Creating Partnerships With Working Children and Youth

This paper reviews how organisations assisting working children and youth can include working children and youth in efforts to reduce the adverse effects of child labor and child labor per se. Children’s and youth organisations can support the empowerment of poor or otherwise marginalised and disadvantaged families. They can grow spontaneously even from small initiatives of local groups. At the local level, these organisations help members to handle their daily situation, and work effectively to improve their conditions both at individual and collective levels. In many cases they can influence local legislation and policymaking and go even further: working children and their organisations have also engaged in international outreach and cross-country networking including participation in the
international conferences on child labour in Amsterdam and Oslo. The paper concludes with suggestions for further steps to elaborate the understanding of working children and youth as partners and stakeholders, and to develop ways to include them – whenever appropriate – in programming, planning, policies, advocacy and research concerning child labour.