SAIMUN 2023

UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND (UNICEF)

TOPIC:

THE ROLE OF UNIVERSAL PROTECTION IN

COMBATING CHILD LABOR GLOBALLY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
LETTER FROM THE DIAS 2
COMMITTEE BACKGROUND 3
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 4
BACKGROUND ON THE TOPIC 5
CURRENT STATUS UNIVERSAL SOCIAL PROTECTION & CHILD LABOR 7
PAST UNITED NATIONS ACTIONS 10
UNICEF PAST ACTIONS 11
REGIONAL BLOCS 12
AFRICA 12
ASIA PACIFIC 13
THE AMERICAS 13
QUESTIONS A RESOLUTION MUST ANSWER (QARAMs) 15
REFERENCES 16

LETTER FROM THE DIAS

Dear Distinguished Delegates,

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We extend a warm welcome to the 2023 Annual SAIMUN Conference and to the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Committee. We are thrilled to have you join us as we delve into
pressing issues that affect the international community, particularly the urgent need for social
protection to end child labor worldwide. Our discussions will focus on breaking the barriers that
deprive children of their childhood due to poverty, violence, illness, and discrimination. We
firmly believe that it is essential to lay a strong foundation for children's future through policies
that provide them with the best possible start in life. As a committee, we are committed to
prioritizing the most vulnerable children, including those with disabilities, those living in
unstable environments, those affected by rapid urbanization, and those impacted by
environmental degradation.

Our Dias for the Conference comprises of Samiya Khan, Sam, Maina Ng’ang’a, and Neemah.
We have carefully chosen a topic that is pertinent and relevant to every nation and are excited for
each of you to participate in the discussion. As you prepare for the conference, we are available
to offer any assistance you may need.

We encourage you to read this Background Guide, which will provide a better understanding of
the topic we will be simulating. While the guide is informative, we also recommend conducting
additional research, particularly regarding your nation's policies, and utilizing the bibliography
and annotated bibliography to increase your understanding of these issues. To ensure a
productive and successful conference, we request each delegation to submit a position paper
before the session. Please note that we have guidelines on plagiarism, codes of conduct, dress
codes, sexual harassment, awards philosophy, assessment systems, etc., and we expect each
delegate to abide by them diligently. Kindly email your position papers to..... by......

We are committed to ensuring that you have a productive and enjoyable conference experience.
If you have any questions regarding the subject, the position paper, or research, or require any
clarifications, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We look forward to meeting and engaging
with each one of you and hearing some excellent ideas during the conference.

Best regards,

SAIMUN UNICEF 2023 Dias

COMMITTEE BACKGROUND

The United Nations General Assembly (GA) adopted resolution 57 in 1946 to establish the
United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). When UNICEF was
established, its goal was to help children in Europe who had been left in need as a result of the
Second World War. In particular, UNICEF was a temporary emergency fund created to function
through 1950 that aimed to solve the urgent difficulties brought on by the Second World War,
including the scarcity of food and shelter, the alarming rate of child death, and children's

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weakened security. Maurice Pate, the organization's first executive director, agreed to run it on
the premise that it would give assistance to all children, regardless of their country, race,
religion, or nationality, and it is this apolitical tenet that has remained a cornerstone of the
organization's ethos and driven UNICEF to its current level of success.

Since its establishment in 1946, UNICEF has grown to become one of the largest and most
influential organizations devoted to child welfare and development. Today, UNICEF works in
over 190 countries and territories to ensure that every child has access to healthcare, education,
protection, and participation in their communities. UNICEF's mission is guided by the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which outlines the fundamental human rights of
all children, including the right to education, healthcare, protection from exploitation, and
participation in decisions that affect their lives.

UNICEF's work is divided into several core areas, including child protection, education, health,
nutrition, water and sanitation, and social inclusion. Through its programs and initiatives,
UNICEF aims to ensure that every child has the opportunity to reach their full potential and
contribute to their communities and societies.

In recent years, UNICEF has focused on addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing
children around the world, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and conflict and
humanitarian crises. UNICEF has also prioritized efforts to reach the most marginalized and
vulnerable children, including those living in poverty, those with disabilities, and those affected
by discrimination and inequality.

Overall, UNICEF's mission is to ensure that every child has a fair chance in life and can grow up
healthy, educated, and protected from harm. Its work is guided by a commitment to equity,
inclusivity, and social justice, and it continues to be a leading voice for children's rights and well-
being around the world.
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STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

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Despite significant progress in reducing child trafficking and labor in the first one and a half
decades of the 21st century, the recent increase in cases is a cause for concern. According to the
International Labour Organization (ILO), there are currently 152 million children engaged in
child labor, with 72 million of them performing hazardous work. The COVID-19 pandemic has
further exacerbated the situation, as many families are facing financial difficulties and children
are forced to work to support their households.

Child labor is a violation of children's rights and has numerous negative consequences, including
physical and psychological harm, limited educational opportunities, and reduced earning
potential in adulthood. The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8.7 aims to end child
labor in all its forms by 2025, highlighting the urgency of the situation.

One approach to combat child labor globally is through the implementation of universal social
protection measures. Social protection policies such as cash transfers, social insurance, and other
support services can help reduce poverty and provide families with the resources they need to
send their children to school instead of work. Additionally, such policies can address the root
causes of child labor, such as insufficient access to education, healthcare, and social services.

In conclusion, it is essential to address the issue of child labor and trafficking, which has seen a
recent increase, through various approaches. Universal social protection measures are an
effective means of reducing child labor globally and ensuring that all children have access to
education and a childhood free from exploitation.

BACKGROUND ON THE TOPIC

Child labor has a long history, with children as young as five years old being forced to work in
mines, factories, and other hazardous environments. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, child
labor was prevalent in Western countries as the Industrial Revolution led to an increase in
demand for cheap labor. However, it was only in the mid-20th century that countries began to
enact laws to protect children from labor exploitation.

Recent estimates place the number of children being subjected to various forms of child labor at
152 million. This number vis-à-vis the total global child population indicates that 1 in every 10
children globally is a child employee. Child labor refers to the manual exploitation of children
through all forms of work that denies and robs them of their childhood. Every government is
tasked with an inalienable and fundamental duty of protecting its children, and all persons below
the gazetted legal age living within any governmental territory. It follows that child labor is a
gross violation of children’s rights to childhood mostly because children everywhere are
supposed to be just that, children.

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Child labor does not only rob children of their childhood but it also ripples into social inequity
and discrimination. For girls, child labor presents a three-forked threat due to the load of work,
house chores and school, this inadvertently leads to them falling back in their studies which
further opens them up to future poverty and exclusion. Hazardous work environments are unsafe
for children as they are grossly untrained and they run a daily risk of sexual exploitation from
older members of their working space.

The concept of universal social protection, on the other hand, is a more recent development. It
refers to a set of policies and programs designed to ensure that all individuals, including children,
have access to basic social protection measures such as healthcare, education, and social security.
Universal social protection measures can play a critical role in combating child labor by
providing families with the resources they need to send their children to school instead of work.

Universal social protection gained prominence in the 20th century as countries sought to address
the challenges of poverty and inequality. The United Nations has recognized the importance of
universal social protection in addressing child labor, with SDG 8.7 calling for "immediate and
effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor,
including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labor in all its forms."
Universal social protection is seen as a key component of achieving this goal, as it can help
address the root causes of child labor and protect children from exploitation.

In conclusion, it is essential to recognize that child labor is a violation of children's rights and has
numerous negative consequences. Universal social protection measures can play a vital role in
combating child labor by providing families with the resources they need to keep their children
in school and out of the workforce

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CURRENT STATUS UNIVERSAL SOCIAL PROTECTION & CHILD LABOR

Social protection can contribute to the elimination of child labor when it is appropriately
designed and implemented in coherence with the other relevant sectors. In fact, social protection
interventions can address several economic and non-economic drivers of child labor among poor
and vulnerable households. This can be seen in the following examples.
1. The use of school feeding to complement interventions aiming to reduce child labor is a
relatively novel approach. Preliminary evidence shows the positive impact of school
feeding programmes in reducing child labor, as illustrated by success stories in
Bangladesh (Food Education Programme), Egypt (School Feeding Programme) and
Zambia (HomeGrown School Feeding Programme, combined with the Conservation
Agriculture Scale-up Project).
2. In Mexico, conditional cash transfers reduced child labor in agriculture by addressing
income, agricultural or climate-related shocks, but only when conditions for school
attendance such as the availability of school premises within a reasonable distance were
met (De Janvry et al., 2006) which highlights the importance of having a coherent
approach with the education sector to eliminate child labor.
3. Evidence from South Africa (Edmonds et al., 2006) and Brazil (de Carvalho Filho, 2012)
shows that access to pensions reduces child labor, and that access to health insurance has
been an excellent way to reduce it in Guatemala (Guarcello et al., 2010) and Pakistan
(Frölich et al., 2012).
4. In Africa, unconditional cash transfers such as Kenya’s Cash Transfer for Orphans and
Vulnerable Children and Ethiopia’s Social Cash Transfers Pilot Programme in the Tigray
region significantly reduced child labor and contributed to economic inclusion in
agriculture.

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Strong social protection systems are necessary for the reduction and eventual elimination of child
labor. By reducing family poverty risks and vulnerability, and supporting livelihoods and school
enrolment amongst other things, government social protection systems are essential in the fight
to eradicate and prevent child labor (ILO 2013; ILO and UNICEF 2019 and 2021; Dammert et
al. 2018; De Hoop and Rosati 2014a). The good news is that in recent years many countries
have significantly improved social protection coverage, by strengthening their social protection
systems, and establishing effective social protection floors (ILO 2021d). However, global
coverage is still too low: as of 2020, less than half of the global population were effectively
covered by at least one social protection benefit, leaving more than four billion people wholly
unprotected. Social protection coverage varies widely by region, broadly aligned with income
levels.

Importantly, for child labor concerns at the global level, the vast majority of children under 15s –
73.6 per cent or 1.5 billion children in total – receive no child or family cash benefits (ILO
2021d). In many cases, programmes are not designed with the objective of benefiting children
directly or to address child labor risk specifically. And, where other benefits are available, they
are often not sufficiently adequate, comprehensive and child-sensitive and in many cases, the
quality of services is far from satisfactory.

Coverage and quality limitations are associated with underinvestment in social protection. Prior
to the pandemic, low-income countries (LIC) and lower-middle-income countries (LMIC) spent
respectively 1.1 and 2.5 per cent of GDP on social protection (excluding healthcare), compared
to 8 per cent in upper-middle-income countries (UMIC) and 16.4 per cent in high-income
countries (HIC). Countries spend on average 12.9 per cent of GDP on social protection, and
child-specific spending was a mere 1.1 per cent (ILO 2021d). With children making up around

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28 per cent of the global population, it is clear that this level of child-specific social protection
spending is too low. Filling this “financing gap” for children, to ensure at least minimum
provision for all, should be a priority, and an action which is likely to have significant
implications for child labor too.

The ILO estimated that expanding social protection to adequately respond to the COVID-19
crisis could reduce the number of children in child labor by 15.1 million between 2020 and 2022
(ILO and UNICEF 2021). However, the sensitivity of the overall social protection response to
COVID-19 to the needs of families with children has been limited. Government stimuli in high-
income countries and middle-income countries made little use of child-specific social protection
measures, and instead focused on business supports and job protection schemes – often
excluding households without secure and formal employment (Richardson et al. 2020a and
2020b).

Despite progress made in the coverage of social protection in recent years, it has not been
enough. As of 2020 and prior to COVID-19, only 46.9 per cent of the global population were
effectively covered by at least one social protection benefit, while the remaining portion – as
many as 4.1 billion people – were left wholly unprotected. Behind this global average, there are
significant inequalities across and within regions, with coverage rates equaling 56.3 per cent in
Line of Actual Control(LAC), 44.1 per cent in AP and 17.4 per cent in Africa. Only 26.4 per
cent of children worldwide receive social protection benefits. Despite some important progress in
the extension of social protection to children in recent decades, the vast majority of children –
73.6 per cent of children aged 0-14, a significant number of whom must labor – receive no child
or family cash benefits. Effective coverage is particularly low in Asia and Pacific (18 per cent)
and Africa (12.6 per cent) (ILO 2021d).

It is high time that adequate and sustainable financing is found to close these protection gaps by
achieving universal social protection for all, especially children. Importantly, the ILO’s June
2021 International Labor Conference – comprising governments, workers, and employers –
called for universal social protection systems for all (ILO 2021b). This represents an emphatic
reaffirmation of political and tripartite commitment to close gaps in social protection. UNICEF’s
new strategic plan also prioritizes efforts to achieve inclusive social protection for all children, in
the organization’s work between 2022 and 2025 (UNICEF 2022b).

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PAST UNITED NATIONS ACTIONS

The prevalence of child labor remains high in agricultural sub-sectors. Because social protection
coverage remains limited and cash payments and other types of support to subsistence farmers,
forest communities, fisher folk and artisanal fishers are often scarce or irregular, FAO
encourages the expansion of social protection to rural areas as an effective strategy for
eliminating child labor.

To achieve this result in partnership with Governments and other UN organizations in the
coming years, FAO will focus its work on the following objectives:
● Creating and disseminating new evidence on the role of social protection in
eliminating child labor in agriculture.
● Developing a toolkit for the design and implementation of integrated social protection
policies and programmes for eliminating child labor in agriculture in developmental
and humanitarian settings.
● Promoting global and country-level dialogue on the negative impacts of child labor
and the need to eliminate it from the world of agriculture and all of its sub-sectors.
● Providing technical assistance to countries for the planning, design and
implementation of effective strategies for the elimination of child labor in agriculture.
● Implementing innovative social protection interventions for eliminating child labor in
agriculture.
● Evaluating the impacts of these interventions to ensure that they inform the
implementation of the most effective strategies for eliminating the plight of child
labor in agriculture once and for all.

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UNICEF PAST ACTIONS

The United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children's (UNGASS) result paper,
"A World Fit for Children," elaborates on the precise objectives we must attain in order to create
a "child friendly" society, which speaks to the organization's mission. The Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) were discussed in relation to children in this paper, and it also laid
out a clear direction for UNICEF's activities for the next twenty years, at the very least.

The United Nations General Assembly Special Session for Children (UNGASS) in 2002 and the
Global Summit for Children in 1990 both had a significant influence on UNICEF's activities.
The first summit-style gathering held specifically for children, the World Summit for Children
was a historic summit. 29 More than 70 presidents of state and several other leaders in
ministerial positions attended to talk about the priorities for children beyond the crucial
developmental stage. The World Declaration on the Survival, Protection, and Development of
Children ("the Declaration") and its companion Plan of Action for Implementing the World
Declaration on the Survival, Protection, and Development of Children are the two conclusion
papers of this summit.
The Declaration said that nations would no longer put off taking steps to ensure the protection of
children notwithstanding the widespread loss of young lives that have happened over the years as
a result of avoidable sickness, hunger, and warfare. Through the Declaration, nations committed
to eradicating hunger and malnutrition, enhancing the status of women, reducing maternal
mortality rates, combating preventable disease through immunization and other health measures,
improving literacy by enhancing access to education, especially for girls, eradicating poverty by
creating viable means of a sustainable livelihood for all people. This basically says that the
nations assembled in New York outlined in 1990 their intention to create an atmosphere that
would allow all children to reach their full potential as well as a safe and healthy future.

The nations of the world gathered once more at UNGASS just twelve years later to reset the
agenda for children and set goals for the twenty-first century. The fact that for the first time,
children were permitted to participate as official delegates and their voices were heard with the
same level of importance as any of the delegates present at UNGASS set it apart from the World
Summit and, in fact, from any previous United Nations meeting or conference. A World Fit for
Children, the UNGASS final paper, is a reflection of the divisive and important discussions that
occurred throughout those three days. Regarding the CRC, juvenile justice, and rights to
reproductive health, there was a lot of disagreement, but eventually, the idea of the child's best
interests won out, and the resulting text showed both the variety of the world's governments and
their readiness to band together for children.
REGIONAL BLOCS

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AFRICA
The prevalence of child labor cases is deemed to be highest in the African continent. Social
protection is growing to be an increasingly important part of the social policy dialogue in Africa.
As a relatively new concept in the evolving continental agenda, social protection is still in its
inception stages with select countries having successfully rolled out various modes and forms of
social protection programs to cushion their children and other marginalized sections of their
population from the vagaries of economic hardships which then lead to the growth and rise in the
numbers of child labor cases.

In most African nations where child labor is significantly prevalent, it is mostly due to the heavy
social vulnerability that children face. Naturally, children are unable to advocate for themselves
and in informal living environments of the African continent, high rates of HIV prevalence
results in the deaths of adults which tragically orphans most children at a young age leaving them
open to the threats of poverty, starvation and exploitation in the forms of child labor.

A positive outlook for Africa is in the increasing adoption of Child Sensitive Social Protection
Programmes. In Ethiopia, the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) coupled with
Complementary Transfers on Child Schooling and Child Labor is a premier social protection tool
that provides food and cash transfers to vulnerable families occasionally. The program has
benefited an approximated over 10 million Ethiopians making it the largest social protection
program after South Africa’s pension Program. Ghana’s Livelihood Empowerment Against
Poverty (LEAP) programme was among the first social programs whose main aim was purely to
combat child labor. By channeling funds to families in areas prone to sending their children out
as laborers, the program achieved steady success as the families had an alternate income source
and opted to keep their children in school. One of the campaign agendas in the recently
concluded Kenyan general elections of 2022 was establishment of a policy framework that
would effectively roll out a Social Protection Plan for vulnerable Kenyan children and low-
income families. Malawi, yet another core country in Africa’s south boasts of The Mchinji Social
Cash Transfer Pilot Scheme. A study result of the Malawi social protection initiative has shows
that the cash transfers have led to a steady increase in school going children with up to a 7.6%
reduction in children conscripted as laborers.

South Africa has since instituted a Child Support Grant, a social protection program aimed at
reducing child poverty which once stood at 60% of South Africa’s children population.
Using Ghana, Ethiopia, Malawi and South Africa as examples of the conscious efforts being
made in the continent towards entrenching social protection programmes, it can be seen that the
continent is making strides towards total adoption of social protection. In the listed countries,
cases and numbers of child labor have witnessed a significant decrease. Equally, there are
international bodies and NGOs which run their own separate and parallel social protection
programs which further points to increased social protection coverage in the coming years.

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ASIA PACIFIC
Asia and the Pacifics solidly recognize social welfare and protection programs as a key route to
reducing children’s poverty and vulnerability. The general stance in Asia is that reducing child
labor is tied directly to increasing school attendance. The social protection programs in Asia are
therefore mostly tied towards generating school-going traffic among children hence curtailing
the time space available for them to be workers.

In Pakistan, Punjab's Female School Stipend Program for girls was instituted to cut back on
school-age girls seeking income by being laborers. Since the rollout of that stipend program,
girls aged between 14 and 16 have been seen to steadily remain in school which shows the great
success of the social protection program. Equally, Indonesia has instituted a similar social
protection program, the Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH), a conditional cash transfer whose
target base shows that it has been able to reduce child labor. Still in Indonesia, a similar welfare
program dubbed the Jaringan Pengaman Social Scholarship programme provided school grants
to pupils in a bid to reduce school dropouts due to financial and economic hardships. The aim of
the grants was to keep children occupied with school thereby minimizing the chances of child
employment.

Reportedly, a good number of countries in Asia do not have any forms of social protection aimed
at keeping children away from early employment. With the success stories from elsewhere, it
remains seen that social protection programs play a critical role in directly reducing the number
of school drop outs and that of children being taken up for active child labor.

THE AMERICAS
Statistics indicate that up to 100,000 children are employed as farmworkers in America. The
Americas have for a long time been having one form of social protection or the other since the
th
mid-20 century. In the United States of America for instance, an act of law brought about social
protection through the Social Security Act of 1935. Unlike other regional blocs where social
protection is a fairly recent concept, the long-spanning existence of welfare programs means that
social protection and welfare programs are generally well established in North America.

Globally, social protection programs with the best success statistics can all be found in Latin
America. Coming from a history of heavy exploitation of laborers and children, the region has
since revolutionized its culture with base priority being placed on the schooling of children and
sourcing of labor only from persons who have achieved the mandatory legal working age.
Though child labor has not been completely rooted out, the steady decline in numbers of child
laborers shows steady promise.

According to reports from the Food and Agriculture Organization, Conditional Cash Transfers in
Mexico significantly reduced child labor in Agriculture by addressing the challenge of lack of
household income which was pushing the children to seek alternative income through child

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farmwork. In Brazil and Guatemala, structured social and health insurance which provides
pensions to select demographics of the nation’s population positively worked reduced child
labor.

A special case of the Americas is Peru. In Peru, the documented minimum legal age for working
is 12 year making it the country with the youngest employees and child workers globally. The
Peruvian conditional cash transfer Programa Nacional de Apoyo Directo a los Más Pobres,
constitutes the country’s largest social protection intervention focused on childhood welfare.
Much as the child workers numbers in Peru are still high, the cash transfer is seen to work to
keep more children in school. With aims of increasing school participation, the Ecuadorian
conditional transfer Bono de Desarrollo Humano, and a similar one in Mexico, the
Progresa/Oportunidades have all shown progressive numbers of more school age children
staying in school.

QUESTIONS A RESOLUTION MUST ANSWER (QARAMs)

1. How can United Nations and States ensure that all children have access to education and are not
forced to work to support their families, and what measures can be taken to support families in
need?
2. What steps can be taken by governments and the UN to hold employers accountable for their role
in perpetuating child labor, and what sanctions should be imposed on those who exploit children
for cheap labor?
3. How can social protection programs be designed and implemented in a way that specifically
targets children at risk of child labor, and what types of support should be provided to ensure
their well-being?

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 4. What strategies have proven effective in reducing the incidence of child labor in sectors such as
agriculture, mining, and manufacturing, and how can these be scaled up to create lasting change?
5. How can we raise awareness about the negative effects of child labor and the benefits of universal
social protection, and mobilize communities to support efforts to combat child labor?

REFERENCES

Browne, E. (2016). Social Protection and Child Labor in Asia. K4D Helpdesk Report. Brighton, UK:
Institute of Development Studies.

Ferreira, F. H., & Robalino, D. A. (2011). Social Protection in Latin America: Achievements and
Limitations. Oxford Handbooks Online. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199571048.013.0033

Handa, S., Webb, D., & Devereux, S. (2011). Social Protection for Africa's Children (1st ed.). Routledge.

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Pinzón-Rondón, Á. M., Cifuentes, L. B., Zuluaga, C., Botero, J. C., & Pinzon-Caicedo, M. (2018).
Wealth, Social Protection Programs, and Child Labor in Colombia: A Cross-Sectional Study.
International Journal of Health Services, 48(3), 535–548. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020731417747421

Tercelli, I. (2013). The Most Effective Means of Social Protection? An Evaluation of the Impact of
Conditional Cash Transfers on Schooling and Child Labor in Peru. Basic Income Studies, 8(2).
https://doi.org/10.1515/bis-2012-0003

International Labour Organization. (2017). Global estimates of child labour: Results and trends, 2012-
2016. https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/child-labour/WCMS_575499/lang--en/index.htm

United Nations Children's Fund. (2021). Social protection. https://www.unicef.org/social-policy/social-

protection

International Labour Organization. (2015). Universal social protection for human dignity, social justice
and sustainable development. https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/social-protection/why-social-protection-
for-all/lang--en/index.htm

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