As international development secretary Penny Mordaunt headed to New York for a UN General Assembly meeting, the Department for International Development (DfID) announced four individual aid packages going towards nations in central and east Africa and south Asia, totaling £53m.
More than half of the funding will go towards tackling child labour in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, India, Nepal and Pakistan, it said, rolling out “evidence-based interventions” that aim to tackle drivers of child labour, such as social protection and cash transfer support for families affected.
A further £5m will specifically go to helping child tea estate workers in Bangladesh, in a bid to “build an evidence base of what works and pilot innovative approaches.”
Partnering with charity UNICEF, the U.K. will also provide up to 400,000 children in Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan “at risk of slavery” with birth certificates so children can legally prove their identity in a bid to shelter them from forced labour, in a £10m package.
The remaining £12m will go towards supporting conflict-affected families in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), providing skills training, alternative livelihood opportunities and education for children on the disguised risks of trafficking.
