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Cambodia Laws are important and necessary. Schools are important and necessary. But all these will fail if they are not supported by commitment and a programme of action to combat poverty. Poverty is the single most important cause of child labour. And the single most important weapon to combat poverty is productive employment”. 9 Poverty alleviation through effective income generation should therefore be a priority component in child labour projects whenever possible. This can include the participation of the children themselves, through vocational opportunities that provide reasonable financial rewards – an important factor as noted in section 5 below. 4. Activities should provide the skills and opportunity for long-term, sustainable employment. While this may sound obvious, many children’s projects emphasise removing children from hazardous occupations, or developing skills, with little emphasis on whether the activity will actually lead to gainful employment (or self-employment) and concrete income. An ILO/IPEC review of 16 child labour action programs with skill-training components in Southeast Asia found that “direct economic gains to the children participating in vocational skills training were limited.” 10 While it was argued that this was not necessarily the goal of the programs, it stands to reason that vocational training should lead to productive employment and regular earnings. 11 This was impressed on World Vision Cambodia’s team while we were conducting our initial research on the community, when one day a woman complained bitterly about the skill training her son had received from another organisation. The training appeared thorough and lasted for one year, and yet after graduating the boy was unemployed. “Why did they give him training and then not find him a job?” she exclaimed, adding that he was now idle at home. While this also illustrated to us the importance of parental involvement and responsibility (as ultimately the boy and parents should be involved in actively seeking employment with his new skills), it emphasised to us that beneficiaries are dealing with economic realities that they expect and depend on vocational training to improve. It also illustrated the fruitlessness of spending time and money on training while being shortsighted about the end goal of employment. We therefore decided that our income-generation activities would be focused on achieving employment and regular income, rather than on the shortterm goal of learning skills. 5. Children’s profits should be equal to or greater than scrap collecting. Once employment (or self-employment) is achieved, if the activity does not provide a return at least equal to the child’s previous occupation, there will be little long-term support from the children or their parents, and they will likely return to the hazardous, yet more profitable occupation. This is a particularly important factor when a child has contributed a significant amount to his or her family’s income for a long period of time which the entire household has come to depend on. Therefore, it was decided that any income-generation alternatives offered would have a goal of meeting or exceeding the children’s previous earnings from scrap collecting, which typically average 1000 riels per day. 12 Impact of the project At the time of writing, direct beneficiaries of this project are approximately 250 lowerpoor and middle-poor urban families, including 509 children who work as scrap collectors at the garbage dump. Approximately 600 Adults and 1,000 children of lower-poor and middle-poor families living 9 Child Labour and Minimum Social Standards: The challenge for Asia, IPEC Asia Papers No. 1, ILO/IPEC Southeast Asia, 1995 10 Alternatives to Child Labour: A review of action programmes with a skills training component in Asia, IPEC Asia Papers No. 4, ILO/IPEC Southeast Asia, 1998 11 The report further recommended that the programs should employ job placement officers, “because an efficient and effective job placement officer can make an action programme a success by ensuring that all graduates become successfully employed or self-employed once they have reached the appropriate age.” 12 1000 riels is equivalent to USD 0.25, or the cost of a packet of chewing gum. Older children more skilled at collecting and those who work longer hours (in some cases up to 12 hours per day) can earn more, while younger children often earn less than this amount. 27
Cambodia near the garbage dump have also benefited from the project’s advocacy to local authorities. In the 12 months until October 2002, 48 children had been involved in a vocational training activity resulting in alternative livelihoods, 658 loans had been made to families for small businesses, 1,998 children were involved in non-formal education, and 962 children were participating in 23 Children’s Clubs that had been established. The project has broadened its focus to support social change: seven Village Development Committees representing a population of 38,000 are assisted to engage with local authorities on a range of issues around urban poor policy, child development/protection, and land tenure. Alternative income-generating activities allow children and families to meet their needs and recover some of their dignity. Photos: World Vision Cambodia Increasing options through microenterprise development/micro-credit In relatively stable settings, where families are able to respond to a partnership that involves responsibility as well as assistance, World Vision Cambodia has found that integrated approaches using micro-enterprise development (MED) or micro-credit work well. More than 9,000 families representing 54,000 people across 12 districts access US$300,000 through this approach. Measures to promote child protection are linked to project operation in the following ways: 13 1. All client passbooks have development messages (HIV/AIDS, child rights and gender). The child rights messages, conceptualised by World Vision Cambodia’s CEDC team, include: a) Protection of children against physical, mental and emotional abuse and responsibility of parents in the development (physical, mental, emotional) of their children b) Children’s right to education c) Parents’ responsibility on discipline and moral values d) Children’s right to self-expression, play, socialisation, etc. e) Contact offices/hotlines (World Vision Cambodia CEDC team and Ministry of Interior) on child trafficking, labour or abuse. 2. Staff ensure that clients read and understand all these messages before passbooks are disseminated to clients. 3. Indicators are set to show impacts of the activity on children. One MED evaluation conducted in 2002 showed that an immediate action of borrowers in the sample village banks was to send their children back to school, right after having enough means to pay for school expenses as a result of bigger disposable incomes. 4. In addition to action against exploitative child labour and integration of child-focused indicators into planned MED activity, specific focus is needed on positive links with the labour market. This can occur with children still living with family through day programs and can be accompanied by credit approaches that build the capacity of poor families. 13 Fallon & Tzannotos, 1998 28
Page 1 and 2: Risk Laurence Gray
Page 3 and 4: Copyright © 2003 by World Vision I
Page 5 and 6: contents Useful approaches to build
Page 7 and 8: executive summary responsibility of
Page 9 and 10: executive summary The Philippines I
Page 11 and 12: introduction “How is it possible
Page 13 and 14: introduction Child as a normative f
Page 15 and 16: introduction • offer opportunity
Page 17 and 18: introduction information may emerge
Page 19 and 20: introduction Current challenges of
Page 21 and 22: introduction Planning long-term for
Page 23 and 24: introduction Because we are abandon
Page 25 and 26: Cambodia or a medical emergency. Ho
Page 27: Cambodia This drawing by a child sc
Page 31 and 32: Cambodia The Mith Samlanh/Friends v
Page 33 and 34: Cambodia Mith Samlanh/Friends vocat
Page 35 and 36: Cambodia To further understand how
Page 37 and 38: Cambodia Responses were gained thro
Page 39 and 40: Cambodia LICADHO uses a variety of
Page 41 and 42: Cambodia Families are taught to dis
Page 43 and 44: Cambodia The Law Enforcement Agains
Page 45 and 46: Cambodia 3. The project was based o
Page 47 and 48: Indonesia • The BPS also estimate
Page 49 and 50: Indonesia For Children’s Day in J
Page 51 and 52: Indonesia Useful approaches to buil
Page 53 and 54: Indonesia Child protection concerns
Page 55 and 56: Indonesia Children in the IDP camp,
Page 57 and 58: Indonesia building strategies can b
Page 59 and 60: The Philippines • children who ar
Page 61 and 62: The Philippines • conducting a ra
Page 63 and 64: The Philippines increase opportunit
Page 65 and 66: The Philippines Barriers to child p
Page 67 and 68: Sri Lanka Children affected by conf
Page 69 and 70: Sri Lanka Partnership for education
Page 71 and 72: Sri Lanka Children’s play showing
Page 73 and 74: Sri Lanka Impact of the project Som
Page 75 and 76: Sri Lanka “I spoke to a group of
Page 77 and 78: Vietnam Background Community-based
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Vietnam • At the community level,
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Vietnam “States Parties recognise
Page 83 and 84:
Vietnam “Talk is cheap. Action is
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conclusion Agencies within civil so
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ecommendations universities. Advoca
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ecommendations • Emerging issues,
Page 91 and 92:
acknowledgements Many individuals a
Page 93 and 94:
ibliography Amnesty International,
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appendix 1 Online toolkit The follo
Page 97:
appendix 3 Some principles of World
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