Supply chain children

Supply Chain Children
First broadcast on BBC News, 24 March 2012 and featuring ETI Director, Peter McAllister.

Globalisation has brought the world's goods to the west. But how can rich consumers be sure they are buying food and clothing manufactured without harming workers - especially children? Humphrey Hawksley reports.

We believe that this programme is an accurate depiction of the issue of child labour within the cotton and chocolate industries and we applaud Mr Hawksley's work to bring this to the public's attention.

Our belief is that this is an issue that is only going to be solved through the collaborative working of the retailers and brands involved together with unions and NGOs, and most importantly local governments. We are all striving towards the International Labour Organisation's aim of eliminating child labour worldwide by 2016 and need to intensify our efforts.

Good progress has been made over the past five years in removing child labour from the more visible factories but this needs to be replicated further down the supply chain - ie in the fields and mills before the product reaches the factories.

ETI is uniquely placed to help make child labour within all levels of the supply chain a practice of the past by working with others. For example we are supporting a key meeting of all those involved in the textile industry in Tamil Nadu (southern India) next week (w/c 26 March 2012). Key aims of the conference are to deliver a coordinated plan that ensure that the young women that work in this industry do so in decent conditions that meet international standards.

Programmes like the BBC's "Supply chain children" help remind us that there remains much to do, that the retailers and brands we all know have an important role to play and that we need to seek solutions that transform the lives of children.