Child Labour

If he lost this job Ahmed and children like him might have to resort to:

• Prostitution
• Living on the streets
• Working in more hazardous conditions

If he lost his job Ahmed's family would go hungry. He can't go to school because he can't afford it. When you look at the whole picture, you realise that child labour is not a simple issue. It is not a cause of poverty, but a symptom.

Around the world, 200 million school age children are forced to work. In Africa alone more than four out of every 10 children are forced to work.

Many people call for boycotts of goods which have been produced using child labour. But War on Want does not support these calls. War on Want doesn't believe in sticking plaster solutions.

In the same way that War on Want believes we should tackle the root causes of poverty, we believe we should tackle the root causes of child labour. Boycotts, whilst easing the conscience of the western consumer, can actually harm the very children they seek to support.

War on Want advocates a holistic approach to tackling child labour that includes:

• Pay the parents: Support trade unions to ensure decent pay and conditions for adults
• End the need: Provide economic support for families so that the need for child labour is eliminated
• Provide the alternative: Provide support to governments to expand education provision
• Gradual phase-out: Starting with the most hazardous forms of work, moving through the informal economy and then to the more formal economy.

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