The number of children worldwide who are victims of child labor has decreased, UNICEF reported on Wednesday in a report. Last year, almost 138 million children were involved in child labor. 54 million children worked in hazardous conditions.
Together with the International Labor Organization (ILO), UNICEF writes that there has been a decrease of more than 20 million since 2020. This undoes an “alarming peak between 2016 and 2020.” The expectation was that the situation would worsen further due to the corona pandemic, but this has not happened. The number of children in child labor has almost halved since 2000.
Children in Sub-Saharan Africa in particular are affected by child labor. According to UNICEF, the number is 87 million. In Asia and the Pacific region, it concerns 28 million children. Child labor most often takes place in agriculture. The service sector is in second place, followed by industrial sectors such as mining and factory work.
The UN wants to completely eliminate child labor in 2025. According to UNICEF, that goal will not be achieved. The pace must then be eleven times as high as it is now. To achieve the goal in 2045, the pace must be increased sevenfold, according to UNICEF.
The organization says that more investments are needed in, for example, social protection, education and work for adults. Such steps have helped in the decrease of recent years. Suzanne Laszlo, director of UNICEF Netherlands, says that this progress is under pressure due to global cuts.