts of the National Confederation of Workers in Agriculture (CONTAG) to organize an awareness raising program providing training for unionists, workers, and the general public in 88 municipalities. The program focused on training unionists on how to include child protection clauses in the collective agreements with employers. The union also disseminated anti-child labor messages on over 200 radio stations in rural areas.⁷⁶

b. Monitoring

An important part of collaborative agreements with industry groups is the establishment of a monitoring component that is reliable and transparent. In many cases, monitoring efforts are critical to withdrawing children from exploitative work and ensuring that children are not rehired in the future.⁷⁷

• In Pakistan, soccer ball manufacturers agreed to shift production from homes to stitching centers to allow for more systematic and effective monitoring. Manufacturers then developed an agreed upon system of internal and external monitoring.⁷⁸ By August 1999, 799 stitching centers had been opened. Ninety-three percent of soccer ball production by member manufacturers had been successfully transferred from unmonitored manufacturing sites to these ILO-monitored centers.⁷⁹

• In Bangladesh, the ILO has identified quality monitoring as critical to the success of its garment manufacturing project. Monitors have maintained pressure on industry partners and encouraged their continuing commitment to the project’s goals. Since the project began, the occurrence of child labor in BGMEA member factories has dropped dramatically. Originally, child labor was found in 34.1 percent of member factories, while in 1999, child labor was reported in only 3.2 percent of these factories. During the first six months of 1999, monitors reported 293 instances of children working in violation of the agreement. By contrast, 795 cases had been reported during the same period in 1998.⁸⁰ Over 17,000 visits have been conducted since regular monitoring began. Information from these visits has been entered into a database on the prevalence of child labor in BGMEA factories that is used to chart the project’s progress and performance.⁸¹

• In Indonesia and the Philippines, programs are being established in collaboration with IPEC that aim to monitor the use of child labor in certain sectors of the fishing industry. In the Philippines, fleet owners contract crews, including children, to work on fishing vessels for a period of ten months. IPEC plans to monitor crews when they come ashore in the two key cities, Puerto Princesa and Quezon, on Palawan. As part of the government’s 1999 action plan, the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is already inspecting crews before they board fishing vessels. IPEC monitoring will be conducted in close cooperation with BFAR.⁸² Through their combined efforts, IPEC and BFAR aim to raise awareness about the extent of child labor in the Philippine fishing industry and to pressure employers to avoid future recruitment of children.

• In Indonesia, IPEC will support the ongoing efforts of the labor inspectorate under the Program of the Governor of North Sumatra. The labor inspectorate has already begun monitoring and inspecting of the fishing platforms (jermals) where children currently work. IPEC will set up a data base system to record information gathered during government monitoring visits and advise the inspectorate on how to make their monitoring system more efficient and effective. By collaborating and supporting an already existing monitoring system, IPEC aims to improve law enforcement efforts and encourage industry compliance with national laws.⁸³

c. Technological Innovation

In some industries and sectors, technological innovation offers a practical method for reducing the demand for child labor. Demand for child labor often results from an industry’s need for inexpensive, low skilled labor. By introducing labor-saving technologies, targeted projects aim to remove children from work and free up time for them to pursue schooling.

• In Turkey, a project focused on girls who worked at home, spending up to three hours a day cutting wood to heat water for other chores such as washing dishes. To enable these girls to focus on school, the project purchased twenty solar powered water heaters.⁸⁴ The introduction of this new technology played a significant role in advancing the project’s main goal of increasing girls’ school attendance.

• In Santa Filomena, Peru, an IPEC supported project targeting children working in the gold mining industry installed an electric winch to carry minerals. The winch eliminated the need for children to carry heavy loads from mine shafts up to 200 meters below the surface.⁸⁵

• As described earlier, IPEC’s stone quarry project in Guatemala used a revolving credit fund to help families start their own enterprises, including the purchase of a stone chipping, or “titration”, machine by a group of ten families. The titration machine cuts more stones than either children or adult workers could cut by hand and produced higher quality stone chips. As explained earlier, the parents agreed to withdraw their children from work and enroll them in schools as part of the loan agreement.⁸⁶

As these examples illustrate, technologies that take the place of children in the workplace can help to reduce demand for child labor. Combined with other strategies, such technologies can help families earn more income, while freeing children from work and creating time for them to reap the benefits of schooling.

E. Multi-Faceted Approaches to Addressing Child Labor

Chapter IV has outlined examples of policies and strategies intended to help children overcome specific barriers to transitioning from work to school. Often, however, children and their families face a combination of barriers. The most effective approach to child labor, in such cases, may involve combining complementary strategies. Several of the targeted projects described in this chapter utilize this multi-faceted approach to help working children and their families.

In Retalhuleu, Guatemala, the IPEC-supported stone quarries project sought to eliminate hazardous child labor by promoting income-generating activities and credit access and introducing new technology. These components were supplemented with mobile educational units, teacher training, and health related assistance for the families of working children.⁸⁷

IPEC-supported projects in two Peruvian mining communities provided families of working children with economic alternatives to child labor and introduced new technology in the form of an electric winch to reduce the need and demand for working children. The projects also sought to raise awareness about child labor; make education more affordable for families; provide teacher training; and support classes for children on the dangers of mining.⁸⁸

In Bangladesh, a multi-faceted approach was similarly used in the BGMEA garment sector project. The project involved collaboration among employers, the ILO, and UNICEF to withdraw children from work and place them in educational settings. It also included income-generating opportunities for families and a monitoring component to identify where children worked and prevent further hiring of children.

F. Conclusion

As the chapter has shown, overcoming the many barriers faced by working children and their families requires effective policies and strategies that address the causes of child labor and support education as the single best alternative for children. Such efforts can take place on many levels. International initiatives to establish enforceable standards on child labor encourage progress within countries. National policies can be effective in creating economic, educational, and legal environments that curb child labor while promoting investments in children’s education. These international and national efforts can also be supplemented with targeted projects that seek to address the more immediate needs of working children and their families.

This chapter has used ILO/IPEC demonstration projects as examples to illustrate the kinds of strategies that can be used in seeking to address barriers created by a poverty of resources, a poverty of opportunity, and the availability of work. Such demonstration projects can help encourage broader responses to allocate the necessary resources to deal effectively with national child labor problems. Emphasis must be placed on evaluation of these projects to ensure that only the most effective and efficient strategies are replicated. With this goal in mind, IPEC is working with the support of the U.S. Department of Labor to enhance its project evaluation process.

¹ See By the Sweat & Toil of Children, Volume V: Efforts to Eliminate Child Labor (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor, 1998) 51-54, 71-79, 83-108 [hereinafter By the Sweat and Toil of Children, Volume V].

² USAID supports education activities in over 30 countries, including funding for basic education in support of primary and secondary education. USAID’s Center for Human Capacity Development seeks to help countries develop comprehensive policies for improved learning environments and universal completion of basic education with a special focus on improving opportunities for girls, underserved and disadvantaged populations. For further detail, see http://www.info.usaid.gov/educ_training/

³ UNESCO seeks to promote exchange of information on education worldwide by collecting data on education and disseminating it through a network of almost 40 thousand organizations and institutions. Its goals include to “share ideas, encourage innovation and reform, and promote international co-operation in education.” For further detail, see http://www.unesco.org/

⁴ UNICEF carries out programs in over 161 countries, areas and territories, promoting children’s access to immunization, routine health services, better sanitation, safe water, and improved schooling. For further detail, see http://www.unicef.org/programme/

⁵ U.S. House of Representatives, Sixty-Eighth Congress, First Session: “Proposed Child Labor Amendments to the Constitution of the United States,” (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1924) Serial 16, p. 268.

⁶ Ibid.

⁷ P. Fallon and Z. Tzannatos Child Labor: Issues and Directions for the World Bank (Washington, D.C.: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 1998) vi, 10 [hereinafter Child Labor: Issues and Directions].

⁸ For more on the connection between macroeconomic policies, growth, and development, see generally World Bank, World Development 1999/2000 Entering the 21^st Century: The Changing Development Landscape (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).

⁹ “Macroeconomic imbalances” may include sizeable domestic budget deficits, balance of payments deficits, and interest and exchange rates which do not reflect market conditions.

¹⁰ James H. Weaver, “What is Structural Adjustment?” in Daniel Schydlowsky, ed., Structural Adjustment: Retrospect and Prospect (Westport, CT: Preager Publishers, 1995) 8-11 [hereinafter “What is Structural Adjustment?”].

¹¹ The State of the World’s Children, 1997 (New York: UNICEF, 1996) 28.

¹² “ILO/IPEC Programme in United Republic of Tanzania” (www.ilo.org/public/english/ 90ipec/action/ 33africa/tanzan98.htm) [hereinafter “ILO/IPEC in Tanzania”].

¹³ Kevin Watkins, The IMF: Wrong Diagnosis, Wrong Medicine (Oxford: Oxfam International, 1999) 1.

¹⁴ Ibid. at 5.

¹⁵ “The IMF and the Poor,” Fiscal Affairs Department Pamphlet Series No. 52 (Washington, D.C.: International Monetary Fund, 1998) 10, Figure 1.

¹⁶ “What is Structural Adjustment?” at 15 and Social Dimensions of IMF’s Policy Dialogue, Pamphlet Series No. 47 (Washington, D.C.: International Monetary Fund, 1995) 2 [hereinafter Social Dimensions of IMF’s Policy].

¹⁷ Social Dimensions of IMF’s Policy at 2. Another IMF publication states, “[T]here is an increasing recognition that much more can and should be done in both Bank and Fund supported programs to ensure a better integration of economic policies and social objectives.” “Status Report on Follow Up to the Reviews of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility” (www.imf.org/external/np/esaf/status/index.htm) V, 1. [hereinafter “Reviews of Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility”].

¹⁸ “Reviews of Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility” at II.

¹⁹ Child Labor: Issues and Directions at vi. The World Bank stresses this point again noting that poverty reduction is “a lengthy process that, even when successful, will in practice tend to raise the incomes of the poor unevenly, thus leaving room for a substantial incidents of child labor for some time to come.” Ibid. at 10.

²⁰ In the stone quarries of Retalhuleu, Guatemala, children as young as five work chipping stones into pieces and carrying heavy loads on their backs to transport areas. Since quarries pay low wages, children are often forced to work long hours to help their families. These children face risks such as the loss of eyesight, bronchitis and other lung diseases, skin diseases, and the loss of limbs. If accidents occur, prompt medical attention is rare since hospitals and medical centers are often located miles away from the stone quarries and transportation is seldom readily available. Few children attend school, and many are illiterate. In part, this is because schools are located far away and the school curriculum is frequently inadequate.“ See Informa Ejecutivo: Programa de Acción Local Niñez Trabajadora Picondo Piedra—Retalhuleu, Guatemala (Guatemala City: ILO/IPEC, July 1999) 2-4 [hereinafter Programa de Niñez Trabajadora Picondo Piedra—Retalhuleu, Guatemala].

²¹ Combating Child Labour in Central America, Programme Report (Geneva: ILO/IPEC, April 1999) 5 [hereinafter Combating Child Labour in Central America].

²² Local Familias Piedrineras Retalhuleu, Ficha de Seguimiento de programa de acción (Geneva: ILO/IPEC) Response to DOL follow up questions (San Jose: ILO/IPEC Nov. 1999) [hereinafter Local Familias Piedrineras Retalhuleu].

²³ In Peru, as many as 100,000 children and adolescents may be involved in the mining industry. They carry food and tools, assist in drilling and blasting operations, work with mercury in the amalgamation process, and haul heavy loads of ore from deep in the mine’s interior. The work places their health at risk daily and prevents many children from attending school. Program to prevent and eliminate child labor in small-scale traditional mining in South America, Project Document (Geneva: ILO/IPEC, 1999) 2 [hereinafter South America Mining Project Document].

²⁴ U.S. Embassy - Lima, unclassified telegram no. 03383, June 3, 1999 [hereinafter Lima telegram no. 03383].

²⁵ Programa de erradicación del trabajo infantil en el caserío minero artesanal Santa Filomena (Lima: CooperAcción con el apoyo de ILO/IPEC, 1999) 49 [hereinafter Programa, Santa Filomena].

²⁶ Prevençào do trabalho Infantil: Experiência do Sindicato dos Trabalhodores Rurais de Retirolândia (Retirolândia/ Bahia: Sindicato dos Trabalhodores Rurais de Retirolândia, 1996) 7.

²⁷ In Bangladesh, the garment industry has grown dramatically over the past twenty years, from fewer than 50 factories and 10,000 employees in 1983 to over 2,500 factories and 1.4 million employees in 1998. Unfortunately, part of this growth was based on the labor of children. As reports from various agencies documented the widespread use of child labor in this sector, Bangladesh’s garment industry came under increasing pressure to address the problem. On July 4, 1995, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the International Labor Organization, and UNICEF signed a Memorandum of Understanding to take actions to eliminate child labor in this industry.

²⁸ Electronic correspondence from Rijk Van Haarlem of the ILO to U.S. Department of Labor Official (October 27, 1999) [hereinafter Electronic correspondence, Van Haarlem, October 27, 1999].

²⁹ Ibid. See also “Progress Report BGMEA/ILO/UNICEF, Child Labor Project, January-June 1999” (7/13/99) 14 [document on file][hereinafter “BGMEA progress report, July 1999”].

³⁰ Interview with Sule Caglar, Director, ILO/IPEC Ankara, by U.S. Department of Labor official (April 23, 1998). Interview with Ahmet Saltik, Coordinator for Rural Development, and Nilufer Dersan, Economist, Development Foundation of Turkey, by U.S. Department of Labor official (April 30, 1998). See also Vocational Training for Rural Child Labour: Final Output Report (Ankara: Development Foundation of Turkey, 1996) 2.

³¹ Child Labor in Rural Turkey: The Example of Dura_an (Ankara: ILO/IPEC-DFT, undated) [information sheet on file].

³² Electronic correspondence from Sule Caglar, Director, ILO/IPEC Ankara, to U.S. Department of Labor Official (September 3, 1998).

³³ School meal programs have the added benefit of improving the health of children that participate in these programs.

³⁴ Implementation Report: Review of IPEC Experience 1992-1995 (Geneva: ILO/IPEC, 1995) 19 [hereinafter IPEC Implementation Report 1992-1995].

³⁵ IPEC in action across four continents, Fact Sheet (Geneva: ILO/IPEC, January 1997) 2.

³⁶ In many cases, working children may be unable or have difficulty in transitioning directly into formal school settings. They may be unfamiliar with the expectations of a formal classroom or be much older than other students at their grade level. Nonformal education, in such instances, may help to bridge the gap between working children and schooling. Nonformal education may include drop-in centers or mobile educational units, and may provide for flexible schooling hours or specialized curriculum geared to the needs of working children. See N. Hapsels and M. Jankanish, Action against child labour (ILO-IPEC, Geneva, 1999) 175, 181 [unpublished].

³⁷ IPEC Implementation Report 1992-1995 at 19.

³⁸ According to UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy, “If you provide a community with universal primary education, you essentially immunize it against the worst excesses of child labour. When children are in school, they’re simply not available to the most pernicious forms of child labour.” See “Schooling seen as solution to child labour,” UNICEF Press Release (September 3, 1999) (www.unicef.org/newsline/99pr36.htm). See also A. Bequele and W. E. Myers, First Things First in Child Labour: Eliminating Work Detrimental to Children (Geneva: ILO/UNICEF 1995) 123. By the Sweat and Toil of Children, Volume V at 55-79, 112.

³⁹ By the Sweat and Toil of Children, Volume V at 56-60.

⁴⁰ Ibid. at 64.

⁴¹ The program also provided income generating alternatives to families, medical services, and built the capacity of 13 communities involved to take action against child labor. “Guatemala: Programme success for removing children from stone quarries” IPEC Fact Sheet 20 (Geneva: ILO/IPEC, July 1999).

⁴² Programa de Eradicación del Trabajo Infantil en la Comunidad Minera Artesanal de Mollehuaca (Lima: Agencia Espa_ola de Cooperación Internacional and IPEC, 1999) 38.

⁴³ Lima telegram no. 03383; see also South America Mining Project Document at 2.

⁴⁴ Work in the stone quarries involves stacking stones, loading stones, and breaking stones into pieces. Children performing such work regularly inhale dust and are sometimes injured when hammers are accidentally dropped or when stone pieces splinter. Under India’s Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986, stone quarrying is considered a hazardous occupation. Electronic correspondence from M.P. Joseph, ILO/IPEC, to U.S. Department of Labor official (December 9, 1999).

⁴⁵ Electronic correspondence from M.P. Joseph, ILO/IPEC, to U.S. Department of Labor official (December 9, 1999). See also “Children in Mining and Quarries,” fact sheet from Abolishing Extreme Forms of Child Labour, (Geneva: ILO/IPEC, 1998).

⁴⁶ The State of the World’s Children 1999 (New York: UNICEF, 1998) 8-9.

⁴⁷ For example, math and statistics may be taught by having students conduct a survey of the number of houses and water buffalo in the local village. In this way, the program seeks to make subjects enjoyable and relevant to children’s lives. Ibid. at 48. See also By the Sweat and Toil of Children, Volume V at 105-107.

⁴⁸ Meeting with Shanta Sinha, Executive Director, MVFoundation, Ranga Reddy District, Andhra Pradesh, India (May 14, 1998) [document on file].

⁴⁹ Combating Child Labour in Central America at 6. See Programa de Niñez Trabajadora Picondo Piedra—Retalhuleu, Guatemala at 2.

⁵⁰ “IPEC at a glance.”

⁵¹ “Thailand: education makes a difference in preventing child trafficking and sexual exploitation,” Fact Sheet 9 (Geneva: ILO/IPEC, July 1999) [hereinafter “ILO/IPEC Fact Sheet 9”].

⁵² “Daughters’ Education Programme” (Mae Sai: DEP, undated) [document on file].

⁵³ Electronic correspondence from Chongcharoen Sornkaew to U.S. Department of Labor Official (November 25, 1999).

⁵⁴ “ILO/IPEC Fact Sheet 9” (Geneva: ILO/IPEC, July 1999).

⁵⁵ Electronic correspondence from Paschal Wabiya, to U.S. Department of Labor Official (November 25, 1999).

⁵⁶ Electronic correspondence from Klaus Guenther, ILO/IPEC, to U.S. Department of Labor official (December 6, 1999) [on file].

⁵⁷ National Action for the Prevention and Elimination of Child Labor in Romania, Project document (Geneva: ILO/IPEC, February 1999) 13-14.

⁵⁸ Electronic correspondence from William Mallya, National Program Coordinator for Tanzania, ILO/IPEC, to U.S. Department of Labor International Child Labor Program (Nov. 29, 1999) [hereinafter Electronic correspondence, Mallya].

⁵⁹ “ILO/IPEC in Tanzania.”

⁶⁰ Programa, Santa Filomena at 46-47.

⁶¹ IPEC Implementation Report 1992-1995 at 122.

⁶² “IPEC in Action: Asia—Major steps towards the elimination of child labour in Nepal” (www.ilo.org/public/english/90ipec/action/31asia/nepal.htm).

⁶³ IPEC Implementation Report 1992-1995 at 107.

⁶⁴ Ibid. at 123. See also Joseph J. Mugalla, “Combating Child Labour in Kenya—COTU’s Approach” (May 24, 1995) [document on file].

⁶⁵ Telephone interview with César Peña, IPEC Dominican Republic Country Director (Oct. 28,1999).

⁶⁶ Local Familias Piedrineras Retalhuleu Ficha de Seguimento de programa de acción (Santose: ILO/IPEC, November 1999). See also “Budget—Guatemala” (4/7/98) [document on file].

⁶⁷ Combating Child Labour in Central America at 5.

⁶⁸ Program to Combat Child Labor in the Footwear Sector in South East Asia, Project Document (Geneva: ILO/IPEC, 1999) 16, 24.

⁶⁹ International Labor Organization, Convention 182, Article 1.

⁷⁰ “ILO/IPEC in Tanzania.”

⁷¹ Electronic correspondence, Mallya.

⁷² Verification and Monitoring System for the Elimination and Prevention of Child Labour in BGMEA Factories and the Placement of Child Workers in School Programmes—Project Document (Geneva: ILO/IPEC, January 24, 1996).

⁷³ Electronic correspondence from Rijk Van Haarlem to U.S. Department of Labor Official (September 22, 1999) [document on file].

⁷⁴ Elimination of child labor in the soccer ball industry in Sialkot, Pakistan, Project Document (ILO/IPEC, 1997); Report on Progress of the Monitoring Component 7/26/99–8/25/99 (Sialkot: ILO, 1999) [document on file].

⁷⁵ Implementation Report: Review of IPEC Experience 1992-1995 (Geneva: ILO/IPEC, 1995) 43-44, 122-123.

⁷⁶ Ibid. at 103.

⁷⁷ While IPEC monitoring components are tailored to individual projects, all are based on the same core principle— monitoring exists to ensure that projects achieve their desired outcomes. Alex Fyfe, Child Labor: A Guide to Project Design (Geneva: ILO, 1993) 43-44.

⁷⁸ Elimination of child labor in the soccer ball industry in Sialkot, Pakistan, Project Document (ILO/IPEC, 1997).

⁷⁹ Elimination of child labor in the soccer ball industry in Sialkot, Pakistan, Project Document (ILO/IPEC, 1997). Report on Progress of the Monitoring Component 7/26/99–8/25/99 (Sailkot: ILO, 1999) 1-2.

⁸⁰ “Electronic correspondence, Van Haarlem , October 27, 1999”and BGMEA progress report, July 1999 at 5.

⁸¹ BGMEA progress report, July 1999 at 3.

⁸² Programme to Combat Child Labor in the Fishing Sector, Indonesia and the Philippines (Phase 1), Project Document (Geneva: ILO/IPEC 1999) 16-17.

⁸³ Ibid. at 15-16.

⁸⁴ Interview with Sule Caglar, Director, ILO/IPEC Ankara, by U.S. Department of Labor official (April 23, 1998).

⁸⁵ Programa, Santa Filomena at 47. See also Manuel de uso del Winche (Lima, Peru: CooperAcción con el apoyo de ILO/IPEC, 1999).

⁸⁶ Combating Child Labor in Central America, Programme Update (Geneva: ILO/IPEC, April 1999) 5. Local Familias Piedrineras Retalhuleu.

⁸⁷ The project built a community based pharmacy, trained health promoters, and provided families with health and first aid training. Informe Ejecutivo, Programa de Acción Local Niñez Trabajadora Picando Piedra – Retalhuleu, Guatemala (Guatemala: ILO/IPEC, 1999) 2-4. Local Familias Piedrineras Retalhuleu. Electronic correspondence from ILO/IPEC to U.S. Department of Labor official (San Jose: ILO/IPEC Nov. 18, 1999).

⁸⁸ South America Mining Project Document at 3-4; see also Lima telegram no. 03383.