From Marrakech to the post-2030 agenda: A new global target on child labour

Host: Good afternoon and welcome to our, uh, ILC lunchtime conversation, coming to you from the International Labor Conference, uh, here at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Every year on 12th of June, we mark a World day against child labor. Uh, we know the figures. 138 million children are still in child labor, 54 million in hazardous work. Um, last year, in 2025, the world missed the 2025 SDG, the Sustainable Development Goal target of ending child labor. But, um, here's what's different about today. Um, four months ago in February 2026, governments, workers, employers, uh, and civil society gathered in Marrakech, Morocco, to adopt a global framework of action against child, uh, labor. Uh, they made a firm commitment and ending child labor must stay a global priority through 2030 and beyond. Now, how do we get there? Do we need a new set of ambitious targets? What kind of concrete milestones, uh, can we put in place while bringing on board regional specificities? Um, that's the focus of our dialogue here for the next 25 minutes. And to guide this conversation, I'm very, very pleased, um, to welcome, um, Jacqueline Mugo, President of International organization of employers. IoE. Welcome. Sirin Mattison, Varne workers Delegate, Sweden. Welcome. And Federico Blanco, the ilo, Head of Research and Evaluation Unit in the Fundamentals, uh, department. Welcome, all, uh, four of you. So here's how it works. Uh, we have two quick rounds of questions. No longer answers specific, but real concrete examples, and then we close with some key, uh, takeaways. First round of questions. Why must child labor stay on a, ah, post 2030 agenda? Let me start with the key question that brings us here today. Um, I mentioned earlier that the world just missed the 2025 elimination of child labor target. So, so why should we put child labor back on the Post2030 agenda as a distinct measurable goal instead of absorbing it into broader poverty or education targets? Why does it need its own, uh, spotlight? So, before our panelist starts, Federico, maybe you can take us back to Marrakesh and the framework which calls for an ambitious zero by 2040 target. Or does it advocate actually for reduction of ah, targets with intermediary, um, milestones?

Federico Blanco: Hello, Kolitz. Thank you for having me here. The framework in itself doesn't call for a specific target. It just recognizes that ending child labor must remain an absolute priority, uh, throughout 2030 and beyond. Setting a target is something that will be dealt also in the framework that will replace the Sustainable Development Goals. And the discussions for that, uh, uh, will start next year. When it comes to child labor, we have Lots of progress that has been achieved in the last 25 years. We started the year 2000 with 245 million children in child labor. We are today at 138 million children in child labor. The target, uh, the SCG target 8.7 was to reduce it to zero. This deadline has passed. The target was not met but the commitment does not expire with that time and it is very important. And that's the key message that uh, we're sending, that whatever replaces the SDG needs to have and to factor child labor within it. And uh, with child labor we are in ah, an advantageous situation. We have seven global estimates and regional estimates of child labor that the ILO has produced and UNICEF the latest one. We have regional trends, we know where we're going and uh, this measurement also influences our capacity to take action on the problem. We cannot end what we cannot measure. So that's my first reaction to your very good.

Host: Okay, so now we just got the ILO expertise. Thank you for sharing that one. Let's go to leave the experiences. And I'm going to start with you Siri, uh, and Warren. From the workers perspective, why must child labor stay on the global agenda, uh, after 2030, what changes for workers if child labor um, becomes invisible in the post 2030framework?

Sirin Mattison: Thank you so much for the question and thank you for inviting me here and for uh, inviting workers in this very important topic. Well, the failure to meet std 8.7 was not a failure of ambition. It was a failure of political will, enforcement and financing Workers organization refused to accept that the response to missing a target is to lower the bar. Uh, as we have said here, 138 million children still uh, in labor that could never be acceptable. So progress is 11 times too slow. Uh, these are not statistics, not mere statistics. These are children. Children that should be in school, but instead they work in agriculture, in mining, in construction and domestic service while their peers are in school. For the trade union movements, every one of those children represent a family without a living wage, a labor inspector who never came, a supply chain that was never audited and a government that signed commitment but did not fund them. So it needs to stay a target and a, a ah goal of its own to make government accountable, ah, and accountable and to make funding a reality and take actions.

Host: Thank you. So um, we had the workers view. Let's see what now the employers are thinking. Why should employers um, Support a dedicated post2030 target on child labor? Instead of saying well we'll just comply with the Kind of regulation that already exists.

Jacqueline Mugo: Thank you very much for that question. It's a privilege for employers to take part in this important conversation. I think we've been given the numbers. 138 million children still working in child labor. So from the employer's perspective, one of the most relevant elements of the Marrakesh Global Framework, which was passed in April, uh, in February this year, is, is its strong emphasis on moving from commitment to action through practical implementation, particularly within enterprises and supply chains. The framework rightly recognizes that eliminating child labor requires addressing its root causes, including poverty, informality and lack of access to quality education, while at the same time strengthening responsible business conduct. For the international Organization of Employers and its global network of more than 150 employer member organizations, this dual approach is essential. Businesses are, uh, not only economic actors, they are also key partners in prevention of child labor. We see particular importance in the framework's focus on root causes of child labor. The ones I've mentioned. Informality, poverty, limited access to education. But there's also the reality of lack of social protection flaws, insufficient labor inspection and weak governance. If we fail to address these root causes in a comprehensive manner, we will not succeed in our fight against child labor. Equally important is the recognition of SMEs, which form the backbone of many economies but often lack the tools and capacity. And to address child labor. Supporting these enterprises is therefore critical if you want real impact on the ground. In short, the framework reflects uh, a priority that is central to our work as employers and that is embedding child labor prevention into our uh, systems and the work that we do so that we can tackle the root causes while also working in partnership to address underlying vulnerabilities. Because employers recognize that we cannot do it alone. But, but we have a very important role to play.

Host: Okay, so what I'm hearing from social partners here, and actually even the ilo, is that, um, child labor can be diluted if it gets absorbed into broader goals, uh, it becomes invisible. And invisible means unaccountable. So, but how do we now target that? And on one side we have zero child labor by 2040 as a suggestion, as a proposal. On the other side you have cut child labor by um, 50% by 2035 with regular reporting that seems enforceable that countries are, can actually be, uh, held to it. But let me go back to the ILO expertise again, Federico. Um, if we set a credible reduction by a, uh, target like 50% by 2035, what would actually be uh, needed in terms of making that achievable? Uh, Is it financial resources? Is it, uh, governance? Um, different kind of governance?

Federico Blanco: I think that this question deserves a lot of dialogue. Setting a target is not something that we can do lightly. We have to take into consideration ambition and reality. And to strike a good, uh, target means finding the right balance between these two. In the case of reality, we know what reality is because we measure it. We have 138 million children in child labor. And, uh, we have been measuring this at the global level and at the regional level since 2000. So we know what has been the pace of progress and even in the best possible scenario, what has been the best pace of progress. Um, ambition. Ambition is, uh, something that will emerge from the discussion of the replacement of the SDG framework. And perhaps, uh, an ambition would be to move faster than we have ever moved in the past. That, to me, is what the, uh, ambition means. I think that, uh, I would not address your question because I think that this question is a question that should. The answer to this question should emerge from social dialogue is not, uh, only a technical exercise. Having said this, I would like to raise a couple of considerations. The current target that we have is absolute, is an absolute target. Some targets in the SDG are relative, reduced by 50% by date x. Uh, ah, a certain issue. An absolute target has challenges and implications as well. For example, we observe that the problem is concentrated. The problem of child labor is mostly concentrated in Africa. And, uh, there is also great progress in Africa because there was a reduction of the prevalence in Africa. Even in the context of challenges of what we're witnessing conflict. There was a reduction in the prevalence, but this did not translate in the reduction in the absolute numbers. The absolute numbers are stagnated and they are estagnated because of the demographics. There is a population growth, especially on the target population of children, that makes that targets in terms of absolute numbers are going to be very difficult to achieve. So I'm not saying what the target should be. I'm just saying that we have a strong basis, scientific basis to look back. We need also to add ambition. And that needs to be the discussion from 2027 onwards. Thank you.

Host: That's a nice way to address the question, actually. Thank you, Federico. Okay, now if we go to the second part. What, uh, should the next target look like? We had the expertise of the ilo, um, go back to you, um, Shirino from Workers Sweden. Which one would you push for, you know, absolute zero by a fixed date or credible reduction target with milestones, binding milestones?

Sirin Mattison: Well, we could never accept anything else than an absolute target. Of course, uh, every child should go to school instead of working, and especially not working, uh, worked, uh, so for workers organization that we do support in a visual absolute target zero child labor anchored to a specific date, combined with legally binding, uh, intermediate milestone that must be monitored, that must be enforced and um, resourced at national level, uh, the zero by 2030 deadline has already slipped. We are realistic, uh, but we should not replace it with a target so hedged it cannot be enforced. Our position set the absolute goal zero tide labor with a revised horizon of 2035 and require every government to adopt a binding national roadmap with five years milestone costed action plans and tripartite accountability mechanism. We can't let Marrakesh agreement become paper tiger. A paper that is not an agreement that is not enforced.

Host: Thank you. I'm, um, Jacqueline Mugo from International Organizational Couriers. Same question from your. What kind of target would you support and what would make it credible?

Jacqueline Mugo: I think we're all in agreement, but is that we need hard targets and the ambition must be to eliminate, uh, child labor altogether. That was always the ambition from the beginning. But the reality on the ground has made it very difficult, especially in regions such as mine where the demographics tell a different story. But uh, I believe if we are serious about accelerating progress, because we must have incremental progress, we must now focus on scaling up on concrete, measurable actions. First, we need to strengthen the capacity of enterprises, especially SMEs, through practical tools, training and guidance. Many businesses are actually willing to act, but they need accessible and realistic solutions that can be implemented within their operational realities. Second, we must scale up our collective action in this regard. The Alliance 8.7 brings together UN organizations, governments, social partners, civil society at both international and national levels. The alliance has a tremendous convening power and is connecting the dots between the international and the national levels. It is this kind of innovation which is triggering, correcting collective action. Third, government plays a critical role and I think it's unfortunate that we don't have a government representative here today because they help have effective policies. They look into enforcement and investment in education and social protection systems. We know that education is really the key to getting children out of, uh, the difficulties we are talking about and that it is essential to addressing the root causes that drive child labor. Fourth, we must do better at getting the data and the statistics. That is what the ILO is talking about. We simply need better data so that we monitor and we can have accountability mechanisms. Without clear measurement, we cannot track progress or allocate uh, resources effectively and resources has been one of the key drawbacks. Finally, and most importantly, we must ensure that interventions are adapted to local contexts, particularly in informal and high risk sectors that are prevalent in developing economies such as mine, where standard approaches may not work. So if we act collectively and particularly in these areas, we can move from incremental progress to real acceleration and eventually our dream of elimination.

Host: So if we hear correctly. Let me try to synthesize, um, what we've heard now. Three key, um, insights. Obviously, child labor cannot, uh, disappear from the post2030 agenda. Um, the target must be credible, not just ambitious. And do we need regional flexibility recognizing different, um, starting point, especially you mentioned Africa, uh, Federico. So here's what it means, uh, for the next six months this is going to be very critical. Um, Alliance 8.7. The ILO UNICEF member states are, ah, technical discussion right now about the post 2030um, target and how it will be. So more than ever, obviously the tripartite voices are uh, needed. So thank you to all our panelists for this honest and uh, challenging conversation. We hope, uh, you'll join us again for more conversation on the issues, uh, uh, shaping the world of work. Don't forget to follow us on the ILO social media platform for regular updates and insights. We are on Twitter, uh, uh, Xlo, uh, Facebook, International Labor Organization. We're on LinkedIn, International Labor Organization, Instagram, Lorg, YouTube, ILOTV. So until next time, take care from all of us at the ilo and thank you, thank you so much.