Child Labour – What Can We Do about It?

Abstract

Background: Despite increasing knowledge of its harmful consequences, child labour is a persistent issue in developing countries; moreover, the number of working children has increased in recent years.

Research objectives: To explore the issue of child labour by defining its drivers and indicating strategies for reducing its extent and impacts. To answer the following research question: What are the feasible solutions to the problem of child labour that might also be applied in the context of social economy or social entrepreneurship?

Research design and methods: The authors rely on a combination of an analytical and synthetic approach and draw mostly on a review of the literature as well as normative acts (in the latter case, taking advantage of the dogmatic-legal method). Information resources comprise scientific research, studies of international institutions, legal acts, and websites. The last section employs heuristic methods to identify new sectors of social economy activity in the context of efforts to combat and prevent child labour. As a result, the considerations are primarily qualitative in nature.

Results: Despite the absence of instances of direct implementation of social economy (entrepreneurship) solutions designed to address the problem of child labour in developing countries, it is possible to identify numerous prospective domains and instruments where this sort of activity might be conducted.

Conclusions: Child labour is a complex issue in developing countries since both internal and external factors contribute to its emergence and perpetuation. Its abolition requires immediate cooperation of multiple institutions and organisations from the governmental, private, and social spheres. It appears that social economy organisations should be included in the list of existing actors in this field.