ILO Director-General Guy Ryder speaks at the conference. (Photo: VNA) Durban (VNA) – Director-General of the InternationalLabour Organisation (ILO) Guy Ryder has lauded Vietnam’s pioneering role and effortsto eliminate child labour during an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency(VNA)'s correspondent in South Africa on the sidelines of the 5th globalconference on the elimination of child labour in Durban.Following is the full contents of the interview:
Reporter: Vietnam is one of the Pathfinder countries of theAlliance 8.7. What does it mean to the fight in Chapter Eight labour and like,what can Vietnam in particular, and other parts of the countries in general doto further contribute to the fight?
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder: Alliance 8.7 is a global alliance ofgovernments, civil society organisations and international organisations tofight against child labour, and indeed forced labour. And we're very pleasedthat Vietnam has joined as one of 26 pioneer countries. What does that mean? Itmeans that Vietnam is putting his hand up and volunteering to make a particularaccelerated effort to get rid of child labour. And this is not just somethingon paper. We're actually doing major activities with Vietnam and Vietnam ismaking important progress. I'm very pleased at Vietnam. I think it was back in2018 conducted the child labour survey and National Child Labour survey. So youknow what the problem is. You have a national policy to get rid of child labour.We are doing good cooperative work with Vietnam to try to build capacities andto make sure that your legislation which has been put in place producesresults. All of this is concrete. It's for real, it's not theory. And I thinkthat one of the reasons in my judgment that makes it so important to Vietnam isas your country becomes more integrated into the global economy into globalsupply chains, and also concluding important trading agreements, not least withthe European Union, where there is a strong interest in labour standards,Vietnam has clearly decided that it wants to be seen to be making a veryserious effort in respect of child labour.
So at this point, I'm extremely pleased with that cooperation. And I'moptimistic because it is concrete, that it's going to produce good results forVietnam, and for of course, the global effort against child labour. So this isgood news.
Reporter: Can you brief us on the situation of child labourglobally? Why is child labour still happening in the world? And do you see anydifferences among countries and continents in the form of child labour?
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder: Indeed, the situation in the world today isthat there are 160 million children in child labour at the moment. And to giveyou an idea, that means 9.6 percent of all children are in child labour. That'sa big number. But the good news is that at the beginning of the century in theyear 2000, that figure was 245 million, and the percentage was 16 percent. Soin two decades, we've come down very considerably, this is a big success. Thebad news, however, is since 2016, slowly the figures are going back up again,even before COVID-19. And with COVID-19, we have to worry that the figures aregoing back up once more. So I think that the challenge of this conference is toregain the momentum that we have lost and try to meet the international goalwhich was set by the United Nations, which was to eliminate child labour by2025. We're not on track, and we have to get back on track.
Now you asked me about the different regions. The progress I've mentioned atthe global level, has a very clear regional dimension. The Asia Pacific regionwhere Vietnam of course is located, has had major successes. It's brought downchild labour very quickly and very considerably. The same is true, more or lessin Latin America, which is also had big declines. The major challenge I thinknow resides in Africa, where actually numbers are going up and going up quitestrongly. The percentage of children in work in child labour in Sub SaharanAfrica is more than 23 percent. So that global average of 9.6 percent is morethan doubled here in Africa. And that's one of the reasons we've come to Durbanin South Africa to renew the struggle.
Reporter: As we are in Durban right now, how would youevaluate the progresses of the elimination on child labour from the previousfour conferences? What have been done? What have not? What can we expect fromthis conference?
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder: As I've said, we had our first conference in1997. And since then, we've reduced child labour about one third. And this isan enormous achievement. And I can't say all of that is because of theconferences. But what the conferences have helped to do is to establish globalunderstanding of what it takes to beat child labour, what the real levers ofpolicy are, and then to increase commitment to use those levers. So what do weneed to do? Well, two things are very clear. Education and accessible educationis a key weapon against child labour. If parents have the option of sendingtheir children to school and they can afford to, they will do that. Soeducation is vital.
The second is social protection. You know, we know that parents don't wishtheir children to work. Very often they have to make their children workbecause family income is too low to sustain the family. So we need to see andthis is the second weapon social protection, income support for poor families,which makes it more possible for them to avoid child labour.
So these are two levers that we've used very effectively. I think there's athird lever as well. And that is making sure that parents have decent work.They have work that gives them a sufficient income, that they're out of povertyand their children do not have to work. And we've seen these things working.This is not theory. It's practice.
There is of course, I think, an international solidarity part to all of this.It is absolutely essential that the global community not only set the target ofeliminating child labour, but actually helped support through financing effortsto remove child labour.
Reporter: Mentioning COVID-19, how has the pandemic affectedthe ILO’s strategy in technical support to countries?
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder: What weneed to understand is COVID-19 a health emergency and of course, it came toVietnam very late at the beginning you were the miracle country that avoidedCOVID-19. But COVID-19 has brought a dramatic social and economic crisis.
Our estimates are that in terms of jobs lost - an income loss. COVID-19 has hadfour times more impact negative impact than the financial crisis of 2008-2009.We haven't seen a crisis like this for decades. So this was dramatic, andunsurprisingly, this has probably had an influence on child labour.
In the first instance, it might be surprising. It probably reduced child labourbecause as things closed down and enterprises closed down, children alsostopped working but as the lockdowns began to be relaxed, and because peopleare more vulnerable, and there's more poverty, we think that there are morechild children at work because of COVID-19. And one estimate, we have still hadto be confirmed is that probably COVID has brought nearly 9 million extra childlabourers. So this is quite a dramatic thing and makes our job even moredifficult.
Reporter: What is your message to the world leaders on how tospeed up the fight against child labour?
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder: I thinkthere's two or three things. Firstly, let's not forget that when the UnitedNations adopted its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we did that in2015. We all decided we would get rid of child labour. It wasn't an obligation.We decided to do it. So we have to be honest, and try to keep our effortsgoing. Secondly, I really do understand that the global economy is not easy.There are multiple crises breaking out in the world, but it is ourresponsibility to keep child labour centerstage. Don't forget about it. Becauseas many people have said in our conference today, the future depends on ourchildren, and we need to give them the best start.
Reporter: Thank you so much for taking the interview with ustoday./.
Reporter: Vietnam is one of the Pathfinder countries of theAlliance 8.7. What does it mean to the fight in Chapter Eight labour and like,what can Vietnam in particular, and other parts of the countries in general doto further contribute to the fight?
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder: Alliance 8.7 is a global alliance ofgovernments, civil society organisations and international organisations tofight against child labour, and indeed forced labour. And we're very pleasedthat Vietnam has joined as one of 26 pioneer countries. What does that mean? Itmeans that Vietnam is putting his hand up and volunteering to make a particularaccelerated effort to get rid of child labour. And this is not just somethingon paper. We're actually doing major activities with Vietnam and Vietnam ismaking important progress. I'm very pleased at Vietnam. I think it was back in2018 conducted the child labour survey and National Child Labour survey. So youknow what the problem is. You have a national policy to get rid of child labour.We are doing good cooperative work with Vietnam to try to build capacities andto make sure that your legislation which has been put in place producesresults. All of this is concrete. It's for real, it's not theory. And I thinkthat one of the reasons in my judgment that makes it so important to Vietnam isas your country becomes more integrated into the global economy into globalsupply chains, and also concluding important trading agreements, not least withthe European Union, where there is a strong interest in labour standards,Vietnam has clearly decided that it wants to be seen to be making a veryserious effort in respect of child labour.
So at this point, I'm extremely pleased with that cooperation. And I'moptimistic because it is concrete, that it's going to produce good results forVietnam, and for of course, the global effort against child labour. So this isgood news.
Reporter: Can you brief us on the situation of child labourglobally? Why is child labour still happening in the world? And do you see anydifferences among countries and continents in the form of child labour?
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder: Indeed, the situation in the world today isthat there are 160 million children in child labour at the moment. And to giveyou an idea, that means 9.6 percent of all children are in child labour. That'sa big number. But the good news is that at the beginning of the century in theyear 2000, that figure was 245 million, and the percentage was 16 percent. Soin two decades, we've come down very considerably, this is a big success. Thebad news, however, is since 2016, slowly the figures are going back up again,even before COVID-19. And with COVID-19, we have to worry that the figures aregoing back up once more. So I think that the challenge of this conference is toregain the momentum that we have lost and try to meet the international goalwhich was set by the United Nations, which was to eliminate child labour by2025. We're not on track, and we have to get back on track.
Now you asked me about the different regions. The progress I've mentioned atthe global level, has a very clear regional dimension. The Asia Pacific regionwhere Vietnam of course is located, has had major successes. It's brought downchild labour very quickly and very considerably. The same is true, more or lessin Latin America, which is also had big declines. The major challenge I thinknow resides in Africa, where actually numbers are going up and going up quitestrongly. The percentage of children in work in child labour in Sub SaharanAfrica is more than 23 percent. So that global average of 9.6 percent is morethan doubled here in Africa. And that's one of the reasons we've come to Durbanin South Africa to renew the struggle.
Reporter: As we are in Durban right now, how would youevaluate the progresses of the elimination on child labour from the previousfour conferences? What have been done? What have not? What can we expect fromthis conference?
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder: As I've said, we had our first conference in1997. And since then, we've reduced child labour about one third. And this isan enormous achievement. And I can't say all of that is because of theconferences. But what the conferences have helped to do is to establish globalunderstanding of what it takes to beat child labour, what the real levers ofpolicy are, and then to increase commitment to use those levers. So what do weneed to do? Well, two things are very clear. Education and accessible educationis a key weapon against child labour. If parents have the option of sendingtheir children to school and they can afford to, they will do that. Soeducation is vital.
The second is social protection. You know, we know that parents don't wishtheir children to work. Very often they have to make their children workbecause family income is too low to sustain the family. So we need to see andthis is the second weapon social protection, income support for poor families,which makes it more possible for them to avoid child labour.
So these are two levers that we've used very effectively. I think there's athird lever as well. And that is making sure that parents have decent work.They have work that gives them a sufficient income, that they're out of povertyand their children do not have to work. And we've seen these things working.This is not theory. It's practice.
There is of course, I think, an international solidarity part to all of this.It is absolutely essential that the global community not only set the target ofeliminating child labour, but actually helped support through financing effortsto remove child labour.
Reporter: Mentioning COVID-19, how has the pandemic affectedthe ILO’s strategy in technical support to countries?
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder: What weneed to understand is COVID-19 a health emergency and of course, it came toVietnam very late at the beginning you were the miracle country that avoidedCOVID-19. But COVID-19 has brought a dramatic social and economic crisis.
Our estimates are that in terms of jobs lost - an income loss. COVID-19 has hadfour times more impact negative impact than the financial crisis of 2008-2009.We haven't seen a crisis like this for decades. So this was dramatic, andunsurprisingly, this has probably had an influence on child labour.
In the first instance, it might be surprising. It probably reduced child labourbecause as things closed down and enterprises closed down, children alsostopped working but as the lockdowns began to be relaxed, and because peopleare more vulnerable, and there's more poverty, we think that there are morechild children at work because of COVID-19. And one estimate, we have still hadto be confirmed is that probably COVID has brought nearly 9 million extra childlabourers. So this is quite a dramatic thing and makes our job even moredifficult.
Reporter: What is your message to the world leaders on how tospeed up the fight against child labour?
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder: I thinkthere's two or three things. Firstly, let's not forget that when the UnitedNations adopted its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we did that in2015. We all decided we would get rid of child labour. It wasn't an obligation.We decided to do it. So we have to be honest, and try to keep our effortsgoing. Secondly, I really do understand that the global economy is not easy.There are multiple crises breaking out in the world, but it is ourresponsibility to keep child labour centerstage. Don't forget about it. Becauseas many people have said in our conference today, the future depends on ourchildren, and we need to give them the best start.
Reporter: Thank you so much for taking the interview with ustoday./.
VNA
