17th Annual Meeting of the Child Labour Platform (CLP)
What Works, What Lasts? Tackling the Hard Questions on Child Labour in Supply Chains
Location: Online
Date: 28 October 2026
Meeting time: 10:00 – 12:30 CET / 14:30 -17:00 IST
Overview
Child labour remains one of the most pressing global human rights challenges, affecting nearly 138 million children worldwide, including around 54 million in hazardous work. Despite sustained efforts by governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations and businesses, progress towards eliminating child labour remains too slow.
For companies committed to addressing child labour in their supply chains, a central challenge is increasingly how to ensure that their actions contribute to meaningful and lasting change. This means understanding not only whether interventions are improving outcomes for children, workers and their families, but also what works, under which conditions, and where resources can make the greatest and most sustainable difference. It also raises an important question about collaboration: where can companies act effectively on their own, and where is coordinated action with governments and employers’ and workers’ organizations needed to achieve lasting results?
These questions become particularly important when child labour is identified. Remediation remains one of the most complex areas for businesses to address effectively. Removing a child from child labour or providing immediate support does not necessarily mean that the underlying risks have been resolved. Sustainable remediation may require action on education, social protection, decent work for adults and other root causes that no individual company can address alone. Understanding what effective remedy looks like and how to assess whether it is producing lasting outcomes is therefore an essential part of understanding the impact of business action on the elimination of child labour in supply chains.
Against this backdrop, this year’s CLP Annual Meeting will examine how business action and collaboration can contribute to meaningful and lasting change. Starting with concrete experience from the CLP Country Working Groups, the meeting will take stock of progress and lessons emerging from collective action in different country and supply chain contexts. Building on this experience, discussions will focus on two closely connected areas: understanding and measuring the impact of business efforts to contribute to the elimination of child labour and advancing effective and sustainable remedy when child labour is identified. Together, the sessions will explore what works, what lasts, and how evidence and collaboration can help achieve more effective results in tackling child labour across supply chains.