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G20 risks becoming irrelevant by not delivering for the most vulnerable

Thursday, 13 November 2014 16:17 GMT

* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

World Vision calls on G20 governments to use their collective purchasing power to put an end to child labour.

Jay Naidoo’s (Chair of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Partnership Council of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and was Communications Minister in Nelson Mandela’s Cabinet)and words from a few days ago are still ringing in my years as I set out to write this blog - “we borrow our world from our children and they deserve a world very different to what we're giving them today. We have to do better. We have to dream of a better world for them and work to build it.”

I could not have said it any better than that when I look at what is on offer for the most vulnerable children around the world.

There are 168 million child labourers globally (that is more than 10 per cent of the world’s children) and 73 million (44 per cent of total) child labourers are between 5 and 11 years of age.

Here, we are not talking about children engaging in light and other age-appropriate forms of work like vocational education opportunities, helping on the family farm or with an after-school job, but child labour whichdeprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to their physical and mental development...the kind of labour that takes the light out of one’s life.

In our increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, it is very easy to go out to the high street and find the toil of child labourers at nearly every stage of production of many commonly purchased items. I find this fact very hard to swallow. I am pretty sure most parents dream a better world than that for their children.

The G20 countries represent more than 85 per cent of global GDP. They have the collective power to change people’s lives for good and bad.

These negative impacts of child labour are not just a problem for the countries in which child labour is most prevalent. In 2013, the leaders of the G20 identified that unemployment and a lack of inclusive growth in many economies pose the most significant challenges to placing the global economy on a path to stronger, more sustainable and balanced growth. As it is proved time and again (link to WVAutralia G20 report here) each obstacle to achieving strong, sustained and balanced growth can be linked to, and is exacerbated by, child labour.

Yesterday’s news about Australia downgrading the commitment to ‘inclusive growth’ agenda , though in last year’s G20 communiqué stated that, “We still need to work to ensure that growth is strong, sustainable, inclusive and balanced”, is frankly very disappointing.

But we must not tire to build the world we want and must not let our children down. So, World Vision calls on G20 leaders to buckle up, be brave and deliver for our children by doing the right thing.

The ball remains in the court of G20 - if they don’t play well, they will risk exacerbating the fragility of current global economy and becoming irrelevant to its citizens therefore losing the power they have just started to establish. Or take the issues at hand into account build the future of children and their families and as a result stronger countries and economies.

Game is on and we are not tired till we win.

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