Geneva

AI and Labour Markets in early 2026

AI for Good

6th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour

Marrakesh

Decent work for youth

Faith, dignity and shared responsibility: Harnessing interreligious dialogue to end child labour

Special session: child labour in Africa

Closing ceremony – Beyond SDG target 8.7: Political pathways for the next global target on child labour

ILO at the Global Refugee Forum Progress Review 2025

Employment in the circular economy: Leveraging circularity to create decent work

Workers’ exposure to AI across development stages

Launch of the joint brief on demographic changes in Europe and Central Asia

Doha

ILO at the Second World Summit for Social Development 2025

Are AI jobs driving greater demand for STEM education? Yes, but not for women.

Psychosocial risks and mental health at work in the future: Promoting evidence-based policy making

Punta Cana

20th American Regional Meeting

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Recognition of my skills brought me new hope for the future

ILO Innovation Day 2026

Through my business, I see the value of investing in women

I faced my hardships, and it made me stronger

A social protection benefit transformed our daily lives

Morocco

Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

Opening ceremony

Marrakech Convention Centre

Plenary Hall

This session explores how integrated social protection and formalization strategies can effectively address the structural drivers of child labour. Moving beyond principles, it highlights concrete, field-tested practices—from contributory social insurance and effective&nbsp;compliance&nbsp;mechanisms&nbsp;to community monitoring and sector-specific formalization&nbsp;integrated and landscape&nbsp;approaches—that have reduced household vulnerability andreduced child labour. Drawing on experiences from different countries, panellists will examine what it takes to scale these interventions sustainably. The discussion will offer actionable insights for countries seeking to strengthen prevention systems and ensure that children can learn and thrive free from child labour.Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

Extending social protection coverage and transitioning to formality to combat child labour: good practices and innovative approaches

Ambassador

Child labour is fuelled by structural factors such as lack of access to education and the failure of social monitoring systems. To break this cycle, the session highlights the need to create synergies between the education and child protection sectors, in particular by extending compulsory schooling, training teachers and setting up interconnected information management systems. Drawing on evidence and international feedback, discussions will aim to identify the most effective design elements for transforming these essential services into concrete bulwarks against exploitation, while promoting the sharing of good practices between different regions of the world.Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

Education and child protection as key components of an effective strategy to address child labour

Agriculture remains the sector with the highest number of children in child labour, accounting for 61% globally, according to the 2024 ILO-UNICEF <a href="https://www.ilo.org/publications/major-publications/child-labour-global-estimates-2024-trends-and-road-forward">Global Estimates on Child Labour</a>. Concentrated largely in family, small-scale and labour-intensive operations, it affects in particular the youngest children.&nbsp;Building on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/2024-05/Durban_Call_to_Action.pdf">Durban Call to Action</a>, which identified ending child labour in agriculture as a priority, this high-level panel will highlight innovative and integrated initiatives and good practices that can accelerate progress and give the world a chance to achieve SDG Target 8.7, which we failed to achieve by 2025. Topics discussed will cover&nbsp;policies and investment approaches addressing child&nbsp;labour in agriculture,&nbsp;area-based initiatives delivering real change in rural communities, and innovative digital tools.&nbsp;Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

Upscaling impact on child labour in agriculture

Koutoubia

This high-level panel will bring together senior representatives of governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations and international organizations to reflect on how these evolving global dynamics are reshaping the challenge of child labour and the policy responses required to address it. The discussion will focus on strategic implications for progress toward the elimination of child labour up to and beyond 2030.Panellists will consider how climate change, conflict and displacement, demographic change, technological transformation and evolving supply chains are interacting to influence child labour risks across regions and sectors. The discussion will examine the extent to which existing policy frameworks and institutional arrangements remain fit for purpose, and where adaptation or innovation is required.Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

Child labour in a changing world: high-level panel on emerging challenges and opportunities

Alliance 8.7: 10 Years of Partnership and Action is a high-level, in-person side event marking a decade of collective efforts to eliminate child labour, forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking, organized with partial support by the Government of the United Kingdom and Germany. Bringing together Pathfinder Countries, social partners, UN agencies and people with lived experience, the event will take stock of progress achieved to date, reflect on thematic priorities emerging from the Sixth Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, and renew momentum for action on the ground. Through dynamic conversations, the session will highlight how partnership, collaboration and collective action remain central to accelerating progress towards SDG Target 8.7. Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

Alliance 8.7: 10 years of Partnership and Action

Recognising that the 2025 Sustainable Development Goal target to end child labour has not been met, this session focuses on the urgent need to eliminate the “worst forms” of exploitation, such as forced labour, trafficking, and hazardous work. Led by insights from the UN Special Rapporteur, the discussion will bring together diverse stakeholders to share scalable strategies, ranging from strengthening social welfare workforces to enhancing corporate due diligence. By addressing both the hidden nature of these crimes and the emerging risks in the digital sphere, the session seeks to transition from policy commitments to concrete, multi-sectoral actions that guarantee every affected child the right to protection, education, and reintegration.Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

Immediate and effective measures to eliminate the worst forms of child labour

The session will highlight how strengthening decent work for adults – through greater voice and improved livelihoods – offers a powerful pathway to ending child labour.It will also explore experiences in promoting living wages and stronger adult livelihoods as transformative levers for addressing child labour, reducing the economic pressures that push families to rely on children’s work. It will illustrate how these initiatives may enhance family resilience, support children’s schooling, and enable households to transition away from harmful coping strategies. Central to this discussion will be the importance of collective worker voice based on the realization of freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, and collective interest representation in securing fair remuneration, improving working conditions and protecting children from hazardous forms of work, taking into account local contexts, root causes of low pay, as well as economic factors. The session may additionally discuss efforts to advance living wages and living incomes more broadly, in line with ILO principles.Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

Stronger voices, fairer incomes, brighter futures: decent work pathways to ending child labour

Investing in the prevention and elimination of child labour – through social protection, education, decent work and related measures, as well as measures to identify and remove children from work and support their reintegration into the education system and decent alternatives – generates social and economic returns that far outweigh the costs. Global cost-benefit analyses have suggested that the economic gains from eliminating child labour could be several times greater than the financial investments required. Furthermore, more recent ILO work on social protection and public finance financing gaps confirms that spending on children and families is a foundation for inclusive and sustainable growth, not simply a budgetary expense. Yet despite the commitments made in the Durban Call for Action and recent discussions in the United Nations development financing process and the Seville Social Summit, many of the key systems that influence child labour – social protection, education, labour inspection and child protection – remain underfunded, and funding is often fragmented and unstable.Against this backdrop, the session will focus on developing coherent and sustainably financed strategies to prevent, combat and eliminate child labour, relying primarily on national budgets and supplemented by international public funding and responsible private and philanthropic investment. The first part will briefly examine funding needs and gaps: what we know – and what we still need to know – about the resources needed to develop effective systems for combating child labour, and what existing cost and cost-benefit analyses, at global and national levels, tell us about the order of magnitude and returns on investment.The second part will address financing strategies and mechanisms: how countries can strengthen domestic resource mobilisation and optimise the use of their fiscal space (through taxation, contributions, budget reallocation and reforms), how ODA and international financial institutions can be used more strategically as catalysts within national strategies, and how commercial frameworks, due diligence and structured mechanisms involving public, private and philanthropic actors can help to integrate responsible private and philanthropic actors.Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

Sustainable financing solutions for the elimination of child labour: towards coherent and sustainable national strategies

Royal Hall

This session will examine how governments, businesses and social partner organisations operating in different supply chains are using a smart mix of measures, including legislation and partnerships, to increase their responses to preventing and combating child labour and other decent work deficits in the early stages of supply chains. This session will invite speakers to reflect on successful practices and approaches, measures to improve the effectiveness of existing efforts, and opportunities to invest more in innovative practices across industries in order to achieve sustainable change towards decent work for all.Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

Effectively tackling child labour and other decent work deficits at the initial tiers of supply chains

Child labour remains a worrying global phenomenon, affecting millions of children, particularly in contexts of poverty, crises, and the informal economy. Beyond its physical and educational consequences, child labour has deep and lasting impacts on the mental health and psychosocial well-being of the children concerned. Early exposure to arduous, hazardous, or abusive working conditions increases the risks of chronic stress, anxiety, depression, psychological trauma, and hinders children’s emotional, cognitive, and social development. Yet the mental health dimension remains insufficiently integrated into policies and programmes aimed at combating child labour. This thematic session aims to create a space for reflection, exchange, and capacity-building around the links between mental health, child protection, and child labour, in order to promote more holistic and child-centred responses.Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

Impact of child labour on mental health

This session will address the growing challenge of child exploitation and abuse in digital environments and its implications for child protection and labour systems. Panelists will discuss how evolving technologies and business models are changing patterns of harm and response, and how governments, industry and partners can close accountability gaps through stronger regulation, safeguards, reporting pathways, coordinated enforcement, and survivor-centred services—grounded in a child-rights-based approach and informed by youth and survivor perspectives.Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

Preventing and responding to child exploitation and abuse in digital environments: From global commitments to national and sectoral action

Millions of children remain trapped in child labour, particularly in remote and underserved communities where civil society organizations (CSOs) are often the only actors with direct access and insight. Yet, their work is frequently constrained by limited funding, fragmented coordination and policy frameworks that do not fully reflect the realities they confront on the ground. For policymakers, engaging with CSO perspectives is not optional, it is essential for designing rights-based, accountable, and enforceable strategies that can genuinely reach the most marginalized children. This clarity is essential for informing governments about the changes required for national commitments on education, decent work, and child protection to produce meaningful results.This session will empower participants to identify practical ways policies can benefit communities and to clearly distinguish the roles of different actors in combating child labor. Through interactive discussions and real-world examples, participants will gain actionable insights to strengthen collaboration between grassroots initiatives and policy frameworks and how to take the Durban call to action forward.Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

Civil society organization forum - From policy to practice: Bridging gaps, building impact

The session will examine the interconnected challenges faced by adolescents of legal working age, including those exposed to hazardous work amid fragile school-to-work transitions. It will explore gaps in protection, regulation and enforcement, particularly around hazardous work lists, occupational safety and health (OSH) systems, as well as weaknesses in policy coherence between child labour, youth employment including entrepreneurship, which lead to unsafe, low-quality apprenticeships and poorly supported self-employment and enterprise pathways. Moreover, it will highlight good practices, lessons learned and recommendations from existing integrated youth-support policies and mechanisms, combining social reintegration, rights protection, entrepreneurship support and continuous guidance from identification and skills development to wage or self-employment and professional development. It will also address adolescents’ limited voice, rights awareness and access to referral and protection mechanisms, especially for girls, alongside the role of household poverty, community norms and livelihood vulnerabilities in pushing young people into hazardous work or survival-based self-employment. Together, these issues frame how to build coherent, inclusive and protective safe transition pathways to decent work and sustainable entrepreneurship for adolescents of legal working age.Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

This thematic session will examine the strategic role of regional and interregional cooperation in eliminating child labour, with a particular focus on South–South cooperation. Drawing on concrete experiences from different regions, the session will analyse how regional initiatives, joint mechanisms and cooperation platforms contribute to addressing cross-border challenges related to child labour and strengthening the national implementation of global commitments.Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

The role of regional and interregional cooperation in ending child labour

By gathering religious leaders from Abrahamic traditions to share theological reflections on the protection of children grounded on shared values, responsibilities and the sacred worth of every individual, the side event will explore how interreligious dialogue can act as a driving force for broad-based partnerships across religious and faith institutions, strengthening a whole-of-society approach grounded in shared ethical and moral principles to eliminate child labour and supporting renewed commitment to shared responsibility toward sustained and collaborative action. Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

In a context marked by a high prevalence of child labour and persistent structural challenges, this session aims to foster strategic dialogue and strengthen regional ownership in order to translate political commitments into concrete and sustainable actions, in line with international labour standards and the continent’s development priorities.Organized around three high-level panels, this session brings together African ministers attending the Conference, senior ILO officials, the Ambassador of Morocco to Geneva, and representatives of employers and workers. The discussions highlight the progress made since the Durban Conference and outline the commitments to be reinforced following the Sixth Conference in Marrakech.Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

With the 2025 deadline of SDG Target 8.7 now passed, the global community faces a critical juncture in the fight against child labour. While the latest ILO–UNICEF Global Estimates indicate renewed progress since 2020, they also make clear that current trends remain far from sufficient to achieve elimination in the near term. Building on the technical session led by ILO and UNICEF at the Global Conference on Child Labour in Morocco, this plenary provides a political space to reflect on the implications of the evidence, consider future policy choices, and articulate a collective signal on the place of child labour within the post-2030 development agenda. The session is not intended to negotiate new targets, but to help frame the political direction for what comes next.Interpretation is not available for the online broadcast.

Austria

The ILO Global Business and Disability Network's first European regional conference "Unlocking potential: Disability inclusion in business"&nbsp;morning sessions address inclusive employment strategies within leading companies operating in Europe as well as the double-edged role of digital technologies, including AI, for the employment prospects of persons with disabilities.

Unlocking potential: Disability inclusion in business in Europe

Vienna

Opening statements, inclusive employment and digital innovation sessions

The ILO Global Business and Disability Network's first European regional conference "Unlocking potential: Disability inclusion in business"&nbsp;afternoon sessions address senior managers’ commitment to disability inclusion, strategic alliances by and with business communities and the disability angle of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards.

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