Jane Humphries
In a White House press conference held on 16 November 2016, then President Barack Obama said: “Yes to trade, but trade that ensure that these other countries that trade with us aren’t engaging in child labour”. In 2016, child labour affected more than 150 million children, or about 10% of the world’s children. In Africa, the share reaches 20%. The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 8.7 recognises child labour as a serious impediment to sustainable development and aims at eliminating child labour by 2025. Unfortunately, progress has been very slow. Since 2012, there has been a 10% decline in the incidence of child labour, which according to the International Labour Organization (ILO 2017) is not enough if the target is to be reached by 2025. We need a better understanding of what can help reach that target.