We travelled together in Guatemala.
It's a good question and a timely one. The government recently launched a feminist international assistance policy that puts women and girls at the front and centre of everything.
Our development programs have been focused on the root causes of what leads to child labour and on work on any other harmful practice that leads to child labour or modern slavery. The key to ending child labour is really ensuring that women—and men, but mostly women—have access to decent work.
That includes being paid a real and fair living income, having opportunities to work that are productive, having security in the workplace—on that, we work hand-in-hand with ESDC in their international work—and having access to social protection, which means being formally recognized and formally registered in the system in order to have access to social programs. That gives them access to child care and medical care, and to jobs that offer better prospects for personal development and social integration, as well as freedom to express their concerns and to organize and participate in community decisions that affect their lives. Finally, it gives them equality of opportunity and treatment, especially for women.
Reducing poverty is really the key. Women don't send their children to work because they want to. It's often because they don't have a choice. You may remember the women we saw in Guatemala. They would prefer to have their children work and be paid—or to be nourished to work—rather than having them starve. By working in a really holistic manner with governments and with the education system—such as providing meals, for instance, or breakfast for children in school—and working with companies with their CSR programs, whether they're extractive or what we were talking about in terms of Gildan earlier, where they offer meals for women and their children, this is reducing all of those barriers that prevent kids from going to school and having a better future.