Each year, the World Day Against Child Labour forces a pause. It asks the world to remember what is often forgotten: the children whose futures are shaped by work instead of learning, risk instead of protection, survival instead of possibility. It is a reminder of urgency, of the distance covered, and of the distance that remains. But this year, it is also something else—reckoning.
The 2025 global estimates released by the International Labour Organization confirm what many suspected but hoped wouldn't be true: progress is too slow to eliminate child labour by 2025. Even to meet it by 2060, the pace must quadruple. As of now, the total stands at 138 million children, with 54 million engaged in hazardous work. These are not just figures. They are the daily realities of children growing up too soon, working when they should be learning, facing dangers that no child should ever be asked to face.
And behind the data lies a deeper truth: child labour is not a marginal issue. It is a structural one.
Where it hurts most
The rural economy continues to bear the brunt. As in previous years, the most affected are children under 12, engaged in unpaid labour on smallholder farms—especially across Sub-Saharan Africa. These are not isolated tragedies; they are part of a system that continues to fail the youngest. Poverty, weak infrastructure, the absence of public services, and persistent gaps in protection keep this cycle in motion. And that cycle does not break on its own.
There is no shortage of conferences, reports or declarations. What is scarce is what comes after—the long, layered work of translating principle into protection. And that work is where ECLT stands.
A systemic response to a systemic problem
In the face of a global picture that offers little room for comfort, we return to something that often gets overlooked: doing what is within reach, and doing it well.
Over the past year, the ECLT Foundation has continued to invest in the systems that make durable change possible. In Uganda, we supported the development and local adoption of by-laws to tackle child and forced labour. Alongside that, we helped shape a district-wide action plan grounded in the voices of local authorities and communities.
In Mozambique, over 130 adolescents gained vocational training—market-relevant, locally adapted, and linked to decent work. In Indonesia, our collaboration contributed to the launch of national Labour Practices Guidelines for agriculture, a clear framework to help businesses move from intent to implementation.
These examples are not isolated projects. They are proof that even within setbacks, coordinated action across States, companies and communities can plant something deeper than short-term relief—resilience. Progress in this field rarely makes headlines. It doesn’t follow an easy arc. But the absence of spectacle does not mean absence of substance.
What Comes Next
The road ahead requires clarity, not just commitment.
First, rural voices must be heard—not as an afterthought but as essential participants. Smallholder farmers and rural workers are often the first to experience the pressures that lead to child labour, and yet they remain at the margins of the global conversation. Policy made without them will not hold.
Second, national systems must be strengthened, education, labour inspection, social protection. Tackling child labour is not a standalone task. It lives at the intersection of public policy, market dynamics, and community realities.
Third, income matters. When families are paid fairly and live with dignity, children stay in school. Child labour is not only about protection. It is about equity. It is about the right to a future that doesn't hinge on a child's ability to earn.
A Road Worth Taking
On this World Day Against Child Labour, we recognise that this is not a moment for slogans or celebration. It is a moment for sustained attention.
The work continues in classrooms, in policy rooms, in village halls, on the ground. Teachers, community leaders, government officials, employers, and youth themselves, each carries a piece of the solution.
At the ECLT Foundation, we remain committed to supporting practical, inclusive, and coordinated efforts to end child labour where it still persists most: rural areas too often left behind.
The setbacks are real. But so is the work being done. And so is the road ahead.
Not fast. Not easy. But necessary. And worth walking together.