Ending Child Labor

Ending Child Labor: Pathways and Solutions

Roughly 138 million children globally are in child labor instead of learning – a solvable challenge. Child labor traps families in poverty, denies children education, and undermines development. While about 22 million fewer children are in child labor since 2020, proven approaches must scale faster. This article maps evidence-based pathways from social protection to transparent supply chains.

The Problem

Child labor keeps 138 million children aged 5–17 from education and safety, with an estimated 54 million in hazardous work. Sub-Saharan Africa carries about 63% of the global burden, and around 61% of all child labor occurs in agriculture.

Possible Solutions

Universal child benefits and family income support

Poverty is the primary driver of child labor. Comprehensive social protection systems – especially regular child and family benefits – reduce the need for children to work and help families keep children in school.

Why it works: Evidence across countries shows social protection reduces child labor risk by stabilizing household income and offsetting school-related costs.

How to scale: Governments can establish universal or near-universal child benefits, financed progressively. Typical spending is about 0.4% of GDP in low- and middle-income countries (global average near 1.1%), based on existing national programmes. Phasing can start with means-tested schemes and expand to full coverage within 5–10 years, with international partners supporting startup and transition financing.

Free, high-quality, full-day education with supporting services

As of 2023, about 272 million children and youth are out of school worldwide. Full-day schooling with meals, transport, and after-school programmes removes cost/time barriers and supports parental employment.

Why it works: Extending compulsory schooling and time in school reduces child labor. For example, one quasi-experimental study in India found that one additional semester of compulsory schooling reduced child labor by about 8 percentage points.

How to scale: Eliminate school fees; invest in rural school infrastructure; extend school days from 4–5 to 7–8 hours over five years. Use cascading teacher-training models to reach all educators within three years. Bilateral partnerships can accelerate build-out in high-prevalence regions.

Transparent supply chain monitoring using technology

Child labor in commercial supply chains is often invisible, especially in agriculture. Digital traceability and community-linked monitoring can surface risks and enable remediation.

Why it works: In a blockchain-based pilot in Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa sector, farmer group participation reached 100% and schools 95.6%, enabling verification and detection of violations.

How to scale: Deploy traceability and risk-screening tools across cocoa, coffee, cotton and minerals within 3–5 years, with offline-capable SMS/feature-phone options. Link school-attendance and remediation records (with safeguards). Public procurement and investor requirements can accelerate adoption.

Corporate due diligence with enforcement mechanisms

Strong due diligence laws make prevention and remediation of child labor a legal obligation rather than a voluntary pledge.

Why it works: When companies must identify, prevent and remediate risks – and disclose their progress – legal and market pressures drive real action.

How to scale: Adopt comprehensive due diligence laws with 2–3 year transition periods; resource specialised enforcement; and cooperate regionally to avoid regulatory arbitrage.

Community-based monitoring with youth leadership

Most child labor occurs in family enterprises and informal settings – beyond the reach of standard labor inspection. Youth-inclusive, community-based monitoring connects families, schools and social services.

Why it works: In cocoa-sector child labor monitoring and remediation systems (CLMRS), follow-up data show meaningful progress: in one multi-country review, 49% of identified children were not in hazardous child labor at their most recent follow-up, and 29% had stopped across two consecutive follow-ups – a more conservative “sustained” measure.

How to scale: Train local youth monitors, provide stipends or scholarships, and digitize case management. Start with districts covering 1,000–2,000 children; integrate with national child-protection systems within two years; scale nationwide in five.

Living-income models in agricultural cooperatives

Farmer poverty is a root cause of child labor. Living-income pricing, income diversification and community childcare reduce dependency on children’s work.

Why it works: Paying towards living-income reference prices and rewarding school enrolment reduce child-labor risks. For instance, Nestlé’s Income Accelerator offers time-bound incentives (up to €500 per household in the first two years; €250 thereafter) tied to school enrolment and good agricultural practices, with verification by partners including ICI and Rainforest Alliance.

How to scale: Cooperatives can negotiate long-term purchase commitments at living-income-aligned prices and access concessional finance for mechanisation and childcare. Sector coalitions (e.g., Tony’s Open Chain; Fairtrade Living Income Reference Prices) help standardise methods.

What You Can Do

Through Expertise

Legal professionals – train inspectors or provide pro bono support; educators – develop bridging curricula; technologists – contribute to open-source monitoring/traceability tools; development economists – run impact evaluations; social workers – mentor community monitors.

Through Participation

Buy certified products with credible, risk-based monitoring; support legislation for mandatory due diligence; exercise shareholder voice for supply-chain transparency; organise community monitoring in producing regions.

Through Support

Monthly giving sustains long-term interventions; sponsorships can cover schooling costs; one-time donations can fund classrooms, childcare facilities and connectivity; corporate giving can underwrite full supply-chain packages (education + income support + monitoring).

FAQ

What exactly counts as child labor versus acceptable work?

Child labor is work that children are too young to perform or that harms health, safety or development. Typically: any economic activity by children under 12, and hazardous work by those under 18. Light family help outside school time is not necessarily harmful if it neither interferes with education nor endangers health.

How can I personally help end child labor?

Prefer products with strong certification/monitoring, support organisations working on education and family income security, and advocate for robust corporate due diligence laws. If you have relevant skills (legal, educational, technical), many organisations need skilled volunteers.

Could technology and fair trade actually eliminate child labor globally?

Technology enables verifiable transparency – when school attendance and production records are logged on tamper-evident systems with community verification, hiding violations becomes hard. Certification alone isn’t enough if poverty persists; combined with living-income pricing, mechanisation and community monitoring, evidence shows significant reductions.

What would complete elimination require?

A comprehensive package: universal child benefits (~0.4–1.1% of GDP depending on context), free quality education, enforceable due diligence, living-income pricing, community monitoring and decent-work programmes for adults. With accelerated investment and coordination, elimination is feasible within two to three decades – faster with strong international financing.

Conclusion

Ending child labor requires integrated pathways: family economic security, accessible quality education, transparent supply chains and enforced accountability. Social protection systems consistently reduce child labor when well-designed and funded; technology lifts visibility in supply chains; community-based monitoring reaches informal sectors. Implementation pace – not lack of solutions – determines the timeline.

Organizations Working on This Issue

GoodWeave International – goodweave.org

• What they do: Certify carpets, textiles and home goods via unannounced inspections; provide education and remediation for rescued children.
• Concrete results: 11,171 children freed; 102,918 children given educational opportunities (running totals).
• Current limitations: Home-based and highly fragmented supply chains remain hard to monitor end-to-end.
• How to help: Donate at goodweave.org/take-action/donate; purchase certified products; businesses can become licensees.

UNICEF Child Protection – unicef.org/protection/child-labour

• What they do: Global estimates, policy support, social protection and education access in 190+ countries.
• Concrete results: With ILO, documented decline from 160m (2020) to 138m (2024/25).
• How to help: Donate; advocate for child-focused social protection and education finance.

World Vision – wvi.org/our-work/child-protection

• What they do: Child protection systems, education access and livelihoods support across 100+ countries.
• Concrete results: Programmes address root causes and strengthen community protection systems.
• How to help: Child sponsorship and monthly giving; policy advocacy.

Pencils of Promise – pencilsofpromise.org

• What they do: Build and support schools; teacher training; WASH in Ghana, Guatemala and Laos.
• Concrete results: 600+ schools built; ~288,000 students impacted; ~900,000 community members reached (org materials).
• How to help: Fund a school build; monthly donations; corporate partnerships.

Fairtrade International – fairtrade.net

• What they do: Standards and audits; youth-inclusive community-based monitoring (YICBMR); support for cooperatives in West Africa.
• Concrete results: Suspensions/decertifications for non-compliance; ongoing funding windows for child-labour prevention/remediation in cooperatives.
• How to help: Buy Fairtrade-certified products; ask brands to join; support due-diligence laws.

Inspirational Resources

• ILO & UNICEF. Global estimates and press materials on child labour – core statistics and trends.
• UNESCO GEM Report. Out-of-school dashboards and updates.
• ICI. Effectiveness Review of CLMRS.
• JICA. Blockchain pilot in Côte d’Ivoire cocoa.
• EU & Germany. Supply-chain due diligence frameworks.
• UNICEF. Child benefits and costs.