ILO at the Global Refugee Forum Progress Review 2025

Geneva

Making returns sustainable and supporting reintegration in today's world

Scaling refugee employment: policy, partnerships and labour mobility

Morocco

&nbsp;Simultaneous interpretation available in English, French Spanish and Arabic.

6th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour

Marrakesh

Opening ceremony

This session explores how integrated social protection and formalization strategies can effectively address the structural drivers of child labour. Moving beyond principles, it highlights concrete, field-tested practices—from contributory social insurance and effective&nbsp;compliance&nbsp;mechanisms&nbsp;to community monitoring and sector-specific formalization&nbsp;integrated and landscape&nbsp;approaches—that have reduced household vulnerability andreduced child labour. Drawing on experiences from different countries, panellists will examine what it takes to scale these interventions sustainably. The discussion will offer actionable insights for countries seeking to strengthen prevention systems and ensure that children can learn and thrive free from child labour.Simultaneous interpretation available in English, French Spanish and Arabic.

Extending social protection coverage and transitioning to formality to combat child labour: good practices and innovative approaches

Child labour is fuelled by structural factors such as lack of access to education and the failure of social monitoring systems. To break this cycle, the session highlights the need to create synergies between the education and child protection sectors, in particular by extending compulsory schooling, training teachers and setting up interconnected information management systems. Drawing on evidence and international feedback, discussions will aim to identify the most effective design elements for transforming these essential services into concrete bulwarks against exploitation, while promoting the sharing of good practices between different regions of the world.Simultaneous interpretation available in English, French Spanish and Arabic.

Education and child protection as key components of an effective strategy to address child labour

Agriculture remains the sector with the highest number of children in child labour, accounting for 61% globally, according to the 2024 ILO-UNICEF <a href="https://www.ilo.org/publications/major-publications/child-labour-global-estimates-2024-trends-and-road-forward">Global Estimates on Child Labour</a>. Concentrated largely in family, small-scale and labour-intensive operations, it affects in particular the youngest children.&nbsp;Building on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/2024-05/Durban_Call_to_Action.pdf">Durban Call to Action</a>, which identified ending child labour in agriculture as a priority, this high-level panel will highlight innovative and integrated initiatives and good practices that can accelerate progress and give the world a chance to achieve SDG Target 8.7, which we failed to achieve by 2025. Topics discussed will cover&nbsp;policies and investment approaches addressing child&nbsp;labour in agriculture,&nbsp;area-based initiatives delivering real change in rural communities, and innovative digital tools.&nbsp;Simultaneous interpretation available in English, French Spanish and Arabic.

Upscaling impact on child labour in agriculture

This high-level panel will bring together senior representatives of governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations and international organizations to reflect on how these evolving global dynamics are reshaping the challenge of child labour and the policy responses required to address it. The discussion will focus on strategic implications for progress toward the elimination of child labour up to and beyond 2030.Panellists will consider how climate change, conflict and displacement, demographic change, technological transformation and evolving supply chains are interacting to influence child labour risks across regions and sectors. The discussion will examine the extent to which existing policy frameworks and institutional arrangements remain fit for purpose, and where adaptation or innovation is required.Simultaneous interpretation available in English, French Spanish and Arabic.

Child labour in a changing world: high-level panel on emerging challenges and opportunities

Recognising that the 2025 Sustainable Development Goal target to end child labour has not been met, this session focuses on the urgent need to eliminate the “worst forms” of exploitation, such as forced labour, trafficking, and hazardous work. Led by insights from the UN Special Rapporteur, the discussion will bring together diverse stakeholders to share scalable strategies, ranging from strengthening social welfare workforces to enhancing corporate due diligence. By addressing both the hidden nature of these crimes and the emerging risks in the digital sphere, the session seeks to transition from policy commitments to concrete, multi-sectoral actions that guarantee every affected child the right to protection, education, and reintegration.Simultaneous interpretation available in English, French Spanish and Arabic.

Immediate and effective measures to eliminate the worst forms of child labour

The session will highlight how strengthening decent work for adults – through greater voice and improved livelihoods – offers a powerful pathway to ending child labour.It will also explore experiences in promoting living wages and stronger adult livelihoods as transformative levers for addressing child labour, reducing the economic pressures that push families to rely on children’s work. It will illustrate how these initiatives may enhance family resilience, support children’s schooling, and enable households to transition away from harmful coping strategies. Central to this discussion will be the importance of collective worker voice based on the realization of freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, and collective interest representation in securing fair remuneration, improving working conditions and protecting children from hazardous forms of work, taking into account local contexts, root causes of low pay, as well as economic factors. The session may additionally discuss efforts to advance living wages and living incomes more broadly, in line with ILO principles.Simultaneous interpretation available in English, French Spanish and Arabic. &nbsp;

Stronger voices, fairer incomes, brighter futures: decent work pathways to ending child labour

Investing in the prevention and elimination of child labour – through social protection, education, decent work and related measures, as well as measures to identify and remove children from work and support their reintegration into the education system and decent alternatives – generates social and economic returns that far outweigh the costs. Global cost-benefit analyses have suggested that the economic gains from eliminating child labour could be several times greater than the financial investments required. Furthermore, more recent ILO work on social protection and public finance financing gaps confirms that spending on children and families is a foundation for inclusive and sustainable growth, not simply a budgetary expense. Yet despite the commitments made in the Durban Call for Action and recent discussions in the United Nations development financing process and the Seville Social Summit, many of the key systems that influence child labour – social protection, education, labour inspection and child protection – remain underfunded, and funding is often fragmented and unstable.Against this backdrop, the session will focus on developing coherent and sustainably financed strategies to prevent, combat and eliminate child labour, relying primarily on national budgets and supplemented by international public funding and responsible private and philanthropic investment. The first part will briefly examine funding needs and gaps: what we know – and what we still need to know – about the resources needed to develop effective systems for combating child labour, and what existing cost and cost-benefit analyses, at global and national levels, tell us about the order of magnitude and returns on investment.The second part will address financing strategies and mechanisms: how countries can strengthen domestic resource mobilisation and optimise the use of their fiscal space (through taxation, contributions, budget reallocation and reforms), how ODA and international financial institutions can be used more strategically as catalysts within national strategies, and how commercial frameworks, due diligence and structured mechanisms involving public, private and philanthropic actors can help to integrate responsible private and philanthropic actors.Simultaneous interpretation available in English, French Spanish and Arabic.

Sustainable financing solutions for the elimination of child labour: towards coherent and sustainable national strategies

This session will examine how governments, businesses and social partner organisations operating in different supply chains are using a smart mix of measures, including legislation and partnerships, to increase their responses to preventing and combating child labour and other decent work deficits in the early stages of supply chains. This session will invite speakers to reflect on successful practices and approaches, measures to improve the effectiveness of existing efforts, and opportunities to invest more in innovative practices across industries in order to achieve sustainable change towards decent work for all.Simultaneous interpretation available in English, French Spanish and Arabic.

Effectively tackling child labour and other decent work deficits at the initial tiers of supply chains

Impact of child labour on mental health

This session will address the growing challenge of child exploitation and abuse in digital environments and its implications for child protection and labour systems. Panelists will discuss how evolving technologies and business models are changing patterns of harm and response, and how governments, industry and partners can close accountability gaps through stronger regulation, safeguards, reporting pathways, coordinated enforcement, and survivor-centred services—grounded in a child-rights-based approach and informed by youth and survivor perspectives.Simultaneous interpretation available in English, French Spanish and Arabic.

Preventing and responding to child exploitation and abuse in digital environments: From global commitments to national and sectoral action

Millions of children remain trapped in child labour, particularly in remote and underserved communities where civil society organizations (CSOs) are often the only actors with direct access and insight. Yet, their work is frequently constrained by limited funding, fragmented coordination and policy frameworks that do not fully reflect the realities they confront on the ground. For policymakers, engaging with CSO perspectives is not optional, it is essential for designing rights-based, accountable, and enforceable strategies that can genuinely reach the most marginalized children. This clarity is essential for informing governments about the changes required for national commitments on education, decent work, and child protection to produce meaningful results.This session will empower participants to identify practical ways policies can benefit communities and to clearly distinguish the roles of different actors in combating child labor. Through interactive discussions and real-world examples, participants will gain actionable insights to strengthen collaboration between grassroots initiatives and policy frameworks and how to take the Durban call to action forward.Simultaneous interpretation available in English, French Spanish and Arabic.

Civil society organization forum - From policy to practice: Bridging gaps, building impact

The session will examine the interconnected challenges faced by adolescents of legal working age, including those exposed to hazardous work amid fragile school-to-work transitions. It will explore gaps in protection, regulation and enforcement, particularly around hazardous work lists, occupational safety and health (OSH) systems, as well as weaknesses in policy coherence between child labour, youth employment including entrepreneurship, which lead to unsafe, low-quality apprenticeships and poorly supported self-employment and enterprise pathways. Moreover, it will highlight good practices, lessons learned and recommendations from existing integrated youth-support policies and mechanisms, combining social reintegration, rights protection, entrepreneurship support and continuous guidance from identification and skills development to wage or self-employment and professional development. It will also address adolescents’ limited voice, rights awareness and access to referral and protection mechanisms, especially for girls, alongside the role of household poverty, community norms and livelihood vulnerabilities in pushing young people into hazardous work or survival-based self-employment. Together, these issues frame how to build coherent, inclusive and protective safe transition pathways to decent work and sustainable entrepreneurship for adolescents of legal working age.Simultaneous interpretation available in English, French Spanish and Arabic.

Decent work for youth

This thematic session will examine the strategic role of regional and interregional cooperation in eliminating child labour, with a particular focus on South–South cooperation. Drawing on concrete experiences from different regions, the session will analyse how regional initiatives, joint mechanisms and cooperation platforms contribute to addressing cross-border challenges related to child labour and strengthening the national implementation of global commitments.Simultaneous interpretation available in English, French Spanish and Arabic.

The role of regional and interregional cooperation in ending child labour

Switzerland

This event is organized as part of ITU's <a href="https://aiforgood.itu.int/">AI for Good Series</a>. Investments in Artificial Intelligence are advancing at an unprecedented pace, raising fundamental questions about how this technology might reshape work, employment and skills. A new wave of empirical studies is beginning to shed light on these developments, but the evidence remains early and incomplete. Some of the first large scale findings, such as those from the “<a href="https://digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/publication/canaries-in-the-coal-mine-six-facts-about-the-recent-employment-effects-of-artificial-intelligence/">Canaries in the Coal Mine</a>”&nbsp;study in the United States and a similar&nbsp;<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5516798">analysis from the United Kingdom</a>, suggest that exposure to Large Language Model (LLM) capabilities may already be affecting employment patterns, hiring behaviour and the structure of job opportunities.This session takes these emerging results as a starting point for a broader discussion on the state of knowledge about AI and labour markets. Following the evidence on early labour market impacts, the conversation will turn to the question of AI adoption: what it actually means for enterprises and workers to adopt AI, how adoption is measured, and why these distinctions matter for interpreting economic effects. The session will then explore how AI capabilities are changing, how this evolution may alter the relationship between tasks and technology, and what this implies for the risks of substitution versus the potential for genuine augmentation of labour and human abilities.Looking ahead to 2026, the session will discuss key priorities for research, from improving measurement to understanding broader economic effects across different types of economies.<h2>Speakers</h2>Bharat Chandar <a href="https://digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/person/bharat-chandar/">Bharat Chandar</a> is a postdoctoral fellow at the <a href="https://digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/">Stanford Digital Economy Lab</a>, where he studies the labour-market impacts of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. His influential paper with Erik Brynjolfsson and Ruyu Chen, “<a href="https://digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/publication/canaries-in-the-coal-mine-six-facts-about-the-recent-employment-effects-of-artificial-intelligence/">Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts about the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence</a>,” provides some of the earliest large-scale evidence that AI may be beginning to have a disproportionate impact on entry-level workers in the American labour market. His work contributes to a growing empirical literature documenting how AI reshapes employment, skill needs and career trajectories.Bouke Klein Teeselink <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/boukekleinteeselink">Bouke Klein Teeselink</a> is an Assistant Professor in Economics at <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/">King’s College London</a>, and is Afiliated Researcher at the&nbsp;<a href="https://ai.objectives.institute/">AI Objectives Institute</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ai">King’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence</a>. He is working at the intersection of behavioural economics, political economy and the economics of Artificial Intelligence. He is a co-author of “<a href="https://download.ssrn.com/2025/12/21/5516798.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline&amp;X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEB4aCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJHMEUCIQCFc6r3GOs76QMrRrRgutnkdLeDmaw2Xe8tasRG593IyAIgT%2BnSWzka%2F4OtkV7mC31i89cCO7Ijm5kC%2BkHr5OlPGSgqxwUI5%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FARAEGgwzMDg0NzUzMDEyNTciDDIo0oBrnJEVjqK3BCqbBQXAmaymBMysyG%2Fj6f%2F5KiqeVIXdx8qBt92AWXfxvSmxKImDcEpNkVdC2GWxxddngG1Mwr30OP0HxP%2BIBx0M3Dk4%2BqbmF1XDrMecsZl1BwGvzX0TCk9d1DF6phpRaYHhnJrqmyluD2%2FlfSPXKtOd95Jh76gJmkLj2LjQ6s8km3nwVn4YHUf17kEo7nxFOzDrBy9dNY368w4wty2I74AtPSGfXXbVV%2FcVwAuGlykcSJeh%2BHDAZ41%2FVAimU1aulDx3%2FSQHQPYGkL5fd6jk%2BGv2y9OVm9xFqEi2TULZgP6M1WO0eCVVfIkMkZLtkEClfPnHxLWFuzB5hDUvc1S8wyF2WWAk1irNBJBcvCSAmwEy%2Bfv5%2BO3tnFIAUM3aUauWxjSlEj%2BWZ%2FYxZUBL2snRyCopSunOwL2P8ZcoBwEFrW9JA3CesAb%2B%2BoKPp3iUnmQZ0yUi%2FVcRM07GgBZO3UurJHcms7D0lTyN2kAhlAzDEq8YjajmFNYXbt9SRRYXS8NimG5ISRTDpv4np%2BT0Pcte4lDl%2Fv%2Fa5UqJgdRz7i0Rr%2FgudDpgGcTZ9TtOdKWLju26D6ip7o7dmEIXubE0E%2FSvpmutDOAZyV83OkF8x0H%2FLSU%2BWV1EIuzdwMV5sKf193TYfKe77aRdcu06R%2F9F0ZPOQzVJ%2FMRKs6MPw3V45yGVxUpVrGPwl%2F4mQsrBE%2B6uPFNgwz%2B3ud04nSKnQ4Szn9zF1ipIFbv61P3jgWCTRCEAC3RpKYPBa48PMti6GGK4a%2FraTm4i021IWxVNg9SZBcfFJ1n1W9bBivSkmExUbc0EhS0nIA%2B8B1XegKr53zFEUox70LFXN5ESxlwS43Gnj4Mh2D%2B1uRjaESyKdJE0ul%2BMb7d66owc6AkFDUreZgHdlkYwhKzKywY6sQHFNEqPx3C1rjvtultE6kj5sMi4zmOwxsJP7AyN1M82rFKCHo98TFeo5FlH9GsGmZ9fZw0V6lgY0BTXPNfiU1pOxAQ7XudkdxDpUNdUC%2FCPk7PNcxAk2gb6TWX0lIi7g8PSUUTgWzSRf2yL5XIjr%2Bh2ZhLk6ipdUD%2FKw6O5dmLWSTsoJGgJBa7ecVSsvOOpfh17SjeNVl5aBkRIG7XiUizEp7bSMF%2Fvh2oZYG%2B6Sfi4aD4%3D&amp;X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&amp;X-Amz-Date=20260122T220705Z&amp;X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&amp;X-Amz-Expires=300&amp;X-Amz-Credential=ASIAUPUUPRWESDF4RPVN%2F20260122%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&amp;X-Amz-Signature=ebf6e0ecd8382dea28c7922854a3fe1b703746443bcfc4d81bde62c7b989c8d7&amp;abstractId=5516798">Generative AI and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from the United Kingdom</a>,” which shows that firms highly exposed to Large Language Model capabilities reduce employment and curtail new hiring, particularly in junior, technical and creative roles, and experience substantial declines in job postings, with effects concentrated in high-wage segments. His broader research uses large datasets to understand how technological change transforms work, skills, and economic behaviour.Moderator <a href="https://researchrepository.ilo.org/esploro/profile/pawel_gmyrek/overview?institution=41ILO_INST">Pawel Gmyrek</a> Senior Researcher, Research Department, ILO

AI and Labour Markets in early 2026

ILO Headquarters

Special session: child labour in Africa

With the 2025 deadline of SDG Target 8.7 now passed, the global community faces a critical juncture in the fight against child labour. While the latest ILO–UNICEF Global Estimates indicate renewed progress since 2020, they also make clear that current trends remain far from sufficient to achieve elimination in the near term. Building on the technical session led by ILO and UNICEF at the Global Conference on Child Labour in Morocco, this plenary provides a political space to reflect on the implications of the evidence, consider future policy choices, and articulate a collective signal on the place of child labour within the post-2030 development agenda. The session is not intended to negotiate new targets, but to help frame the political direction for what comes next. Simultaneous interpretation available in English, French Spanish and Arabic.

Closing ceremony – Beyond SDG target 8.7: Political pathways for the next global target on child labour

Austria

The opening session will set the tone for the first ILO Global Business and Disability Network (GBDN) Regional Conference for Europe, highlighting the importance of advancing disability inclusion across Europe while outlining key priorities and expectations for the conference.

Unlocking potential: Disability inclusion in business in Europe

Vienna

Welcome and opening remarks

This panel will showcase innovative inclusive employment strategies within leading companies operating in Europe, highlighting practical tools and approaches for hiring, retaining, and advancing the career development of persons with disabilities. Discussions will explore inclusive leadership, workplace accommodations, neuroinclusion programmes, and learning from the lived experiences of employees with disabilities.

Inclusive employment in action: Transforming corporate practices

This session will address the double-edged role of digital technologies, including AI, in creating barriers or unlocking opportunities for people with disabilities. Key topics include accessible design, algorithmic bias, inclusive innovation, and co-creation with users with disabilities.

Tech for all? Harnessing AI & digital innovation for disability inclusion

This panel explores how personal commitment by senior managers in businesses can drive sustainable and effective changes towards greater disability inclusion in companies.

Leading inclusively: Unlocking the potential of an accessible future

This panel explores how strategic alliances by and with business communities can accelerate positive labour markets outcomes for persons with disabilities in Europe. It will examine success stories from European initiatives, public policies, joint advocacy efforts, and public-private partnerships.

Power in partnership: Leveraging business collaboration for disability inclusion

With the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) being further discussed, companies operating in the EU are encouraged to disclose how they address social factors, including workforce diversity and inclusion. This panel will explore how disability inclusion can and should be embedded in ESRS-aligned reporting. Panellists will discuss practical approaches for data collection, stakeholder engagement, and putting the “I” in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and other sustainability frameworks.

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