On 25th September 2015,
the world leaders adopted the famous Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for
the coming 15 years.
What are these goals and what do they
mean for the world’s most vulnerable children-children in hazardous child labour,
the ones trafficked, the ones in slavery and afflicted upon by violence? What
do they mean for me? Read on to know more.
What are the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) and what is Global March Against Child Labour’s role
in SDGs?
The Sustainable Development Goals are
a set of 17 goals and 169 targets agreed by the world leaders and designed to
end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030.
These goals replace the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in the
year 2000. Despite the overall success of the MDGs, they failed to include
goals on ending child labour, slavery and trafficking, and many other goals
that are now included.
With extensive advocacy for years by
various child rights organisation across the globe, three major goals and targets
have taken shape as part of SDGs, giving us a clear agenda for promoting
children’s rights. Global March Against Child Labour network too, through years
of lobbying and campaigning was finally able to get a dedicated Target - 8.7, on
eradicating slavery, trafficking and child labour in all its forms. The three
goals and targets relating to Global March’s work are as follows:
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive
and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for
all.
Target 8.7: Take
immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery
and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst
forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers and by
2025, end child labour in all its forms.
Target 16.2: End
abuse, exploitations, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture
of children.
The United Nations adopted the 17
Sustainable Development Goals as follows:
Goal 1: End
poverty in all its forms everywhere
Goal 2: End
hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable
agriculture
Goal 3: Ensure
healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Goal 4: Ensure
inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning
opportunities for all
Goal 5: Achieve
gender equality and empower all women and girls
Goal 6: Ensure
availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
Goal 7: Ensure
access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
Goal 8: Promote
sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment
and decent work for all
Goal 9: Build
resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and
foster innovation
Goal 10: Reduce
inequality within and among countries
Goal 11: Make
cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Goal 12: Ensure
sustainable consumption and production patterns
Goal 13: Take
urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Goal 14: Conserve
and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable
development
Goal 15: Protect,
restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably
manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reserve land degradation and
halt biodiversity loss
Goal 16: Promote
peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to
justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at
all levels
Goal 17: Strengthen
the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for
sustainable development
Global March Against Child Labour
being one of the foremost voices of the unheard children, feels a greater responsibility
for ending violence against children in the world and contribute effectively
implementation of the SDGs. Out of the 17 goals and 169 targets, Goal 4, Target
8.7 and Target 16.2, especially form the central strategic framework and long
term plans for the organisation.
Global March as a strong global
network of NGOs, trade unions and teachers’ associations working to end child
labour, trafficking and slavery and promote education, aims to support
governments and other civil societies in the implementation of SDGs in the
following ways:
- Provide support to the governments to reflect the new global agenda in the national developmental plans, policies and legislations.
- Build capacity of partners and other stakeholders.
- Nurture and strengthen worldwide movement of stakeholders in realisation of mutual goals for sustainable development.
- Foster meaningful and positive social change through awareness raising, outreach and social mobilisation.
- Coordinate advocacy activities in partnerships on policies and programmes
- Collate and develop knowledge based evidences.
We are deeply involved in the SDG
roll out and are determined to implement the SDGs for making the world a better
place for children.
Why the Sustainable Development
Goals?
The experience of forming goals at a
global level in the year 2000, showed us that a global framework can yield
results and bring a collective change in society. The proof was the reduction
in extreme poverty rate by half in 2015.
Since the year 2000 the number of
child labourers too got reduced from 246 million children to 168 million
children by 2012, in spite of the fact that ‘child labour’ did not find a
mention in the MDGs.
If the world could witness such a
drastic decrease in the number of child labourers without a focussed global
framework for curbing the issue, just imagine what all we can do and how
greater impact we can make by achieving Target 8.7 and Target 16.2 of the SDGs.
It is also vital to understand that
without eliminating child labour, slavery and trafficking, many development
goals particularly the goal on universal primary education, poverty reduction,
decent work and gender equality cannot be achieved, as there remains a complex
nexus amongst all these issues. While poverty pushes children into work at an
early age, the denial of opportunity to go to school and gain employable skills
can further hamper development of the child, and trap them in the vicious cycle
of poverty and vulnerability.
Since last few years, the world has
seen some progress in reduction of children engaged in hazardous labour, but a
staggering figure of 5.5 million children still remain in slavery, bonded
labour and trafficking. Moreover, what is
worrisome is the slow pace of reduction in the number of out of school children
that currently remains at 59 million children.
These out-of-school children
are at risk of exploitation and are most likely to be engaged into child labour
at the cost of their education, health, freedom, overall well-being and
development, and thus increasing the chances of gruesome violence against
children.
A good question to ask is why do we
not see these children in our daily lives? The answer is because they are
practically invisible and hidden. Child slaves are made to work in mines,
factories, agricultural fields, farms, garment industry and prostitution, away
from a layman’s sight.
Now that child labour, slavery and
trafficking have found mention in the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development with
a dedicated goal on education, there is hope that one day we will see an end to
the misery of thousands of children in the world.
How are the SDGs different from
MDGs?
The SDGs are different from MDGs in
many ways:
- While MDGs were formed to reach half-way in eliminating poverty and other socio-economic issues of the world, the SDGs aim to finish the job- to get a statistical ‘zero’ on targets of poverty, hunger, child labour, slavery and trafficking, and promote quality education for all.
- SDGs are universal, meaning that all countries, businesses, aid agencies and civil societies are expected to implement this bold agenda for change.
- SDGs are a set of much more comprehensive goals than the MDGs. In the year 2000, 8 goals were set for the global agenda, however this time round, 17 comprehensive goals have been chalked out for sustained global effort making it more inclusive and rights based.
- SDGs were formed through a participatory approach wherein more than 100 countries participated in the worldwide consultation including civil societies and ordinary citizens. Global March Against Child Labour too participated in the consultation and was a party to some major recommendations on ending child labour, slavery and trafficking.
- SDGs view economic development of countries as the central strategy to fund the implementation of the goals. MDGs on the other hand were mainly dependent on aid flows.
- Monitoring, evaluation and accountability never found mention in the MDGs. SDGs lay great emphasis on the same for effective implementation of the goals.
- While MDGs focussed on achieving increase in number of enrolments in school, SDGs talk about the importance of quality education in the overall development of a child.
How will
the goals be funded?
According to UN estimates, for the new
goals to be met will require as much as
$11.5tn a year, $172.5tn over the 15-year timeframe.
The Education for All (EFA) Global
Monitoring Report team estimates that an annual funding gap of at least US$22
billion will be needed to achieve universal lower secondary education of good
quality till 2030. And for universal upper secondary education, the gap extends
to US$39 billion.
When will
the goals come into force?
The member states of the UN agreed to
the goals and targets on 25-27 September 2015 and these will come into force
from January 2016. The deadline for the achievement of most of the goals and
targets is 2030.
What does this mean for me?
It is important to note that SDGs are
a voluntary global agreement and implementation of the goals across countries
will largely be determined through decisions made by national governments.
This means that being the citizens of
our countries and as global citizens, we all have an important responsibility
in making sure that our governments invest, implement and make SDGs a success.
You can start today by urging your
country leaders to reach the most vulnerable children, especially the ones engaged
in child labour, slavery and trafficking. Join our campaign End Child Slavery Week now to make a difference.
And
please take a moment to sign up to our
e-newsletter. You’ll get useful information and
opportunities to use your voice to stand in solidarity with the world’s
children and fight for their right to be free from exploitation and receive
education.
