An assessment of the child labor elimination strategies adopted by the non-state development actors in Pakistan

Abstract

This research seeks to assess child labor elimination strategies and policy measures adopted by the non-state development actors in Pakistan. Three non-state development actors were chosen for this research to critically asses the child labor elimination strategies. Therefore, for the purpose of this research one development agency called United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, or United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is chosen. It is one of the largest development agencies which are dedicated to working entirely with children. The second one chosen is International Labor Organization (ILO) which is an international non-governmental organization and third organization which is chosen for this research is the non-profit and a nongovernmental organization which is working for the rights of child known as Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC). ILO and UNICEF are working on the issue of eliminating child labor at a global level and are also amongst the other international organizations working successfully in Pakistan in the field of child labor. Whereas, SPARC is responsible for providing rights to child in Pakistan by focusing on the legal and social issues related to child labor, education, and juvenile justice. It works with the UN and its agencies particularly with UNICEF in organizing the workshops campaigns, seminars and events. SPARC has also worked on some of the joint projects like the Global March against Child Labor which took place in 1998 in Pakistan. This project has been passed through more than 100 countries following the ILO Convention on the worst and the hazardous forms of child labor. The national and international laws on child labor worldwide are of great extent and is based on the regulations of the ILO. Therefore, the purpose of the research is to study the non-state actor’s vision, strategy, policy effectiveness, and regulations to eradicate child labor in the country. The basic reason behind choosing the non-state actors for this research is that these organizations provide technical support to government and helps in the construction of internationally acknowledged statistics which are provided by the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC). Therefore their work implementation and policy measures will help this research to critically asses child labor elimination strategies adopted by three non state actors chosen for the research. However, The Government of Pakistan does not have enough resources and lack policy measures and implementation. Therefore the international donor agencies rely much more on national and international NGO’s on their policy measure and practice, implementation, monitoring and evaluation process. Moreover, the NGO’s play a significant role as much fund is also provided to the NGO’s based on their work progress to eliminate child labor.