On The Road Blog
Is Microfinance Inadvertently Increasing Child Labor?
- By Vineeta Gupta on October 19th, 2010
- Category: Blog, Latin America and the Caribbean
Ixtapa, Mexico – There is no easy answer to this question. But there is enough evidence, and enough concern in the child labor community and the microfinance community, to start exploring this issue further. A key approach would be to develop collaborations between various stakeholders, including human rights advocates, child labor elimination program practitioners, and the microfinance community. Working together is vital because it may not be possible for any one stakeholder to address the complexity of the collateral unwanted impact of this specific strategy of economic empowerment.
Nina Smith, executive director of GoodWeave, and I hosted a discussion on child labor, “Human Slavery: Strategic Focus on Child Labor,” at the Collaboration Opportunity conference in Mexico on October 16. The possibility of an adverse impact of microfinance on child labor emerged during the conversation. Participants shared a few stories that showed a connection. We as a group decided to host another discussion on October 19 to engage other conference delegates who might have an interest in the issue. Meanwhile, some of us did a bit of quick research and found many credible sources that reflect on this issue.
The International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth, supported by UNDP, recently published a paper entitled, “Unintended Effects of Microfinance: An Increase in Child Labour in Some Contexts?” In addition, many papers by US and European university researchers delve into this connection. Many of us in the group left the conference with a commitment to continuing to explore this issue and to working collaboratively to address it.
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