OECD steps up cooperation with the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation | WPN World People News

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría, and Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, founder of the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation (KSCF), agreed for their respective organisations to work together to fight child poverty and exploitation, on 31 May.

The agreement, signed on the sidelines of the annual OECD Forum, envisages collaboration on a range of issues related to promoting children’s welfare and well-being. The initiative will include joint projects and exchange of best practices and information.

The well-being of children is a global challenge. Across the OECD, one in seven children live in relative income poverty, and child poverty has increased in two-thirds of OECD countries since 2008. Worldwide, children are all too often exposed to poverty, exploitation, slavery, trafficking, as well as to insufficient education, pollution and extreme environmental degradation. An estimated 1.2 million children globally are trafficked, 5.5 million are enslaved, 168 million are forced into work and 59 million remain out of school.

The OECD has a long history of promoting better lives and opportunities for children by collecting data, developing policy expertise and drawing up legal instruments on the many dimensions that affect children’s well-being and future life chances. The KSCF aims to end child slavery, child labour and violence against children. Led by Kailash Satyarthi, who in 2014 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his life’s work to help children, the KSCF has made significant progress in reducing the number of child labourers and the number of children not enrolled in school.

By working more closely together, the OECD and the KSCF aim to help children in their everyday lives by improving their social, economic and environmental wellbeing while raising international attention and guiding policy-makers towards best practices.

Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development