Building the Future with Working Children: A systematization of promising approaches in the field of education and protection for working children and adolescents

This systematization is an analysis of five promising approaches that Save the Children’s Children Lead the Way Program (CLW) is developing in Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Peru, and Nicaragua, in processes that brings together education and the protection of children and adolescents who work.

The CLW Program, supported by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Development (DFATD), has the objective of empowering working children and adolescents so that they become committed citizens with access to dignified work through three fundamental strategies: (i) quality education and job preparation; (ii) protection against exploitation through the participation of governments, employers and communities; and (iii) participation of working children in public life and in the decisions that affect their lives.

This systematization contributes to the knowledge of education’s role as an alternative form of protection for working children and adolescents and has been developed through the collection of document information, interviews, and focus groups with different people who participate in the implementation of the approaches (Save the Children staff, partner organizations, families and children). It analyzes how CLW’s strategies are strengthened through work with partner organizations and stakeholders, and how the intersection between education and protection is put into practice in the five countries where this Program is implemented.