Our response

Save the children’s response to child labour varies according to country and context. However, there are general principles that inform the action we take.

In order to ensure boys and girls are protected against harmful work, Save the Children has a dual role.

• Firstly, to support direct interventions to prevent harmful work or improve the lives of working children.
• Secondly, to influence those who have a duty to children to fulfil their obligations, such as governments or employers.

Even if we might focus on one of these more than the other in particular places, for us the two roles are closely linked.

Interventions, such as helping children escape from carpet weaving by offering loans to their families, can make real change to the lives of children but they will never reach all children who need this intervention. Larger numbers can be reached by influencing governments or influential groups, thereby altering the way things work on a bigger scale. In all our work, then, Save the Children works with local partners to implement projects, and also as part of global movements for children and through international networks and NGOs.

Some campaigns have sought to combat child labour through the very simple model of supply and demand – claiming that if we don’t buy products made by children, this will free them from the oppression of their work. Sadly, if factories are forced to close, even by well-meaning campaigns in the Western world, children are often suddenly dismissed and can suffer a worse fate in the form of even more harmful forms of work, brought on through the desperation of even greater poverty.

Organisations like Save the Children argue for a progressive approach, working to end the worst forms of child work whilst making sure children’s families have alternatives when children stop working, as well as trying to persuade and influence companies to meet higher standards in the conditions they offer.

Despite a strong position on the issue of child labour we seek fruitful partnerships, working with other NGO’s to further children’s rights. We have worked in many capacities with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and can support their call for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour. This IPEC page outlines their approach and has many useful links and introductory information around our theme of child labour.