What the economic crisis means for child labour

The paper examines the likely impact of economic crisis on child labour. It argues that the paucity of conclusive research on this subject results from an over-simplified focus on child labour as an economic phenomenon without consideration of the behavioural context in which child labour occurs. Family behaviours at times of crisis, when heads of household are making coping decisions and reviewing the allocation of their own and their children's time, are crucial to understanding why some families send a child into labour and others do not, even where their socioeconomic profiles may be identical. The paper makes a number of recommendations, including the need for further development of the economic/behavioural model; improved comprehensive and disaggregated data on child labour; investment in safety nets; policies and programmes targeted at influencing family decisions in favour of children's education and protection from child labour; and more refined targeting of vulnerable populations linked to these policies