World Day Against Child Labour – global targets missed but there is some progress

Although the world has failed dismally to meet the Sustainable Development Goal of elimination of child labour by 2025, new figures released by the ILO and UNICEF one day before World Day Against Child Labour do show some welcome progress with child labour down from 160 million children to 138 million. However, there are still 54 million children doing work which is likely to damage their health, safety and development.

• Agriculture remains the biggest single user of child labour. The percentage figure has gone down from 70% to 61% but this is due in part to the growth in the global population and its shift from rural to urban areas. The absolute number of children working in agriculture remains the same - 85 million - most of them on small, family farms but millions working in global supply chains
• Asia and the Pacific achieved the most significant reduction with the child labour down from 49 million to 28 million children
• Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for nearly two-thirds of all children in child labour with around 87 million working children, most of them in agriculture
• The report also noted the impact of climate change on working conditions saying that children in agricultural work, for example, are exposed to increased heat stress, insect-borne diseases, dust, wildfires and higher reliance on pesticides, all of which impact their health, development and well-being
• At the release of the report, ILO Director-General, Gilbert Houngbo commented "The findings of our report offer hope and show that progress is possible. Children belong in school, not in work. Parents must themselves be supported and have access to decent work so that they can afford to ensure that their children are in classrooms and not selling things in markets or working in family farms to help support their family. But we must not be blindsided, we still have a long way to go before we achieve our goal of eliminating child labour."
• UNICEF's Executive Director Catherine Russell warned that cuts in global funding threatened to roll back the "hard-earned gains" and called for recommitment to "ensuring that children are in classrooms and playgrounds, not at work."

Source: Child Labour: Global estimates 2024, trends and the road forward