Child Rights and the World Bank Safeguards Campaign

More than 30 percent of children under 18 in developing countries – about 600 million people – live in “extreme poverty”, defined as living on less than $1.25 a day. According to the World Bank’s own figures, 8 million children under the age of 5 die each year from preventable causes.

As UNICEF noted in the aptly named report, Poverty Reduction Begins with Children, “Poverty causes lifelong damage to children’s minds and bodies, turning them into adults who perpetuate the cycle of poverty by transmitting it to their children. This is why poverty reduction must begin with the protection and realization of the human rights of children. Investments in children are the best guarantee for achieving equitable and sustainable human development.”

The World Bank has similarly recognized the importance of protecting and supporting children, stating that “Since capacities built during childhood and the youth period largely determine adult outcomes, effective investments in young people provide important returns not only to the individual and the community, but to society as a whole.”

However, this recognition has not translated into action to prevent World Bank projects from having a detrimental impact on children and their future prospects. Bank projects continue to have the potential to employ child labor, resettle children far from educational opportunities, damage parents’ ability to earn a living resulting in malnutrition and lack of access to health care for children, and result in the exploitation or trafficking of children.n and lack of access to health care for children, and result in the exploitation or trafficking of children.

Current World Bank Safeguard policies on Involuntary Resettlement and Indigenous People recognize the heightened protection needs of children by listing them among “vulnerable groups” and those with “special needs” but stop short of mandating that programs and projects take any particular measures to prevent harm to children and protect their rights. Current safeguards also do not prohibit the use of child labor in Bank funded projects.

In contrast the International  Finance Corporation, the arm of the World Bank that provides loans and investments to private companies doing business in developing countries, performance standards which “clients’ responsibilities for managing their environmental and social risks” are more explicit about the rights of the child. It includes the following provision:

“The client will not employ children in any manner that is economically exploitative, or is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral, or social development. The client will identify the presence of all persons under the age of 18. Where national laws have provisions for the employment of minors, the client will follow those laws applicable to the client. Children under the age of 18 will not be employed in hazardous work.  All work of persons under the age of 18 will be subject to an appropriate risk assessment and regular monitoring of health, working conditions, and hours of work.”

The Bank should require that environmental and social impact assessments explicitly assess the project’s expected impacts, both direct and indirect, on children. In particular the potential that infrastructure and extractive projects may lead to an influx of workers into an area, putting children at risk of sexual violence, exploitation or trafficking. Where such a risk is found, steps to mitigate this risk, for example by partnering with local NGOs to conduct workshops on preventing violence against children, must be taken.

Safeguards should prohibit the use of child labour in Bank funded projects in line with International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 138 on the minimum age for admission to employment and work and ILO Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labour. These conventions prohibit the involvement of children younger than 18 in hazardous work and those children younger than 15, 14 in some developing countries, in all work.

Safeguards should also address the risks to children when projects result in involuntary resettlement. The policies must make sure that children who are displaced do not lose access to education services, including inclusive education for children with disabilities, and must also ensure that the displacement of families does not negatively impact parents’ abilities to earn a living that is sufficient to provide proper nutrition and healthcare for children.

For more information on how children think the safeguards should protect their rights, see BIC’s children’s consultation page.

Between August 14 and October 5 2013 the Bank Information Center held a series of seven children’s consultations in six countries on the World Bank safeguards. The countries in which consultations have been carried out included: Peru, Yemen, India, Cambodia and Uganda. The World Bank reviewed its social and environmental policy standards, and engaged in a consultative process to seek input from multiple stakeholders on potential changes to the safeguard policies. However, it has made no effort to seek out the voices of children in this process. Thus, BIC, in cooperation with children’s rights organizations around the world, initiated a consultation process to solicit input from children on the World Bank safeguards. In each consultation the children shared concerns about issues facing their communities and made recommendations for ways the World Bank could prevent projects from negatively impacting children. These included:

• Conducting child impact assessments before beginning projects
• Consulting with children at all stages of the project process
• Requiring that projects respect human rights and children’s rights
• Ensuring that when families are displaced, relocation sites have sufficient access to schools and health centers
• Shifting from a reliance on nonrenewable energy to a focus on renewable energy
• Preventing deforestation
• Better monitoring a country’s implementation of a project to ensure that policies are complied with

For more information on each of these consultations and individual recommendations please see our consultation page.

The draft mentions children specifically in a few key policies, including ESS1 Assessment and Management of Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts, ESS2 Labor and Working Conditions, and ESS10 Information Disclosure and Stakeholder Engagement. On the other hand, ESS4 Community Health and Safety and ESS5 Land Acquisition, Restrictions on Land Use and Involuntary Resettlement both contain references to the need to pay particular attention to “vulnerable” groups, but do not include specific references to children and do not define “vulnerable.”

Under ESS1, the borrower is required to look at particular impacts on vulnerable groups, including those vulnerable because of their age, as part of the social assessment. However, it is not clear whether unique impacts on children must be assessed separately from impacts on other “disadvantaged or vulnerable groups.” According to the policy, “disadvantaged or vulnerable” groups include children, persons with disabilities, and indigenous peoples, among others.

The labor policy, ESS2, is a new and welcome addition to the safeguards suite. This policy has a section on child labor and addresses hazardous labor and minimum age for work. However, the policy does not address the issue of child labor in supply chains. In addition, the section on minimum age for work sets the minimum age based upon national law. Thus, if national law is not consistent with ILO convention 138 then the Bank could theoretically allow young children to work on Bank projects.

ESS10, another new policy under the proposed Framework, includes several references to the need to engage all stakeholders, regardless of age, in the process.  It also contains many references to the need to ensure that “vulnerable groups” (defined to include children) are included in the process. However, there is no guidance for borrowers on how to consult with children.

The World Bank has solicited feedback on its draft policies during the Phase 2 consultation period, which ended on March 1. See BIC’s full submission here to find out how we think the draft policies can be improved upon in order to better protect the rights of children.