Latin America and the Caribbean is one of the regions with the greatest reduction in child labor, going from having 20 million working children and adolescents in 2000 to 10.5 million in 2016. However, in order to achieve it on time and within In a sustainable manner, Goal 8.7, which demands to end it by 2025, urges to generate policies that leave no one behind and that directly affect the people who are most vulnerable to this reality.

Due to this, the countries of the region realized the need to rethink the actions that have been effective to date and formulate innovative solutions that strengthen the preventive approach. “Turning off the tap” on child labor requires getting ahead of the problem, but one of the main obstacles has been the scarcity of data on the particular situation of those most vulnerable to child labor.

Consequently, the region set out to discover:

• Who are the children and adolescents at risk and why;

• Which are the most vulnerable territories and productive sectors, especially to the worst forms of child labor;

• What are the conditions in which they work; Y

• What are the most effective programs and services to prevent or mitigate the premature participation of minors in the world of work.

In this context, the Regional Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labor, with the support of the ILO and ECLAC, has developed the Child Labor Risk Identification Model , a statistical tool that, based on data existing in the countries (surveys, censuses and administrative records), identifies and classifies territories according to their level of probability of child labor to determine in which geographical areas preventive efforts should be prioritized. Likewise, it identifies which are the associated factors that most affect the vulnerability of the territory in order to improve existing multisectoral actions.

This model is an innovative and cost-effective strategy that offers countries reliable information to answer the questions previously posed and to help streamline public action and the contribution of social partners. With systematized information, countries can promote and strengthen policy dialogue and coordination in the territory to design targeted preventive responses and interrupt the trajectory of child labor, advance in the achievement of national goals, and achieve Target 8.7.

In 2017, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru implemented the Model, with which it was possible to analyze 11,000 municipalities and identify that close to 2,000 of them have a high risk of child labor among the four countries. For the execution of this phase, the countries advanced through four stages. The first consisted of identifying factors associated with child labor; the second, in the elaboration of the logistic model; the third, in the application of the coefficients of the Model in the population census; and the fourth, in the territorial characterization.

To achieve implementation, the countries required two types of information sources: one that estimates child labor at the national level and that allowed them to build the logistics model, such as child labor surveys, and the second that facilitated the level of disaggregation. and sufficient information to replicate the model at the subnational level, such as population censuses.

Some of the variables used by the countries to identify the factors associated with child labor have been sex, age, area of ​​residence, ethnicity / race, whether they are a migrant or not, educational assistance, the number of people in the home, education and occupation of parents, among others. In this regard, it should be noted that each country selected its variables based on the theoretical review of previous national studies and, once identified, confirmed whether these could be measured with the surveys and censuses used.

According to what has already been analyzed by the Model, it should be noted that the region should focus its work and intervene as a priority in: rural and fragile areas due to environmental issues, disasters or insecurity conditions; exposed productive sectors such as agriculture and the service sector; and where there are population groups at special risk such as indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants and migrants.

Consequently, in 2019 the pilot countries hope to start with the second phase of the Model. The first municipality where his execution has been confirmed is Tuxtla Gutiérrez, capital city of the State of Chiapas in Mexico. This city has been the first to take on the voluntary commitment to go further and deepen the local situation of child labor. With the second phase underway, Tuxtla Gutiérrez hopes to identify, design and / or adjust multisectoral interventions at the local level that can later be reflected in a policy instrument or strengthen components of existing instruments to strengthen local preventive and protection services against to child labor.

The region requires more information and data to allow it to anticipate and intervene in specific territories. Soon, the Child Labor Risk Identification Model will also be implemented in Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Jamaica, and more countries are expected to join soon.

In this framework, the Regional Initiative encourages all stakeholders involved and committed to achieving Goal 8.7 to find more alternatives and tools such as the Model, which facilitate the creation of innovative responses to help accelerate the reduction of child labor and prevent its appearance.