Ending Child Labour: A Call for Business Action and Accountability

Each year on June 12th, the UN World Day Against Child Labour highlights the plight of child labourers and what can be done to help them. With the SDG deadline only a few years away, the call to end child labour (target 8.7**) has taken on increased urgency. What can businesses do to return child labourers to the classroom? It turns out – quite a lot.

Child labour remains a pressing global issue, affecting millions of children worldwide. While progress has been made in reducing child labour, much work still needs to be done. Businesses, as key stakeholders in the global economy, have a crucial role to play in combating child labour and promoting ethical practices across their supply chains.

Understanding Child Labour

Child labour* refers to the employment of children in work that deprives them of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular schools, and is mentally, physically, socially, or morally harmful. It is a complex problem with multifaceted causes, including poverty, lack of access to education, inadequate legal protection, and supply chain dynamics.

Child labour has far-reaching consequences for both individual children and society as a whole. It perpetuates the cycle of poverty, deprives children of education and development opportunities, exposes them to hazardous conditions, compromises their physical and mental well-being, and hinders their long-term prospects. Moreover, child labour undermines social progress, perpetuates inequalities, and erodes human rights.

Zero tolerance is not enough

Businesses have a moral and ethical responsibility to ensure that their operations, as well as their supply chains, are free from child labour. By taking proactive measures, businesses can make a significant impact in eliminating this practice and promoting positive change.

Save the Children and The Centre for Child Rights and Business recently released the report; Child Rights Risks in Global Supply Chains: Why a ‘Zero Tolerance’ Approach is not Enough (2023).

In the report they set out three broad actions companies can take to improve their response to child labour issues within their supply chains:

1. “Increase visibility of child rights risks”, which means acknowledging child labour risks internally and externally. This includes: i) “Acknowledge that child labour is a challenge that needs to be addressed in partnership with suppliers”; ii) “Set coherent and interlinked sourcing strategies to address such risks”; and iii) “Acknowledge the importance of ASM for the livelihoods of millions of families.”;
2. “Understand and act upon the strong links between business practices and impacts on child rights.” Examples include: “Establish stronger and long-term partnerships with suppliers that allow for long-term agreements, sufficient lead times and regularity; “Address existing inequalities in supplier-buyer relationships by ensuring responsible sourcing practices and paying fair prices; “Enhance and enforce the implementation of policies and procedures that meet international standards and national laws”; and “Promote decent work for youth in the formal sector”;
3. “Ensure child rights-centered remediation systems” based on positive engagement rather than disengagement.

Gap between policies and practice:
What Global Child Forum’s Children’s Rights and Business Benchmark shows

The Corporate Sector and Children’s Rights Benchmark, conducted by Global Child Forum in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group since 2014, has been tracking the largest companies in the world, across all sectors, on what they are saying they’re doing to combat child labour.

The benchmark tracks not only whether a company has a policy against child labour, but also if the company shows how their policy is implemented and how they handle risks and impact on children’s lives.

According to past reports, one area ripe for improvement is transparency. Companies need to be clear about, not only what they intend to do via their policies, but also what they’ve actually done. Or in other words: what impact does their policy have on children’s lives or; what is the risk for child labour in their operations and/or supply chains.

In our last global benchmark report***, we clearly saw this gap between policies and practice – in all world regions. Broadly speaking, companies are good at communicating their commitments to their stakeholders but often failed to show how they implement their commitments or the effect of those commitments. Child labour is a complex issue, but findings from the benchmark report reveal that closing the disclosure gap, can be one step in the right direction.

The corporate sector needs to start treating child labour as a systemic issue, rather than as a reputational or financial risk. By seeing child labour not as a risk to the business, but as a risk to children (and their families), a whole new perspective and spectrum of potential actions open up, such as: supporting education; reviewing purchasing practices – short lead times, pricing pressure, etc -; family-friendly policies; remediation programmes; supporting youth job skills training; and so on. And this is when we see the gap start to close – moving from policy to positive impact.

Child labour is a deeply concerning issue that demands collective action. Businesses, with their significant economic influence and global reach, have a pivotal role to play in eradicating child labour. By prioritizing ethical practices, conducting due diligence across supply chains, and collaborating with stakeholders, businesses can contribute to the long-term goal of ensuring that no child is forced into labour. Together, let us strive for a future where every child can enjoy their rights, education, and a childhood free from exploitation.

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* Child labour is defined by the ILO as: “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.”

** SDG TARGET 8.7 – “Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.”

*** Global Child Forum will be releasing the next global benchmark, covering over 1,000 companies, in Q4. Please check the website for continual updates.