Q&A with Katherine Torres on ILO Child Labor Platform: The Role of the US Private Sector

In an era defined by increasingly intricate global supply chains, businesses are confronted with a pressing and urgent issue: child labor. Child labor is a widespread concern, seeping into sectors such as agriculture, automotive, and technology. According to the ILO and UNICEF, nearly one in ten children globally is subjected to child labor, and some are coerced into hazardous work through human trafficking. Failing to address these issues not only gives rise to significant ethical dilemmas but also exposes businesses to escalating risks, including damage to their reputation, legal consequences, and disruptions in their supply chains.

Against this backdrop, the Child Labor Platform (CLP), a leading business initiative created by the International Labor Organization (ILO) to eradicate child labor in supply chains, convenes companies and drives collective private sector action towards achieving Target 8.7 - the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal aimed at eradicating child labor by 2030.

In a recent conversation, the UN Global Compact Network USA interviewed Katherine Torres, Senior Program Officer for Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in Supply Chains, at the ILO’s CLP. The discussion explored both the role of the private sector in eradicating child labor within supply chains and the available resources to support the private sector in these efforts.

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Questions

1. Could you offer insights on the presence of child labor situation, including in the United States, outlining its extent and highlighting notable challenges and emerging patterns you've witnessed in recent years?

Around the world, an estimated 160 million children are working in conditions of child labor, including in the United States. Within global supply chains, child labor largely occurs in upstream production of raw materials and agriculture, which are used as inputs into goods that are exported to countries like the US. This means that child labor often takes place in preceding tiers of the supply chain, and as a result, it is critical that businesses committed to eliminating child labor focus their efforts beyond their immediate suppliers. Due to most of the child labor taking place in the informal and rural sectors, visibility and traceability remains a challenge. Moreover, climate change, inadequate wages, and a lack of decent work opportunities for adults are all factors that increase children’s vulnerability to child labor. 

2. What is the CLP, and how does the CLP support governments, including the U.S. government, promote policies and legislation related to child labor elimination?

The CLP is the leading, cross-sectoral business initiative to eradicate child labor in supply chains. The Platform brings together businesses across industries to share good practices and implement collective solutions to end child labor in supply chains. It works to not only advance change at the global level, but also to tackle the root causes of child labor on the ground through pre-competitive and cross-sectoral interventions. There are currently 24 member companies of the CLP, including major multinationals in the food and beverage, clothing, construction materials, luxury goods, and tech sectors.

The CLP is also a recognized business network of the Alliance 8.7. –a global multi-stakeholder coalition under the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that aims to accelerate timelines and action towards the elimination of child labor and forced labor. Businesses can contribute to the UN SDGs through the CLP’s link to the Alliance 8.7 and by participating in the CLP’s activities and cross-sectoral and in-country initiatives.

3. Could you provide examples of specific tools or guidance materials developed by the CLP that American businesses can utilize to combat child labor in their supply chains?

Companies can make a profound impact not only by remediating child labor, but also by reorienting management systems and rethinking business models to address the root causes of child labor and promote decent work. The CLP secretariat provides members with guidance on how to improve company policies and practices through bilateral consultations. It also organizes regular exchanges for sharing knowledge and tools to tackle the root causes of child labor, including through annual in-person conferences, membership meetings, and webinars. In addition to offering technical consultations to members and connecting companies to ILO expertise around the world, the CLP has developed a range of publicly available resources to assist businesses in understanding, monitoring, and addressing child labor in their supply chains. For example, the ILO-IOE child labour guidance tool for business outlines steps companies can take to improve governance, due diligence, and remediation processes and the brief Vulnerabilities to child labour highlights how climate change, crises, informality, and marginalization faced by indigenous groups can increase the risks of children engaging in child labor.

4. The CLP has established Country Working Groups to support and build on its members' activities and best practices and to identify and implement concrete solutions at the national level cooperatively. Can you elaborate on the role of American companies in advancing cross-sectoral collaboration at the country level through CLP Country Working Groups?

Effectively addressing child labor requires collaboration and a cross-sectoral approach. Through the CLP Country Working Groups for Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and India, businesses have supported collective action and government engagement and connected with ILO projects on the ground.  The ILO’s unparalleled convening power brings companies together with workers, national employers, and governments to collectively address the root causes of the problem. For example, in DRC, companies are supporting the development of the government’s centralized Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System by connecting with suppliers and developing remediation support mechanisms and, in India, members are engaging in a research and capacity-building project to better understand the drivers of child labor in cotton, spices, and agricultural supply chains.

5. How does the CLP work with businesses to conduct impact assessments and measure the effectiveness of child labor elimination efforts in their supply chains?

In 2023, the CLP conducted an analysis on nearly 60 companies’ codes of conduct to determine whether they adequately addressed child labor. This review considered alignment with international standards on child labor as they relate to respect for human rights, prevention, and remedy.  The findings demonstrate that most companies do not have explicit commitments to providing remediation for child labor, including for hazardous child labor. The Platform can work with individual companies or groups of companies to provide training, expertise, and knowledge building on child labor, drawing on the resources, research, and experience in the ILO, and facilitate dialogue with governments and workers’ and employers’ organizations at national and local levels on child labor policy and legislation.

6. What are some success stories or case studies of companies that have actively participated in the CLP and achieved positive results in addressing child labor?

In 2023, ILO, with support for the European Union, the ILO launched the “Ending Child Labour in Supply Chains” project, which will be implemented over the next three years and will benefit from collaboration among UN agencies and supply chain actors at the global, regional, national, and local levels.

Through the CLP, the private sector will play a central role in this project. CLP member companies, including major U.S. brands, will participate directly in the project’s implementation and activities and build on multinationals’ existing due diligence efforts.

With the private sector, the project will promote sustainable solutions to child labor in the coffee sector in Honduras, Uganda, and Vietnam. The project, moreover, will scale up child labor due diligence and responsible sourcing in coffee supply chains at all levels, strengthen social dialogue and small producers’ organizations, and foster synergies between private sector initiatives and those of governments and country-level institutions and actors to address child labor and promote decent work in coffee production.

In addition, in Côte d'Ivoire, US companies are involved in a program to increase access to public health insurance for farmers and their families in the cocoa supply chain. Access to social protection mechanisms like insurance are critical to protect families from economic shocks that can result in increased child labor. So far over 6,000 workers have received coverage under this initiative. Moreover, US companies are collaborating with additional stakeholders to better understand options for remediating hazardous labor conditions for children ages 14-17 by supporting apprentice and technical and vocational training programs.

Separately, a US company participated in a research project designed to better understand child labor conditions in the recycling sector in Mexico. This included implementing a baseline study to identify child labor risks and a discussion with stakeholders to design a plan of action. As a result of this research initiative, the government of Mexico agreed to develop a roadmap to address child labor in the recycling sector, which will be implemented in partnership with the private sector.

Businesses stepping into the realm of combating child labor within supply chains face a complex landscape, but engagement and collaboration are key starting points. To embark on this critical journey, organizations can find valuable resources and guidance through the UN Global Compact Network USA and the Child Labor Platform (CLP).

Together, by leveraging available resources and engaging in collective initiatives, businesses can play a pivotal role in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal to eliminate child labor by 2030.