PHA-Exchange> ILO/OIT: Investing in Every Child. An Economic Study of Child Labour

[Claudio]

From: Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC) 
 EQUIDAD at LISTSERV.PAHO.ORG 


Investing in Every Child
An Economic Study of the Costs and Benefits of Eliminating Child Labour

International Labour Office, Geneva

December 2003. ISBN 92-2-115419-X

Press Release:  3 February 2004 (ILO/04/04) 



Available online as PDF file [147p.] at:
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/publ/download/2003_12_investingchild.pdf 



"........One in every six children aged 5 to 17 worldwide is exploited by child labour in its different forms, according to estimates made by the ILO in 2002. Many of these children are forced to risk their health and their lives and mortgage their future as productive adults.



More information has raised awareness of the scale of the problem and given new urgency to developing and financing policies and programmes to remove children from work situations. More knowledge has also provoked new questions about the cost of removing children from work, providing them with education and ensuring them a decent childhood. At the same time, policymakers are also enquiring to what extent the effective abolition of child labour will pay off for national development and poverty reduction, and how children and their families stand to gain.



This report is based on a wide range of data and technical assumptions about the quantifiable elements of the costs and benefits of ending child labour. While it has to be noted that some important benefits of eliminating child labour such as enhanced possibilities for personal development can hardly be measured in monetary terms, our calculations clearly led us to the conclusion that the elimination of child labour is a high yielding global investment. With an affordable amount of financial resources, enormous benefits would be generated in all regions of the world.



In the light of this finding, we can assert with even more conviction than ever before that the elimination of child labour deserves to be pursued with utmost determination.



......The ILO estimates that some 246 million children are currently involved in child labour worldwide. Of these, 179 million - or one in every eight children worldwide - are exposed to the worst forms of child labour, which endanger their physical, mental or moral well-being. 



The report draws on a large range of data, including detailed country data from Brazil, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, Ukraine, Pakistan, Nepal and the Philippines. A second tier of data consisted of 24 additional countries for whom household surveys, primarily conducted by ILO-IPEC and the World Bank, have been implemented during the past decade. For the remaining countries, the study used publicly available demographic, economic and education data as the basis for extrapolating from those with more complete information........"





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