‘Child Labor and the EFA Initiative: The Challenge of Including Hard To Reach’
Oslo, October 20-21, 2008
Norway will be hosting the Eight Education for All (EFA) High-Level Group meeting during December 16-18, 2008. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs underscores their ambition of making the Oslo meeting a turning point for the EFA process by enhancing the political momentum of the process. The Oslo conference on child labor in 1997 marked the beginning of a decade of research and other initiatives aimed to better understand how to deal with the evils of child labor, and help children to access quality education instead. Norway’s continued promotion of the child labor issue and support to education for all has remained one of the pillars of its development financing to promote social justice for the poor and the weak.
Even though the progress is remarkable, but nonetheless, more than 218 million children are still involved in child labor. Norway has provided individual support for work on child labor to the ILO, UNICEF and the World Bank. They further encouraged and funded the establishment of the inter-institutional project Understanding Children’s Work (UCW) in 2000. Norwegian Government is also member of the Global Task Force on Child Labor and Education.
The UCW Project is guided by the Oslo Agenda for Action, unanimously adopted at the 1997 conference, which laid out the priorities for the international community in the fight against child labor. The Oslo Agenda specifically identified the need to improve data collection, research capacity and monitoring systems related to child labor, and called for stronger co-operation amongst international agencies involved in combating child labor.
The task of bringing 72 Million children remaining outside the schools is enormous challenge to the governments in poor countries. They are the “hard-to-reach children” remaining invisible. In many countries most of these invisible children are involved in labor, and working children face a particular set of obstacles to inclusion.
FAFO, Norway together with the Understanding Children's Work (ILO, World Bank and Unicef joint initiative) and Global March against Child Labor, a world wide movement of NGO’s and Trade Unions organized the workshop in Oslo on October 20–21 on ‘Child Labor and the EFA Initiative: The Challenge of Including Hard To Reach.’ This was supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its effort to generate concrete evidence based knowledge on getting hardest to reach children to schools with the objective that the outcomes can contribute to the EFA process for the 8th meeting of the High-Level Group in Oslo, Norway, from 16 to 18 December 2008.
Welcoming the participants to the workshop Anne Lene Dale Sandsten, Managing Director of Fafo's Institute for Applied International Studiesremarked that Child labor research has a close link to the challenges of increasing school attendance. She informed that a large share of FAFO research has taken place in Africa, the continent where we find the highest share of economically active children, and also where enrollment rates are the lowest. She also welcomed new ILO initiatives aiming to learn more about how conflict affects the situation of children involved in the Worst Forms of Child Labor and its impact on school attendance. Consequently, child labor research does not only provide information relevant for getting children out of work, but also for getting working as well as inactive children into school. Education is traditionally promoted through education policy and school based initiatives. Child labor research also points out how social policy interventions can and must be instrumental to reach “the remaining children out of school children”.
Speaking on the occasion Norwegian Deputy Minister of International Development Håkon Arald Guldbrandsen echoed the sentiments expressed earlier by the Director General of UNESCO at the launch of the World Day against Child labor -12 June this year, “The drive to end child labor and the quest to provide education for all are interdependent and must be worked for together.” He further added that “the Universal Primary Education is a Millennium Development Goal. And the elimination of child labor is a hidden goal that perhaps one may say is the 9th millennium Development Goal. Unchallenged child labor represents a serious obstacle to achieving education for all. Education is a key vehicle through which economically and socially marginalized children, youth and adults can lift themselves out of poverty and obtain the means to participate fully in their communities. We have during the last decade experienced an encouraging improvement in primary school enrolment. However, 72million primary-school-age children are still not enrolled. If we are to continue the advancement towards the Education for All goals, we must step up the effort to include the “hardest-to-reach”. We need to identify them and understand the reasons why they remain out of school. Research tells us that the majority of out-of-school children are child laborers, particularly children from poor rural households are underrepresented in school statistics since the demand for child labor in rural areas is high, the opportunity costs of bringing them to school are high, and parental education is low. Hence, combating child labor is imperative to achieving the EFA Goals, and to promoting social and economic inclusion of marginalized children. Thus, child labor does not only deprive children of their right to basic education and the social and economic gains that are likely to follow. It is harmful to children’s physical and psychological well being. Also when children combine studies with work, evidence states that academic performance, the likelihood of surviving the school system and the ability to derive educational benefits from school, are affected adversely”.
Speaking on the occasion Kailash Satyarthi, Chair Global March Against Child Labor and President, Global Campaign for Education mentioned that the denial of education to the children in poverty and using it as an excuse for failing to bring them to the classrooms is the single biggest scandal of the modern times. He said that education is the only way to empower the poor people, offer dignity, respect and security to them. He said that the ongoing efforts of the donor governments in committing resources to the EFA
either through the bilateral funding or through the mechanism of EFA-FTI specifically for the countries facing endemic child labor problem and large out of school children should raise serious sense of responsibility and accountability on those who are disbursing these funds to governments. It is time now to ask the Governments to come clean on recognizing the problem and undertaking scoping of the children missing out of schools. He cautioned that there is no visible reciprocal accountable mechanism to report whether this task has been embedded in the national process by the governments and
in the appraisal process by donors. He said that this will be a clear violation of the EFA Communiqué released at Dakar in 2008 which offered constructive, practical guidelines on how to tackle the issue of the hardest to reach children. There should be a uniform composite accountability system to report on hardest to reach children whether they are victims of child labor, HIV/AIDS or caught in states affected with conflict or disabled”.
He further added that the believers imagining stepping up school enrolment will automatically tackle the child labor phenomenon need to realize that this is going to fail them and the children both. Generations of children have lost their childhood and fair share of right to education to this mindset. The need of the hour is to aggressively pursue identifying the special needs of the children missing out of schools and to meet the precondition which will allow them to attend full time school and receive
quality education”.
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Furio Rosati, Director UCW Project said that the research is aimed at addressing two key objectives to respond to the Oslo Declaration of 1997, first to build improved information on children’s work and second to improve coordination between international agencies and specifically between 3, ILO, UNICEF and World Bank on elimination of child labor. He mentioned that there is clear evidence that children’s work is associated with both lower school intake and late school entry, children’s work is associated with higher drop-out and children’s work is associated with higher grade repetition and finally Children’s work is associated with lower academic test scores, and other direct indicators of school performance. He also stressed the need to explore further; building knowledge on child labor, school and quality linkages as the assumption is that if the quality of education is poor it further aggravates phenomena of child labor; on vulnerability in fragile states in situation of migration and its impact on child labor and finally capturing the various enabling national efforts on harmonizing policies and actions that have made a positive impact on school enrolment and eliminating child labor, dissemination of these and capacity building in this direction will lead to positive incremental return to fast forward achieve the EFA by 2015.
The workshop was attended by Governments, donors, international agencies representatives, trade unions, teachers unions NGO’s employers organizations drawn from around the world. The former Education Minister of Brazil and founder of the Bolsa Escola Programme Senator Cristovam Buarque was also present. The workshop facilitated sharing of the national efforts from Governments of Brazil, India and South Africa in targeting hardest to reach children in their national EFA efforts. This was done with the objective to contribute concretely to EFA process in other low income countries so that they can benefit from evidence based knowledge and practical learning from key governmental representatives personally involved in large scale service delivery programmes to speed up the EFA process from the perspective of hardest to reach children. The outcomes of this workshop will be widely disseminated in the Eight High level Group meeting on Education for All in Oslo, December 2008.
DES MOINES, Iowa, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Incumbent Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin won a fifth term in the U.S. Senate Tuesday, cruising to an easy victory over Republican Christopher Reed.
Harkin, 68, said in prepared remarks it's time to "find ways to work together, not tear each other apart." The Des Moines Register reported Reed's campaign never gained traction, resulting in what was expected to be Harkin's largest margin of victory of his Senate career. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Harkin led Reed 930,426 to 556,205 -63 percent to 37 percent. Senator Harkin has championed the US Government’s consistent support to the International Programme on Elimination of Child Labor and his victory is being celebrated by the hundred’s of child labroers all over the world who have been able to receive full time quality education since withdrawn from forced or hazardous work.
Armenia: Link between student absenteeism, dropout rates and child labor in Armenia
YEREVAN, 30 October 2008 – UNICEF announced today that rapidly increasing student absenteeism and drop-out rates are closely linked to child labor as well as quality of education in Armenia. Findings of the two UNICEF-supported studies, “Child Labor in Armenia” and “School Wastage Study Focusing on Student Absenteeism in Armenia” reveal that between 2002 and 2005 school dropout rates increased at an alarming rate of 250 per cent a year. Therefore, if the 2002-2003 total dropouts were equal to 1,531 students, this number increased to 7,630 in 2004-2005. The studies also revealed that students in higher grades are more likely to be absent than students in lower grades.
“The prevalence of child labor can be directly correlated to children not attending school at all, or dropping out of school before they complete their basic education,” UNICEF Representative Laylee Moshiri-Gilani stressed. According to the findings an average of 6.1 per cent or about 3,500 children aged 7-18 are involved in some kind of work in Armenia and more than 40 per cent of children interviewed during the study were not attending school at all. Although the Armenian Labor Code stipulates the minimum age for working to be 14 years, 30 per cent of working children interviewed during the study were below 14. “Needless to say, child labor robs children of their childhood. But another saddening feature of child labor is that although it often arises because of poverty, it serves only to perpetuate the poverty trap by keeping children away from school,” Ms. Moshiri-Gilani emphasized.
The two UNICEF-supported studies complement each other in stressing that efforts to eliminate child labor go hand in hand with improvements in the quality, relevance and affordability of education. “The ongoing education reform should guarantee every child access to education and ensure that children who for various reasons fall out of the schooling process can be re-integrated into schools at any stage,” UNICEF Representative emphasized, adding that every country, including Armenia, has a continuing responsibility to ensure that our children and young people are protected, their voices are heard, and their rights are upheld.
Children learning at a Hard-To-Reach centre at Manipuri Basti in Guwahati.
Picture: UB Photos
On the streets in Guwahati, there are thousands of children outside the reach of the normal schooling system. Many have run away from their homes, and most must work to make ends meet. Ratna Bharali Talukdar reports on the challenges of bringing them into the mainstream.
04 September 2007 - As Akshay Kurmi Madhukata, a student of Class III in Bethoni Convent School and an inmate of Snehalaya, a home for care and rehabilitation of the young at risk in Guwahati is busy studying along with his co-boarders, Father Lukose Cheruvalel, the director of the institute moves among them, looking at their homework assigned by school authorities. An average performer in his class, Akshaya fails to understand why everybody in the institute, including Father Lukose, keeps a constant vigil on his study. The Father, on the other hand, has genuine reason for special attention to this little child to make improvements in his studies.
"If everything goes alright, Akshay is going to be the first literate person of his clan - Madhukata, a nomadic community that moves around from place to place in search of livelihood. This is why I always keep a special eye on his progress," Cheruvalel tells me. "Giving education to a child of a nomadic clan that moves about on the streets, in a boarding institute like Snehalaya, is a challenging task", he adds. At first, the child had a feeling of staying in 'captivity' in the Snehalaya atmosphere and refused to cooperate with the authorities. He was given as much time as he needed for change in attitude. Then came the improvement.
In 2001, Akshay, then only 6 years old, fled his nomadic community, boarding a train that took him to Kolkata from Siliguri railway station. Subsequently, he made several such journeys to different places unknown to him. "There is nothing to be surprised. Many children in our community have the habit of fleeing away at early age. So did I. Seven days I was on street in Guwahati. I had no plan. But Gopal, owner of a tea-stall in Guwahati railway station got hold of me and handed me over to the police. The police informed the Snehalaya people and they picked me up. Finally, I am here", narrates the little lad.
Snehalaya has a number of programmes targeting young, at-risk children, and these include education for street children. Students who show improvements in their non-formal educational curricula are sent to mainstream educational institutes of the city. Until now, 12 educational institutions have accommodated 21 Snehalaya children in their schools at subsidised rates. Most of these children have at sometime or the other been on the streets, trying to make a living on their own, says Cheruvalel.
Snehalaya also runs a primary school in Dhirenpara in the city, in collaboration with the Axom Sarba Siksha Abhijan (ASSA) mission, where about 100 children, of whom 40 or so are street kids, are from the Snehalaya institute. The institute also has another extension centre in the city's Fancy Bazaar area, where 25 to 30 street kids stay regularly. Two meals and snacks are regularly provided to them. Apart form the regular counseling, these children are taught art and crafts, and given functional literacy and moral lessons.
The psychology of street children adds another dimension to the difficulty of mainstreaming them. Compared to other children of their age, street kids are inclined to be highly independent, and constantly looking for sustainable income-generating activities. These activities are often dubious in nature, varying from pick pocketing to working as agents of drug peddlers to other criminal activities. Also, most of these children show a high level of self-confidence, and even some leadership qualities at an early age. All these finally result in challenges for those who, like Snehalaya, work to mainstream them by providing formal education. To cope, they must recognise the reality of these children's backgrounds, and address other needs besides education.
For instance, at Snehalaya, keeping in mind the children's urge for economic independence, the authorities have established savings schemes for them. To date, 33 savings accounts have been opened for the children who have completed vocational courses and subsequent apprenticeship.
Indian Council for Child Welfare
The United Nations has defined street children as "children who live on the street or pavements; Children who live in slums but spend most of their time on the streets engaged in various activities; Children who work in street trades such as rag picking, petty vending and shoe-shining, manual jobs as coolies, helpers, cleaners, rickshaw pullers, etc. and, employed in wayside tea stalls, restaurants, automobile garages, tyre and tube workshops, machine shops etc."
However, different agencies have expanded this definition to cover more children. The Assam state branch of Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) - which has been running the Integrated Programme for Street Children Project since 1995 through five day care centers for street and slum children - also identifies children of seasonal migrant laborers for educational project targeting street children. While parents of children in this category move about searching for jobs, the kids keep going playing on the streets or eking out petty jobs where they too can earn something, says Dushmanta Dutta, Administrative Officer of ICCW, Assam.
Each of the ICCW's care centres, known as Surujmukhi Kendras, has one street educator, one vocational trainer and one helper - who conduct a house-to-house survey prior to the admission sessions in the localities, and motivate parents and guardians to send their children to these centers. Mid-day meals have also been provided regularly to these children as part of the nutritional support programme of ICCW. The non-formal education has been imparting in a play-way method for learning. After a certain period, as per the age and eligibility criteria, competent students are sent to formal schools situated nearby. ICCW had sent 68 such students in various formal schools. The ICCW also bears the cost of school admission fee, uniform and other learning materials for these children.
It is difficult to bring the children regularly to the ICCW centers, although these have the provision of recreational activities, mid-day meal schemes, and counseling. The priority of the street children is always on earning something rather than coming to the centres. Their parents too, often desire to engage them in different income generating activities, instead of sending them to school, adds Deepsikha Deka, the street-educator of the Surujmukhi Kendra in Kalibari area near the Paltan Bazaar railway station. Further, the continuing education of these children in formal schools remains a challenging task, says Dutta. Many of them cannot continue their education after enrollment in formal schools because of financial crises, as well as lack of the care and attention they need. This results in a high rate of drop-outs in upper classes of primary schools, says Deka.
The ICCW keeps a vigil on these drop-outs and put them into different vocational training program. The vocational programmes teach driving and motor mechanics for boys, and embroidery, beautician courses and mehendi works for girls. It also arranges annual exhibition for selling of handicraft works and products made by children of these centers.
Those who make it through the window of opportunity that ICCW provides are invariably grateful for the chance they've had. Saidul, a former student of this center, and a school drop-out after Class IV, visits this center whenever he finds free time from his work as an auto-rickshaw driver. He has taken the vehicle on lease, and it fetches him Rs.400 to 500 daily. He is depositing some of this hard-earned money for buying his own auto-rickshaw. He readily acknowledges the centre's role in helping him. "Plying an auto-rickshaw in the city is a hundred times more prestigious job than working as a rag-picker or working for drug-peddlers in the railway station. But without the efforts of this centre it wouldn't have been happened to me, " he says.
Axom Sarba Siksha Abhijan
The education of street children remained neglected until ASSA conducted a baseline survey of education among deprived urban children during the year 2002-03. Thereafter, ASSA began to include many of them, including street-children, platform–children, school drop-outs engaged in household chores or sibling care - in its Hard-To-Reach (HTR) programme.
ASSA has developed a special academic package for multi-age and multi-grade children, and an activity chart for group-learning practices in classrooms, says Sarat Gogoi, coordinating officer of the programme for deprived urban children. As part of the mission's strategy for reaching out to HTR children, 1023 education centres known as Jyoti Kendras had been established by March 2007, covering 30,660 children. ASSA has also been mobilising working children to spend 3 to 5 hours daily in these centres depending on their free time, Gogoi says. Two out of every five kids in the centres are working children. Data from the Jyoti Kendras shows that 2091 working children have been engaged in shops, hotels, brick kiln, and garages; 479 have been engaged in factories; and 4574 have been engaged in 'others' categories of work, including rag picking, petty vending and shoe-shining, and manual jobs as porters, helpers, or cleaners.
In Assam the school year begins in January, and when the 2006 academic year began, ASSA was able to mainstream 795 deprived urban children in formal schools; this increased to 2417 in 2007. Of the working children in its centres, the mission mainstreamed 103 in 2006 and 411 in 2007, finding them places in different formal schools, adds Gogoi.
Such success would be more wide-spread if the state's education welfare systems were functioning better. The teachers (known as Siksha Karmis) who provide education to the children of three HTR centres in Manipuri basti and Gandhi basti areas of Guwahati, say these centres have not been covered under the 'cooked mid-day meal' scheme. Only rice as dry ration at the rate of 100 grams per child had been provided only twice so far in the 41 and 42 Jyoti Kendra in Gandhi basti area, since the establishment of the centres in November, 2004, the Siksha Karmis say. The 41 Jyoti Kendra has an enrollment of 26 while in 42 Jyoti Kendra 33 children are enrolled. Despite the lack of full services, six students from each of these centres have been mainstreamed till now, the teachers say.
Most of the students in the HTR centres work in motor garages, hotels, shops or as part-time domestic help. Every one has a different story to tell, but they are also similar in some respects — all are slum dwellers, and come from broken homes. Most of them are 'weak in arithmetic' compared to other children of their age, note their teachers, but the working children - who deal regularly with money - are an exception to this.
India: Sivakasi Fireworks: Heading towards a new Diwali (Festival Of Lights)
A documentary showing the ill effects of firecrackers, from the worker to us. A movie to give hope to all the workers in Sivakasi who toil all their lives for it to be burnt in a few minutes.
Minister of Labor and Employment Oscar Fernandes has informed the Lok Sabha that Uttar Pradesh tops in child labor prevention followed by Rajasthan and Bihar as the maximum number of children in the age group of 5-14 year were rescued and rehabilitated.During the year 2007-08, Fernandes said 71,479 children were withdrawn from work and enrolled in special schools under the National Child Labor Project (NCLP) in Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh was followed by Rajasthan and Bihar where 39,601 and 34,650 children were withdrawn from work and enrolled in special schools. The Labor ministry stated that they do not have latest figures of the child labor population date wise as the Census releases figures once every ten years. However, according to the 2001 census the population of child laborers was maximum in Uttar Pradesh where 19,27,997 children were working and had no access to education.Uttar Pradesh''s figure was followed by Andhra Pradesh where 13,63,339 children were working. Moreover, the 2001 census stated that a total of 1.27 crore children in the 5-14 years age group were working for survival. (ANI)
Jaipur, Oct. 23: Twelve children and 13 adults were killed when explosions ripped through eight homes where crackers were being made illegally in a Rajasthan village late last night.More than 10 other children and several adults suffered severe burns in the blasts in Darkutta, a village 200km from Jaipur where cracker-manufacturing has become a “cottage industry”, police said.The injured are in hospital in Deeg, the nearest township. Sources said the dead and injured children were suspected to be child laborers but Anand Kumar, the collector of the district, Bharatpur, denied this. Police officers said that at least 12 families were involved in making crackers in Darkutta, working in hazardous conditions and using their homes, which adjoined one another, as a single makeshift factory. The money they earn during Diwali forms the biggest chunk of their annual income. Sources said explosives had carelessly been left strewn across the floors where the crackers were being assembled. A fire must have broken out for some reason and, because the explosives had not been covered, set off one powerful blast after another, bringing down eight homes. Bharatpur superintendent of police Rohit Mahajan said six bodies were pulled out of the rubble today apart from the 18 recovered late last night.“Of the 20 injured, one died in hospital today. The main person (behind the factory) was also killed,” he said. Ashok Khandelwal, a child rights activist and member of a labor union, the Dakshin Rajasthan Mazdoor Union, said the state had the third-highest number of child laborers in India, behind Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Khandelwal estimated that 35-36 lakh child workers formed part of the state’s labor pool. Many of them have migrated to other states, such as Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, where they work at textile and tobacco-processing units.In Rajasthan, most child laborers are engaged in agriculture, carpet and bidi manufacturing, and in the gem and jewellery industry.Khandelwal regretted the lack of state government measures to curb child labor. “The Centre has issued a protocol for rehabilitation of child laborers but it is being followed in only six districts of south Rajasthan. It will, however, be implemented in all districts soon,” he said.“Rehabilitation means putting the children into schools and repatriating them to their states. But this is only an interim measure and not enough has been done in this field.
This protocol is already working in Maharashtra.”Jyotsna Lall, state co-ordinator for Aajjeevika, an NGO working with migrant workers, said the state labor department had on August 20 met organizations with experience in the field for a survey on the number of child laborers in Rajasthan.“The NGOs refused to do just a number survey because the government had not put forward any clear plan for rehabilitation of the child laborers,” Lall said.“There is no point in conducting just a number survey and then doing nothing about it.”
BANGALORE: Although the government claims child labor has reduced considerably over the past few years, Karnataka is nowhere close to being a child labor-free state. This observation was made at a district-level orientation programme hosted by the labor department for its officials on Thursday. Labor minister B N Bachche Gowda said the state was supposed to be child labor-free by 2007, but it didn't happen. "The deadline has been extended to 2012," he said. He suggested the age limit for employment, which is 14 years now, should be increased to 16 years. "I'm happy child labor has considerably reduced. I hope that by next year, not even a single child should be seen doing manual labor in our districts." "A fine of Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 and imprisonment up to 3 years should be reinforced," he added.
For the department, giving relief to rescued children is the most important job. Also, the officials suggested wages should be checked from time to time and middlemen who force children into labor be caught and punished. Project director of child labor N Shivaramappa said: "Incidence of child labor has reduced due to increased field work by officials. In 2001-2002, over 1,984 child laborers were identified. Earlier, 57 occupations were prohibited to employ children, but after the October 2006 amendment, three more occupations -- hotel and restaurant, domestic help, slaughter house -- have been added. Gowda said Below Poverty Line cards will be given to three lakh plantation workers.
UZBEKISTAN: CHILD LABOR ISSUE AGAIN IN SPOTLIGHT AMID COTTON HARVEST
Eurasianet.org, October 27, 2008
As the annual cotton harvest winds down, Uzbekistan's labor practices are once again facing scrutiny. A recently released report purports to offer proof that Tashkent, despite ratifying two international agreements designed to discourage the use of child labor, is continuing to send school-age children into the fields. The mid-October release of the report, titled Forced Child Labor in Uzbekistan's 2008 Spring Agricultural Season, was timed to coincide with the peak of the harvesting season. It points out that in March and April of this year the Uzbek legislature ratified two International Labor Organization agreements - the Convention on Minimal Age of Employment and the Convention on Prohibition and Immediate Action for Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor. Despite this, Uzbek officials in May drafted tens of thousands of school students, some as young as 12 years old, to help prepare fields during the cotton planting season.
"Children suffered heatstroke, burns and a variety of infectious diseases from poor working conditions," the report stated. "School hours were truncated. And for some periods schools were closed altogether to spur children into the fields." The report, prepared by the International Labor Rights Forum and Human Rights Defenders of Uzbekistan, focused on conditions in two districts in cotton-growing areas. Researchers declined to specify the areas in order to protect those interviewed from possible government retaliation. "The government has increased pressure on those it suspects of transmitting any news regarding child labor," the report said.
Parents who tried to keep their children in school and out of the fields were subjected to official pressure, the report said. A favorite tactic, according to the report, was public humiliation during meetings of neighborhood committees, or Mahallas. "Those families [that] fail to send their children to pick cotton are criticized; people speak out very negatively against such families," the report cited one parent as saying. "Therefore, not everyone is brave enough to express dissatisfaction."
Many local officials seemed aware that the use of child labor constituted a violation of national and international laws. However, some defended the nefarious practice as unavoidable. Hiring adults to do the work was too costly, and, even if the money were available, there is a severe shortage of adult labor in the Uzbek countryside, farm directors said. "It's too expensive to hire adults," the report quotes one farm director as saying. "You've got to pay them a high wage. They demand defined working hours, respect for their rights. If you don't satisfy their demands, they don't work. Therefore, local governments and farmers find it convenient to send children out into the fields. ... They don't complain."
While the report documented the use of child labor only during the spring planting season, school children are believed to be widely involved in the ongoing gathering of the harvest. Photos posted on the news website Ferghana.ru in early October showed young people in the fields with bags full of cotton slung over their shoulders. Leading US and European clothing retailers, including Wal-Mart, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Target and The Gap, are boycotting products that are known to contain Uzbek cotton. The campaign is linked to Uzbekistan's ongoing reliance on child labor. Uzbekistan has sought to counter the economic pressure applied on Tashkent by the boycott by reorienting its cotton exports to Asian and Middle Eastern markets. Evidence that the government is feeling the effects of the boycott is inconclusive so far. At the Fourth Annual Cotton Fair, held in Tashkent on October 14-15, Uzbek officials signed deals worth approximately $1 billion to export 950,000 tons of cotton fiber. The chief purchasers included China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates, according to the pro-government website Gazeta.uz.
Pakistan: FDE directed to expedite enrolment process
The International News, Sunday, October 12, 2008, By Muhammad Anis
The Ministry of Education has directed the Federal Directorate of Education FDE) to expedite process for enrolment of out-of-school children in the federal government institutions and model colleges.Federal Secretary Education Jahangir Bashr has asked the FDE management to ensure 100% enrolment of school-going children in the next couple of years and continue the campaign, which was launched for this purpose a few months back.Under the campaign, the heads of 410 institutions were also given the task to bring street and needy students to schools. “As per directives of the ministry, not only we are registering children at our institutions but the needy ones are being provided free books with no fee,” FDE Director Professor Rafiq Tahir who is coordinator of the programme said.
The official said that in order to encourage parents and guardians to bring their children at schools, they are not being asked to provide documents like B forms or birth certificates. The official said that the FDE has designated nine centres where parents should approach the concerned officials for registration of their children. “We will make sure that every children of school-going age attends school and a vigilant eye is kept to retain them,” he said. He said that Islamabad would serve as a role model for rest of the country in the education sector. The nine centres designated by the FDE include Federal Girls Model School G-6/1-3, Federal Government Junior Model School G-9/3, Junior model school I-9/4,Islamabad College for Girls F-6/2 (for admissions in evening shifts of girls model colleges), Federal Government Boys Model Schools G-8/4, Area Education Office (AEO) Barakahu, AEOs of Tarnol, Nilor and Sihala.The FDE has also asked the people that if they face any problem in getting admissions in educational institutions, they should contact FDE Director and Coordinator of Programme Professor Rafiq Tahir.
By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM, Oct 22, 2008, New Yok Times
Wal-Mart plans to announce Wednesday in Beijing that it will require manufacturers supplying goods for its stores to adhere to stricter ethical and environmental standards, the latest effort by the big retailer to answer criticism of its business practices.At a gathering of more than 1,000 suppliers, Chinese officials and advocacy groups, Wal-Mart executives plan to reveal a new supplier agreement that will require manufacturers to allow outside audits and to adhere to specific social and environmental criteria. The agreement will be phased in beginning in January.
The changes signal a move on the part of Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, away from intermittent transactions with many suppliers toward longer-term arrangements with a smaller group of manufacturers. Wal-Mart is betting that using its buying power this way can help keep prices low even as it keeps a closer eye on its suppliers.Wal-Mart, long criticized for its treatment of workers in the United States and its ostensible willingness to overlook violations abroad, has in recent years offered a series of environmental and labor initiatives. A Beijing meeting now under way is the company’s first “sustainability summit.” By next year, Wal-Mart will start keeping close track of the factories from which its products originate, even if they pass through many hands. By 2012, Wal-Mart will require suppliers to source 95 percent of their production from factories that receive the highest ratings in audits of environmental and social practices.The agreement includes a ban on child and forced labor and pay below the local minimum wage. “Meeting social and environmental standards is not optional,” Lee Scott, Wal-Mart’s chief executive, plans to say at the Beijing summit, according to his prepared remarks. “I firmly believe that a company that cheats on overtime and on the age of its labor, that dumps its scraps and its chemicals in our rivers, that does not pay its taxes or honor its contracts, will ultimately cheat on the quality of its products. And cheating on the quality of products is the same as cheating on customers.”
To ensure suppliers are making changes, Wal-Mart said it would require three levels of audits: from the vendors themselves, from an outside party and from Wal-Mart, which will initiate more of its own random, unannounced audits. Wal-Mart said the audits would assess factory working conditions as well as compliance by manufacturers with standards regarding air pollution, wastewater discharge, management of toxic substances and disposal of hazardous waste. Environmental and labor groups that follow Wal-Mart said the retailer had a mixed history when it came to the environment and labor practices — and that sometimes the company’s goals were lofty, while the measurable outcomes were less so. Through the years, Wal-Mart has been accused of various abuses.In the 1990s it came to light that workers at factories producing Kathie Lee Gifford clothing for Wal-Mart were subjected to inhumane conditions.
Last year two nongovernmental organizations said abuse and labor violations (including child labor) occurred at 15 factories that produce or supply goods for Wal-Mart and other retailers. In June the United States government and the state of Oklahoma filed a complaint in federal court claiming that Wal-Mart and other companies dumped hazardous waste in Oklahoma City. In Bangladesh, it was charged that factory workers were made to work 19-hour shifts, with some bringing home just $20 a month. Michael Green, executive director of the Center for Environmental Health, a watchdog group in Oakland, Calif., said he believed Wal-Mart’s effort to improve suppliers’ practices began as a program to counter public-relations damage. “I think what happened along the way is some people there actually got convinced,” he said. “It became more than a sophisticated P.R. stunt, but something they believed in.
” However, without knowing the specifics of Wal-Mart’s new plan, Mr. Green said it would not be easy sledding. Suppliers under pressure to offer the company the lowest prices are likely to have an incentive to cheat, he noted, and outside auditors may not want to report violations for fear of losing a lucrative Wal-Mart contract. Additionally, tracing the origins of all the working parts that go into a single toy, for instance, is difficult because it involves multiple factories. Still, groups that have criticized Wal-Mart are attending the Beijing summit to hear the company’s plans. In a telephone interview from Beijing Tuesday night, Mr. Scott said Wal-Mart may offer longer-term agreements to suppliers willing to make the big investments needed to live up to its environmental demands. The company said that within China, a nation with major environmental problems, Wal-Mart would aim by 2010 to cut water use in half in all stores, design and open a prototype store that used 40 percent less energy, and reduce energy use in existing stores by 30 percent. “People will judge us,” Mr. Scott said, “based on the results.”
Germany grants Rs15m to support Afghan refugees education
Pakistan Daily Mail - Islamabad,Pakistan, October 15th, 2008, By Khalid Amin
ISLAMABAD—German Ambassador to Pakistan Michael Koch has announced to provide an amount of 15 million rupees in order to support the rehabilitation of 50 educational Institutions for Afghan refugees in Refugee camps of Pakistan.In this connection an agreement was signed here on Thursday between H.E. Dr. Michael Koch, Ambassador designate of the Federal Republic of Germany and Syed Jamal-ud-Din Shah, Commissioner Afghan Refugees (CAR) , NWFP in a ceremony at German Embassy.
It was further learned that the project has been aimed as an element of Germany's contributions in the framework of the G-8 Initiatives to promote cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan - an initiative launched in Potsdam, Germany, 30 May 2007, under the German G-8 presidency.While talking on the occasion Commissioner Afghan Refugees thanked German Government along NWFP' s provincial and Federal Government for creating measures to facilitate the Afghan Children for seeking knowledge. He also informed that after Russian incursion in Afghanistan about 50 schools were established in Pakistani territory that were funded by UNHCR and other donating agencies along with provincial and federal government from 1979 to 2006, but later the closure of funding sequence deprived over 10,000 children with education of 38 elementary schools and secondary schools.
The current funding from Germany will facilitate about 15,000 children with education and also provide job security to 384 teachers of these schools and the expenditure on Pakistani Government will also become fewer with this financial support. He further informed that at least 9 districts of NWFP province, where the Afghan refugees camps have been established comprising Chitral, Dir, Kohat, Bannu, D.I Khan, Haripur and Mansehra will gain support from this funding and this grant will be audited by Project Director Education, Commissioner and District Administrations of respective districts to ensure the due usage of this donation. While responding to a query, he informed that over 3.5 million Afghan refugees were present in NWFP, but after 2008 census and return series of these refugees to Afghanistan about 7,000,00 Afghan Refugees were remained in Pakistan, whose migration is expected up to 2009 that can be extended up to 2012 with the Government's mutual consultation.
Philippines: Microsoft aids human trafficking victims
By Lawrence Casiraya, INQUIRER.net, Oct 12, 2008
MANILA, Philippines -- Microsoft is pouring another P12 million into a computer training program for victims of human trafficking.The grant be used to establish at least 10 more learning centers under Microsoft's project called Stop Trafficking and Exploitation of People through Unlimited Potential or STEP-UP.Started in 2006, the program has trained more than 10,000 people in 13 community technology learning centers (CTLCs) located in different cities including Manila, Cebu, Daet, Bacolod, Dumaguete and Davao.These CTLCs are managed and operated by the Visayan Forum Foundation (VFF), a non-governmental organization that looks after victims of human trafficking.
Ten more STEP UP centers will be established through this latest Microsoft grant, which includes cash and software. Microsoft also partnered with various NGOs in managing these centers. According to Visayan Forum Foundation, Global March Against Child Labor partner organization at least 3,000 of those trained by the program were able to find employment while most others chose to continue formal or vocational education after learning basic computer skills.VFF "rescues" around 300 victims and would-be victims of trafficking, working with the Philippine Ports Authority. VFF operates centers in Manila, Batangas and Davao, considered trafficking hotspots.Some of these trafficking victims manage to get out of the country via boat, usually to Malaysia, said Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, VFF executive director.Most of the victims are women (sometimes children) from remote villages who are either illegally recruited or even sold by their families."But we would like to break the notion that trafficking victims usually come from provinces. There are those from Manila who end up in places as far as Zamboanga," Flores-Oebanda said.In the Philippines, Microsoft also runs two similar programs called Tulay and Partners in Learning, which cater to families of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and teachers.
By Francis Asamoah Tuffour, Ghanaian Times, 24 October 2008
THE Chief of Mission, International Organization of Migration, Davide Terzi, has advocated stiffer punishment for child traffickers to serve as deterrent to others. Speaking at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between his outfit and the anti-human trafficking unit of the Ghana Police Service in Accra, he said even though the Police, civil society organizations and other organizations have joined forces to fight human trafficking, the practice still existed.The 6,204 US dollar MOU, among other things, would cover the refurbishment of the anti-trafficking unit at the Criminal Investigation Department at the Police Headquarters, as well as undertake a field trip to areas where child trafficking is prevalent. Mr. Terzi noted that child trafficking is one of the worst human right abuses which ought to be discouraged by all. He wondered how such a practice should still exist in the 21st century and noted that there were unscrupulous people who hid behind up coming events to take people abroad under the pretext of providing them with jobs.
Unfortunately, he said, many of the people sent there were made to engage in menial jobs, while the women and young girls were forced into prostitution and other unwarranted jobs. Mr. Terzi said a number of illegal migrants who tried to seek greener pastures abroad died either on the desert or on the high seas simply because they did not possess the required travelling documents. He was, however impressed with the transformation and development taking place in the country, which he said were all indications of how far Ghana had come.The Deputy Director General of the Police Criminal Investigation Department, Assistant Commissioner of Police Ken Yeboah, was grateful to the International Organization of Migration and assured that the Police would intensify its course to fight human trafficking and other crime related offences. He further assured that any assistance given to the police to fight organized crime among others could not be over-emphasised.Later in an interview, the head of the police anti-trafficking unit, Deputy Superintendent of Police Patience Quaye, said the assistance received would go a long way to facilitate the operations as far as trafficking was concerned. DSP Quaye made a passionate appeal through the Times for other organizations go to their aid by providing them with resources to boost their operations.
New Vision Online, Oct 21st, 2008, By Ganzi Muhanguzi
ABOUT 17% of children aged 5-17 are engaged in child labor, a joint report by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and Uganda Bureau of Statistics has revealed. Of these, 96% are working in the agriculture sector and 27% in the manufacturing sector. Addressing journalists in Kampala yesterday, Akky de Kort, the ILO chief technical advisor, said: “Not only is child workers’ education compromised, they are also vulnerable to workplace abuses and exposed at risk of work-related ill-health or injury.” The report states that by 13, half of the children in the country are economically active. Over 35% of 7 to 14 year-olds work while they attend school, while 3% of them do not go to school.
The report states that 600,000 children either drop out of school or do not attain formal education as a result of child labor. “We need to embark on a holistic approach to combat child labor,” Kort said. She added that the report was the first of its kind in Uganda and gives well researched statistics which would be used by policy makers to address child labor. Kort stressed that it is everyone’s responsibility to tackle child labor. James Muwonge of the Bureau of Statistics said child labor was highest in eastern and central regions, followed by western Uganda. “We also found that girls are more likely to perform household chores than boys,” he said. He added that several children aged between 7 and 17 were neither working nor studying. “We suspect that these children are being trafficked or forced into illegal employment.” Muwonge called for the establishment of more education centres to cater for school drop-outs. Tanzania has the highest number of child laborers, followed by Uganda and Kenya. Other African countries that have high numbers of children involved in economic activities include Sierra Leone, Guinea, Togo and Zambia.
Uganda People News: Minister blames increased child labor to parents
UG Pulse.Com, October 23, 2008
The minister of state for labor Mwesigwa Rukutana has attributed the increasing cases of child labor to parents who take children as their property.He says such parents resist any government efforts on proper child upbringing so that they can be responsible citizens in future.While speaking at the launch of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) child report in Kampala today, Rukutana said that many parents see work as an important component in the upbringing of children.He says parents assumes that child labor trains children to be responsible citizens in future and a away of contributing to their families’ fortunes such as farming to increase food production.The minister called for increased sensitization of the parents by the government and civil society organizations on the dangers of child labor.In Uganda, the practice is rampant in areas with plantations such as tea and coffee where companies employ children on their plantations at a very little pay. The Lords Resistance Army has also abducted children in Northern Uganda and recruited them in rebel ranks to fight the government of Uganda.
Rwanda: Kuret's Anti- Child Labor Programme Funding to End
The New Times (Kigali), By James Tasamba
Rwandan children could be set to lose out when the World Vision's programme, KURET (Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia Together) project, stops its funding for Rwanda programmes designed to protect children from the worst forms of child labor. Amidst revelations that the Government of Rwanda has successfully incorporated into its labor and social welfare programmes, campaigns against child labor. The Rwanda Project Manager, Julian Ntezimana recently confirmed the development. Talking to The New Times, shortly after their final evaluation meeting which took place at Hotel Novotel, Ntezimana said that they are scaling down their activities until they finally pull out next year in March when the project ends.
The Rwanda KURET programme is mainly funded by the US department of Labor while the World Vision is the lead agency among three Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that have been implementing the programme in the four countries. The project has been engaged in removing and preventing children from being subjected to child labor in ten districts of the country since September 2004. According to Ntezimana, since its inception, KURET, has managed to rescue a total of 7,372 children from worst forms of child labor managing to enrol them in schools. She added that some completed technical vocational skills training programmes and were given start-up kits while others are still studying in several mainstream primary, secondary and catch-up schools. Catch-up schools are where children who had formerly dropped out of school are enrolled to study three years of primary education and they sit Primary Leaving Examinations. "We are scaling down in terms of activities and personnel until we finally stop on March 31, 2009," Ntezimana said.
"We are glad the Ministry of labor and the Districts we have been working in have incorporated the programme of combating child labor in their work plans. We managed to highlight the problem and the government has adopted it," Ntezimana said, responding to a question of the fate of children who may still be subjected to the unfair labor. The most common forms of child labor in which the children were engaged include animal rearing, sugar cane cutting, domestic servitude, stone quarrying, working on tea plantations and brick making. "Parents have to understand that child labor is detrimental to the child's normal growth and it affects the country's future labor force. Parents should be supportive of their children by educating them instead of subjecting them to hard labor," Ntezimana said. She explained that poverty should not be an excuse to deny children their right to education, saying it's a parent's primary responsibility to guarantee quality education for their children. "Now that the parents were educated on the dangers of child labor and are able to distinguish it from acceptable work for children, parents should do their best to rid our society of exploitative labor," Ntezimana underscored. Noting that with political will, everything is possible, Ntezimana said they managed to achieve their targeted goals surpassing them in other areas.
HARARE, Oct 15 (Bernama) -- Zimbabwe’s capital city of Harare has the highest number of children working full-time and not attending school, an anti-child labor lobby group has said.Coalition Against Child Labor and Abuse in Zimbabwe project co-ordinator Pascal Masocha said preliminary findings of the 2008 Child Labor baseline survey have revealed that more children were engaging in labor in the city than in previous years, China's XINHUA news agency quoted The Herald on Wednesday. He said the increase in the province could be attributed to HIV and AIDS, socio-economic hardships and breakdown in family support systems.Although he could not be drawn into revealing the exact percentage increase, he said the province had seen a substantial increase in the number of child labor cases from below 60 percent last year to over 75 percent of young people between the ages of five and 17.Masocha said most of the children are involved in the selling of airtime cards, fruit and food vending.
A number of these are spending their time helping their disabled and elderly parents to source for food on street corners."Most of the children interviewed, however, expressed willingness to continue with their education," Masocha said.He said the highest number of children on the street are from Epworth and Mbare. This is despite the fact that the communities are aware of the widespread problems of child labor and abuse in the country.Last year, Matabeleland North and Mashonaland West led the pack with more than 70 percent of children interviewed being involved in labor."As an organization, we have formed strategic partnerships with various Government ministries and civil society groups to tackle the problems in the areas of advocacy and lobbying as well as raising awareness," Masocha said.He said it was imperative for parents to understand the difference between child labor and child work.Under International Labor Organization statutes, child labor is defined as work that is detrimental to a minor's physical and mental development or which interferes with their education and future possibilities in the labor market while child work is work that promotes a child's physical and mental development.
Mozambique: Machel: Schools must act against trafficking
By EMMANUEL CAMILLO – Oct 11, 2008, AP News
MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) — Graca Machel, a Mozambican human rights campaigner and the country's former first lady, appealed to schools Saturday to take more action to prevent children being kidnapped and sold into prostitution.Machel, who is married to former South African President Nelson Mandela, said Mozambique was targeted by child traffickers because it did too little to protect the young."The vulnerability of many schools arises from the fact that they are not protected by walls or fences, and have no security guards. Anyone can enter," she told The Associated Press."Pupils, particularly girls, are exposed to the risk of falling into the hands of criminals, who kidnap them for forced labor or for prostitution", she said.Police are investigating at least two instances of children who were recently kidnapped from a primary school in the southern city of Matola. Police about two months ago detained the driver of a minibus transporting 20 children from the central province of Manica without documentation amid suspicions they were being trafficked to South Africa. Another minibus was stopped with eight women, also allegedly being smuggled to South Africa.
A UNICEF report last year estimated that 1,000 women and children were trafficked from Mozambique to neighboring South Africa annually and said that sexual abuse in schools was a major problems.Machel is Mozambique's top child rights campaigner and heads its most prominent nongovernment organization, the Community Development Foundation. She said that parents and teachers were doing too little to education children about the dangers."Parents and guardians are still not telling children not to accept offers of jobs, or of studying, from anybody", said Machel. "A new element should be introduced into family education. The ease with which children agree to travel to any place shows they are not aware of the dangers of being trafficked or sexually abused."
$20 Million Job-Skills Ladder Created for Girls in Poor Nations
By Philip Rucker, Washington Post Staff Writer, Saturday, October 11, 2008
For years, global development experts have believed that if young women received the same schooling as young men, their families would have a path out of poverty. Now, with countries across the developing world documenting rapid progress toward gender equality in education, experts are focusing on the next step: increasing economic opportunities for women and girls.
The World Bank, Nike Foundation and several European governments yesterday launched the Adolescent Girls Initiative to teach job skills to young women in post-conflict developing countries in order to improve their access to credit and help them find stable employment. Officials said the initiative is crucial to efforts in sub-Saharan Africa to generate economic growth and cut the rates of AIDS and child and maternal mortality.One of the first such public-private partnerships, the $20 million program will begin in six countries in Africa and the Middle East.
Leaders said they hope to expand it elsewhere with future funding."Investing in young women is one way to break the intergenerational pattern of poverty," World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick said at the bank's D.C. headquarters. "It's the right thing to do, and it's also going to be smart economics."U.S. corporations are beginning to invest in the initiative and similar ones to empower young women, believing that they can stimulate economic growth in their families and their communities."This is a movement. It's taken off," said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a managing director at the World Bank and a former foreign affairs minister of Nigeria. "There's now a realization worldwide that really, if we are to make progress on our longer-term economic goals, it's got to be with investments in women."In announcing Nike's $3 million commitment to fund the Adolescent Girls Initiative, Mark Parker, the company's president and chief executive, said it is a smart investment."Our greatest resource overall in breaking the cycle of poverty is the adolescent girl," he said. "We're building a bridge between relevant training and real jobs that helps accelerate the economy.
"This year, Goldman Sachs, the investment banking giant, said it would spend $100 million over five years to provide business education to 10,000 young women in developing nations.Dina Powell, a managing director at Goldman, said the program can create "stable and prosperous economies." She recently visited Nigeria, where hundreds of women applied for the program. "What you saw immediately were these women were highly motivated, extremely talented, but they just didn't have the basics to grow their businesses," Powell said. "They didn't have business plans, didn't understand marketing, didn't have access to capital."Powell said the financial crisis would not cause Goldman to back off its commitment.In most poor nations over the past decade, women's education levels have improved, with more than two-thirds of the countries reporting gender parity in school enrollment, according to research provided by the World Bank. But that progress has not led to improved economic and employment opportunities for women, who consistently trail men in their participation in the labor force, access to credit, income levels and ownership rights.In low-income countries, half of women are employed while the men's employment rate is about 86 percent, according to World Bank data.
In Africa, women make up a majority of agricultural workers but receive just 10 percent of credit in agriculture, said Danny M. Leipziger, the World Bank's vice president for poverty reduction.Leipziger said women spend more wisely than men, save more and are more likely to control household budgets. "If you want to make progress on development, you have to invest in women," he said.At yesterday's launch, several young women from around the world who spent the week in Washington learning business and leadership skills delivered emotional speeches about the hardships in their communities.Ana Luisa Cholotio, 17, the daughter of a fisherman and weaver in Guatemala, said she attends a crowded school each day and is hungry to acquire the skills to improve her family's economic status."I have always dreamed of major changes in my family and my society," Cholotio said through a translator.
"In this way, my country will achieve equality, will achieve peace and tranquility."Joyce Kollie, 15, of Liberia said she lives in a single room with her extended family and wakes up each day at 4 a.m. for school. She then goes to the market with her younger siblings before cooking dinner each night. After her speech, Kollie broke down in tears."Be strong. Be confident," Cherie Blair, the wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair, told Kollie and the other young women. "This is your right. You are entitled to be treated as equals."Other speakers at yesterday's event included senior officials from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the city of Milan, whose governments committed millions to the initiative.The event also drew celebrities whose charitable work focuses on gender equality. Ethiopian supermodel Liya Kebede said improving conditions for girls is "monumental, but it is not impossible."Angelique Kidjo, a Grammy-award winning singer, related that growing up in the African republic of Benin her parents taught her that the world "is my home and I can stand tall in the world because I am a human being.""If we don't change the course of the world by educating the girls of the world, then we fail," Kidjo said.
Guest column: It's so simple: Feeding children in school can make a safer world
De Moines Register, October, 12, 2008
GEORGE MCGOVERN, a Democrat, represented South Dakota in the U.S. Senate for 18 years. BOB DOLE, a Republican, represented Kansas for 27 years. We are deeply honored to receive the World Food Prize this week in Iowa for our contributions to fighting hunger. Yet we'd like to share the spotlight with the tens of millions of schoolchildren - the unsung heroes - who have persevered with their education against tremendous odds, all because a 25-cent meal at school gave them the power to reach their potential.From the Marshall Plan-era to modern times, from poor neighborhoods stretching from Kansas to Kabul, we've learned our lesson: Once children get the minimum of a meal at school, once they're freed from the crushing burden of hunger, there's no stopping them.Let us celebrate Nindoma Sherpa of Nepal, who turned 18 this summer as she conquered the highest mountain in the world, the formidable Mount Everest. Or Kenyan Paul Tergat, who has smashed one marathon world record after another and is ambassador for the U.N. World Food Programme. Or Abass Mohammed, who won a full scholarship to Princeton University from a Somali refugee camp. Or Tashi Doma, who helps run school feeding programs in her native Bhutan.These are, of course, some of the more dramatic examples from the millions of "everyday" success stories from the many corners of the world where getting even one meal a day is rarely taken for granted, never mind completing an education.All of them say receiving food at school was a turning point in their lives. That food not only guaranteed basic subsistence amid grinding poverty but also drew them to school and sparked an interest in education. One meal a day gave them the energy to concentrate on their studies - and their parents the incentive to keep them in school.
Food gave them hope. Opportunity. A future.
Once school feeding begins, schools report remarkable increases in enrollment (for girls, it shoots up an average of 28 percent), attendance and academic performance.Just five years at school can dramatically change girls' lives, jumpstarting a virtuous cycle of development. Their horizons broaden, they marry later and they have fewer children. Plus, their children are healthier and better educated. Experts now agree that female education is the cornerstone of development.School feeding promotes human rights, working to thwart trafficking and child labor. It promotes health, not only by diminishing hunger, the world's No. 1 public-health threat, but also through its twinning with health measures like de-worming and vitamin A tablets and education about HIV/AIDS and sanitary standards.For all these reasons, school feeding is one of the best weapons we have in striving toward the first Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of hungry people by 2015. Reducing hunger is also key to the other development goals, from providing universal primary education, to empowering women, to reducing child mortality and the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Less widely understood, but no less vital: Food and education combine powerfully to combat the forces of ignorance and extremism. In their absence, those forces flourish.
President Eisenhower, who established the U.S. Food for Peace program, understood this dynamic very well. In a speech 60 years ago in support of a U.N. appeal, he declared that ending child hunger was critical to world peace. In his words, children forced to search through "garbage heaps" for sustenance would become "wedded to the philosophy of force." We've seen this on the frontlines of terrorism along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where education of girls - and the feeding programs that promote it - is viewed by embattled government officials as the best hope for peace and development. Or in Haiti, where school feeding programs, maintained during the summer holidays, provide not only a safety net from skyrocketing food prices but also a source of social stability. In Somalia, lack of food and education aggravate lawlessness. Ironically, it is the Somali refugee camps - with their school feeding programs - that offer young Somalis the best chance to make a future for themselves and for their beleaguered country.
Since the George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program was first piloted in 2000, it has fed an average of 3 million schoolchildren a year. The U.N. World Food Programme and partner organizations feed tens of millions more. We have witnessed the transformative power of nourishing children in school, whether in our days working together to strengthen America's school lunch program, or as we have promoted school feeding programs in some of the most painfully destitute places on Earth. We must find a way to ensure that no child goes to school hungry. We look toward the new president and a new partnership with Congress to make this a priority, by expanding the McGovern-Dole school feeding program. Not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it is the smart thing to do. It truly is one of the single greatest investments we can make in the future prosperity, health and stability of our planet.
Some of the most vulnerable victims of the hurricane in Haiti are known as "Restavecs," children given away by their own families to perform domestic labor in exchange for food and shelter.
Jean-Robert Cadet, an author and former child laborer, describes his own childhood experience and his work with Haitian "restavecs". Cadet says working conditions for many restavecs are the equivalent of modern-day slavery.
Click on the link to hear the NPR Radio Interview with Listen Now
Namibia: Country Receives Funding to Eliminate Child Labor
The Namibian (Windhoek), 14 October 2008, By Nangula Shejavali
NAMIBIA'S efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor have received a multi-million dollar boost. It is one of seven countries to benefit from US$36,3 million in funding, awarded by the US Department of Labor to the International Labor Organization's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor. The other countries are Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, India, South Africa and Uganda. Within this grant package, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa received total funding of US$4,75 million (about N$43,23 million) towards combating child labor. The Ministry is currently conducting a Labor Force Survey to determine the latest national statistics on child labor. The last survey that contained figures on child labor was conducted in 1999, and indicated that the 'child labor force' was 15 per cent of girls and 17 per cent of boys, giving an average of 16 per cent. A total of 40 000 (55 per cent) of working children were under 14 years of age. The funding will be used under the auspices of the ILO programme, Towards the Elimination of Child Labor (TECL), which was set up in 2004 and is run in all SACU countries. Robert Ewing, Regional Labor Officer at the US Embassy in South Africa, expressed excitement over the project. He said the award was "a continuation of funding for the ILO programme, Towards the Elimination of Child Labor (TECL), to put their footsteps so far into action". He added that no conditions were attached to the funding, as far as Namibia is concerned. Key TECL projects include addressing the issues of commercial sexual exploitation of children, child trafficking, educational rehabilitation of children found in the worst forms of child labor, children used by adults in the commission of crime, and delivery of water to households far from sources of safe water, in order to prevent child labor in this regard.
In Namibia, TECL is part of the Project Advisory Committee on Child Labor (PACC), which includes members from various line ministries, the National Union of Namibian Workers, the Namibia Employers' Federation, an NGO representative, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), and is chaired by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare. Asked what initiatives the funding will be used for, Labor Permanent Secretary Ulitala Hiveluah, explained that "the Ministry is only the contact point" and does not itself implement the programmes from such funding, but works with various stakeholders including other line ministries, NGOs and churches to carry out such initiatives. Hiveluah also stressed that a clear distinction between 'child work' and 'worst forms of child labor' should be drawn in order to understand what the funding is directed at. "Worst forms of child labor is defined as labor preventing the growth or development of a child, e.g. not going to school," she said. Hiveluah added that worst forms of child labor also entail "the use of children by adults in order to commit crimes, as commercial sex workers, and in very hazardous work". Child work, on the other hand, has to do with basic household chores expected as part of family responsibilities, which do not impede the child's development - for example washing dishes. Section 3 of the Labor Act of 2007 clearly states that children under 14 may not be employed; and that children between 14 and 16 years of age should be protected from economic exploitation and may not be employed in hazardous working conditions or in employment that could interfere with their education.
Sierra Leone: Protocol to tackle child Labor signed in Sierra Leone
Saidu Bah, Awako Newspaper, October 6th, 2008
The Ministry of Labor and Industrial Relations in collaboration with the International Labor Organization has signed a four-year protocol at the Kimbima Hotel in Freetown over the weekend to tackle “Child Labor for Education” in Sierra Leone. The signing ceremony was chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labor and Industrial Relations, M V Kanneh who spoke about the need for stake holders to support children in acquiring education to prepare them for a prosperous future.
He further expressed thanks and appreciation to the Government and its International Partners for preparing a protocol which would tackle the increase in child labor practices by parents, guardians and also at various work places, which has left many children with a bleak future. A representative from the Sierra Leone Labor Congress, Davidson Kuyateh, in his statement noted that the protocol to tackle child labor in Sierra Leone for education is a step in the right direction, as it would ensure that children’s welfare are properly taken care of by concerned authorities. The Deputy Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, Dr. Algassimu Jah expressed thanks and appreciation to stake holders and development partners like ILO for deeming it fit to prepare a protocol to focus on Child education. He noted that the protocol to tackle child labor would accelerate progress which has already been made in achieving the Millennium Development Goals; as over two hundred and forty-one thousand (241,000) children are currently out of school in the country and hoped that the protocol would support children financially and technically to achieve their academic challenges.
The Deputy Minister intimated that, the Government is working towards the promulgation of the child trafficking act, and has also ratified other conventions on the rights of children without proper consultations with the people nation wide, but however hoped that this protocol would make an impact on the lives of many children in Sierra Leone. “Imprisonment and fines would be imposed on parents who fail to send their children to school, as the APC government is determined to reinforce conventions. The Minister of Labor and Industrial Relations Minkailu Mansaray, expressed thanks and appreciation to the various child welfare organizations and the International Labor organization for the formulation of an action plan on child labor. He noted that, “children are denied education, and care, adding that they are also vulnerable to hazardous environment, drug trafficking, prostitution and child pornography,” he said.
The ILO Director, Sino Chuma Nkandeire explained that the project would target beneficiaries and also focus on educational skills training and capacity building programs to empower children to become self reliant for sustainable development so as to alleviate poverty amongst children. The signing ceremony between the International Labor Organization, Government of Sierra Leone and the European Commission formed a high point of the partnership protocol to tackle child labor in Sierra Leone
Ghana: Children rescued from child labor in three districts
GNA
Children’s Rights International, a non-governmental organization (NGO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment and three district assemblies have rescued 360 children from child labor in cocoa growing areas. Out of the number, 236 have chosen to go to school with the remaining 124 opting to learn various trades of their choices. The children were rescued under the National Programme for Elimination of worst forms of child labor in cocoa (NPECLC) which is being piloted in Asante Akim District in the Ashanti Region, Kwaebibrem and Suhum Kraboa Coltar district both in the Eastern Region.
Mr. Bright Appiah, President of Child Rights International (CRI), said this at a ceremony to hand over school uniforms, foot wear and exercise books to the Asante Akim South District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Abdul Karim Boakye-Yiadom, to be distributed to 90 rescued children in the district at Juaso on Friday. Mrs. Rita Amankwaah, National Co-ordinator of NPECLE, said a survey conducted by the programme in cocoa growing areas showed 92 percent school attendance but 54 percent of the pupils could not read and write.She said the survey also revealed that most teachers engaged pupils in all sorts that affected their academic performance and called on such teachers to refrain from the practice.Mr. Boakye-Yiadom said the assembly had been pivotal in the implementation of the programme in the district with the institution of a 15-member District Child Protection Committee to steer the programme effectively.He said workshops and sensitization programmes had been organized for Community Child Protection Committees in the 10 communities as well as executives of Child Rights Clubs in schools in the district.
The image that caused a scandal in Burma is a common sight in Phuket, where Burmese labor is a key component of the construction, fishing and rubber tapping industries.
PHUKET: Burmese daily newspaper True News was ordered by the Press Scrutiny and Registration Board of Myanmar to suspend publication for two months, following its publication on September 30 of a large image depicting a Burmese child working on a construction site in Phuket. Mr Yeni, News Editor at The Irrawaddy, told the Gazette that, “An anonymous freelancer in Rangoon told us that the censorship board has ordered True News to suspend publication for two months due to a front page photograph that ran a caption reading: ‘A Burmese child working on a construction site in Phuket, Thailand’. Apparently the editors of True News were found guilty of not sending clear draft layouts to the Press Scrutiny Board.
“Another Rangoon source said that True News had submitted the layouts, but the Board failed to censor the photo. Major Tint Swe, head of the censorship board, was then reportedly scolded by Information Minister Kyaw Hsan for the oversight,” said Mr Yeni.
“The editors and reporters of True News are now afraid to give interviews with anyone outside Myanmar. We are unable to find out where, exactly, the construction site is in Phuket. We are very interested in covering stories about Burmese migrants in Phuket.
“The Junta are paranoid and strange. The Burmese regime is not like any other government; they focus only on how to control media, especially when they work with journalists outside Myanmar. With the exploitation of child laborers, the Junta feel that they have been exposed for lacking care for their own citizens. Later this year we plan to visit Phuket ourselves,” he added.
There will be a lot for them to report on here. The plight of Burmese workers in Phuket is well known to island residents. They are commonly seen huddled into the back of trucks and at squalid workers’ camps across the island. The camps have mushroomed on the back of a real estate boom driven largely by foreign investment in recent years. The situation made international headlines earlier this year when 54 unregistered workers suffocated in the back of a truck in Ranong while en route to a construction site in Phuket. A crackdown followed, and on June 11 former Kathu policeman Decho Kaewnabon was gunned down in front of his Patong home in a murder that remains unsolved. Decho, dismissed from the force for involvement in Burmese labor rings, allegedly continued in the business. His murder is widely seen as a silencing killing ordered by other influential traffickers.There have also been numerous extortion attempts made against Burmese workers and those who employ them, often by people posing as government officials. One registered Burmese worker who resisted an extortion attempt was shot in the face and killed in Kathu on March 30. Although there were many witnesses, that case also remains unsolved.
Indonesia: Time for domestic workers to receive their rights
Prodita Sabarini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, October 12, 2008
In the weeks before and after the Idul Fitri holidays many middle-class households are busy with domestic matters. Now, however, is when families go hunting for maids.
As the holiday ends and employees in the public and private sector return to work, anxiety begins to creep into the minds of families whose maids failed to return after joining the annual exodus (mudik) back to their hometowns. "My housemate and I were forced to go and stay at my friend's parents' house because our housekeeper did not return from mudik," Leyana Riesca, 25 said. Leyana said her maid, who was from Central Java, did not notify her of her resignation beforehand. "She just didn't return," she said. Leyana is now asking domestic workers in her neighborhood to search for a maid.
Leyana is part of the millions of middle-class households who depend on domestic workers to handle their household chores. The UN's International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated in 2003 that 2.5 million people work as domestic workers. Chairperson for the National Network of Domestic Workers Advocacy (Jala PRT) Lita Anggraeni said that due to the informal nature of the job, the actual number might be higher. "We can say that around 75 percent of the Indonesian middle class hires domestic workers in their houses," Lita said.
However, despite this widespread use, Indonesia does not view the job as a profession. It is not recognized under Indonesia's Labor Law. As some workers live with the hiring family, the job remains in the realm of the private sphere of the family, resulting in no regulations for domestic workers. Leyana's experience of having her domestic helper leave without notice is only one example of the result of the profession's lax regulation. But, the greater impact of non-existent regulation falls upon the workers. Just as Indonesian migrants working in foreign countries are prone to exploitation and abuse due to lack of legal protection, domestic workers in Indonesia face the same risks. ILO has stated that most Indonesian domestic workers have been denied their rights and many fall victim to abuse because they are not recognized as workers. A 2005 ILO survey found that 60 percent of the 500 domestic workers surveyed were either only partially paid or did not receive payment at all. About 20 percent of them suffered sexual harassment, while 40 percent faced psychological abuse.
"People rarely realize that domestic workers experience both physical and psychological abuse. Sometimes people do not view it as abuse. For example physical abuse due to long working hours and heavy workloads as well as psychological abuse from being scorned are considered normal in our society," Lita said. Jala PRT recorded 412 cases of domestic worker abuse between 2000 and 2007.
In July of this year, a housewife with a history of mental illness allegedly beat her maid to death in South Kedoya, West Jakarta. In August last year, two maids from Lampung working for a family in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, were beaten, scaled with hot water and locked in a cabinet for drinking the milk of their employer's children. In the same month, an employer in Bengkulu abused a domestic worker who was a minor, 13, by placing a hot iron on her skin. Djazirotin Nikmah, Care International Indonesia project officer for programs on child domestic workers said a third of the domestic workers were children.
"These children are more prone to exploitation and abuse as they are not as mentally developed as adults," she said. Jala PRT -- consisting of a network of 28 organizations -- attempts to fight for and protect domestic workers' rights nationally, Lita said. Jala is drafting a proposal for a bill to protect domestic workers which will be presented to parliament.
"Hopefully, it will be deliberated in parliament in 2010," Lita said. Jala PRT decided to develop an entire new bill rather than amend the 2003 Labor Law. This decision was taken due to the urgent need to protect domestic workers, Lita said. "Domestic workers should be recognized in the Labor Law. However, it would take a very long time to amend the law, and a regulation is badly needed." The proposed bill includes a salary of at least the regional minimum wage and includes working hours. "Domestic workers' needs are the same as any other workers, therefore they should receive at least the minimum wage." Salaries for domestics vary from as little as Rp 200,000 to Rp 1 million.
Legislator Maria Ulfa from the House of Representatives Commission IX overseeing manpower affairs said Jala should submit their proposal to the parliament soon.
"I think it is time that domestic workers have legal protection," she said.
US awards $58 million to eliminate exploitive child labor around world
Afrol News, October 2, 2008
- A number of sub-Saharan Africa countries will benefit from a huge grant awarded this week by US Department of Labor aimed at fighting exploitative child labor.
US Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao yesterday announced that department has awarded more than $58 million in fiscal year 2008 grants to combat hazardous and exploitive child labor in countries around the world. Grants will save children from and prevent them from entering exploitive labor by providing education and other services. Some of the funding also will be used to collect reliable data and strengthen capacity of governments to address child labor problem.
"This $58 million worth of projects strives to free children around the world from exploitive child labor and help them access a new life of hope and opportunity," said Secretary Chao.
Approximately $21.75 million in grant funding will go for six projects in 13 countries. These include projects to combat exploitive child labor in Guinea, Jordan, Madagascar, Nicaragua and Yemen, as well as support for research on forced labor in Liberia and other countries around the world such as Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia, China, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Grants awards will be channeled through international, nonprofit, for-profit and faith-based organizations.
In addition, department will also award $36.3 million to International Labor Organization's International Programme on Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC) for projects in seven countries in Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, India, Namibia, South Africa and Uganda and support for several multi-region projects.
"We need to continue to send the message that investing in education for children is not just the right thing to do, it's the best investment a country can make in its economic future," said Charlotte M. (Charlie) Ponticelli, Labor Department's deputy undersecretary for international labor affairs.
Since 1995, US Congress has appropriated approximately $660 million to department of labor to support efforts to combat exploitive child labor internationally, with results succeeding in rescuing more than one million children from exploitive child labor around the world.
U.S. Sen. Harkin: Harkin, Engel say child labor protocol must continue as new report on cocoa industry emerges
10/7/2008
Contact: Jennifer Mullin / Kate Cyrul (Harkin) (202) 224-3254
Joseph O’Brien (Engel) (718)-796-9700
Second annual report shows some progress, but work must continue
Washington, D.C. – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY) today made the following statements in response to the findings of their congressionally mandated report on the cocoa industry’s progress in eradicating child labor.
In 2001, after working with the chocolate and cocoa industries, the two Congressional leaders created the “Harkin-Engel Protocol” to develop a framework for the cocoa industry to do away with the worst forms of child and slave labor in the growing and processing of cocoa beans and their derived products. When industry leaders did not meet the Protocol’s 2005 deadline, Harkin and Engel commissioned Tulane University to serve as an oversight body to give an impartial assessment of the cocoa industry’s efforts to implement the protocol. Its findings were released on October 31, 2007; Tulane’s second annual report was released today.
“The Harkin-Engel protocol is a foundation for the future – a future where consumers have the tools to make informed choices based on how the products they purchase are made. For the second year, an impartial source shows that the protocol has made a difference in bringing together the private sector and national governments to focus on eliminating the worst forms of child labor and adult forced labor. Much of this progress is because of the International Cocoa Initiative’s (ICI) holistic approach to combating child labor and adult forced labor, as it has become an effective vehicle for engaging communities and driving change in Ghana and Ivory Coast. While this news is promising, we must continue our hard work and push for further results,” said Harkin. “Of major concern is the continued need, underscored in the report, for an increased focus on and coordination of remediation efforts for children engaged in the worst forms of child labor, with particular attention to those children engaged in the application of chemicals. I am hopeful that with the Tulane and the national government surveys now complete, the industry will work hand-in-hand with the national governments and the ICI to make remediation.”
Harkin noted that the protocol should be viewed as a framework for the institutionalization of eliminating the worst forms of child labor and adult forced labor in the cocoa supply chain. “I would urge the industry to commit to funding the certification and verification aspects of the protocol beyond 2011,” he concluded.
Rep. Engel said, “I am firmly committed to working with the cocoa industry and the governments of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire to eliminate all the worst forms of child and adult forced labor. My trip to West Africa last January reaffirmed my commitment to ending this practice.
“In its report, Tulane University says that by working as partners significant progress has been made, but I believe much important work remains to be done. In particular, the Tulane report talks about the need to better assess the extent and characteristics of child trafficking in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. I believe that all of us working together on the Harkin-Engel Protocol must do much more to both analyze trafficking trends and tackle this issue head on.”
Highlights of the Tulane report:
• Exploitive Child Labor in the Supply Chain: report highlights the need to focus remediation efforts on children exposed to high-risk activities such as the spraying of chemicals.
• The Certification System: The report outlines the need to ensure continued financial commitment by industry to both certification and verification.
• Rehabilitation of Children Withdrawn from Exploitive Child Labor: The report stresses the need to continue assessment of hazardous child labor frameworks and emphasize intervention activities that target reducing exposure to hazardous working conditions.
Here is a unique opportunity to help rescue, rehabilitate and educate children engaged in the worst forms of child labor, this academic year. Please consider giving a one-time donation of $300 to make possible the raid and rescue of 10 children from forced labor in India! With a 'recurring donation' of $55/month, you can provide 1 child rescued from forced labor with food, shelter, education and vocational training in a rehabilitation center.
Or, send a child from the brick kilns or shoe factories to school in Pakistan. With a 'recurring gift' of only $33/month (or a one-time donation of $396/year), you will provide a child with school supplies, textbooks, a daily meal, and a uniform! Do you know that some Americans spend more than $30/month on dyeing their hair?! With a generous recurring donation of $132/month, you can support 1 teacher of these children.
Please share this letter with friends or family members who might be interested in donating to this very just cause.
Global March remains the most recognisable global alliance against child labour and for universal education, but our profile in Europe has diminished in recent years. The Sofia consultation concluded that we need to adapt to the new legal, constitutional, political and economic realities of Europe; to coordinate more effectively across borders; and, in some cases, to rebuild national networks that have become weak or even inactive. The GM International Council and the ITUC - as the key international and pan-European trade union constituent of the Global March - wish to support a stronger regional alliance between NGOs and trade unions that can deliver a reinvigorated programme of work.
Agenda of the Meeting
To establish a new Pan-European/Euro-Mediterranean structure including all 51 states of the ILO’s European Region (EU and non-EU members; the Commonwealth of Independent States, Georgia and Turkmenistan; and Turkey) plus Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Nothing prevents us from seeking to enlarge our Euro-Mediterranean reach if we wish. We noted the benefits of continued sub-regional coordination and the need for more effective national coordination among effective and active member organisations.
To establish a permanent office in Brussels (or possibly the Netherlands).
