About nine months before Covid-19 swept into our countries, in July 2019, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution declaring 2021 the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. Its text says that member states should take immediate and effective measures to end child labour in all its forms by 2025, as stipulated by Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The International Labour Organization is to lead the charge.
Such international goal-setting exercises take place in a domain that is far removed from the daily social, political, and economic dynamics of our countries. These are, in the recent past, most often in a downward spiral. It is absurd that countries and agencies commit to development goals which all parties are aware are impossible to meet, yet it is increasingly the norm.
It is also indefensible. Setting unreachable targets at the global level and thrusting them downwards is not only ineffectual and misleading. It is also, in many situations, counterproductive. The target of eliminating all forms of child labour is no exception. The concrete policy and budgetary decisions that are implemented in its pursuit are gravely detrimental to the wellbeing of children, while the project as a whole grossly ignores the rights and needs of millions of children and young people.
