Ending child labor by 2025 requires effective action

Rome, Nov 3 (Prensa Latina) Ending the scourge of child labor by 2025 will require effective action and strong leadership, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) QU Dongyu said ahead of a two-day virtual forum.

November 3, 2021
00:05

Eliminating child labour by 2025 is the declared aim of Target 8.7 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

But with only four agricultural seasons left to reach the target, effective action and “strong and coherent leadership from agri-food stakeholders across the globe is critical to achieve SDG target 8.7,” QU said in his opening address to the Global Solutions Forum: Acting Together to End Child Labour in Agriculture.

A total of 160 million children worldwide -nearly 1 in 10- are engaged in child labor. About 70% of these children (112 million) work in crop production, livestock, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, according to the latest data available data.

Guy Ryder, Director General of the International Labour Organization, said “Child labour is not an escape road from poverty, it actually prolongs poverty; it makes poverty intergenerational. We have to help people out of this vicious circle of poverty and that’s not an easy task.”

Henrietta Fore, UNICEF´s Executive Director, said some of the solutions involve providing income support for vulnerable incomes, better health care and education, expanding birth registration, and social and child protection.

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