Driving through the busy streets of Nairobi, it was not uncommon to see children weaving through traffic, tiny hands knocking on windows selling bottled water, snacks, or simply asking for change. In the markets, many shouldered heavy loads twice their size, working long hours under harsh conditions. This wasn’t unusual. In fact, it felt normal. It was part of the everyday rhythm of life in Kenya and in many parts of the continent.

Everyone loves a good haul - bags of fashionable clothes arriving at your door for the price of a takeaway. Many companies such as Shein and Primark capitalise on this demand by offering affordable, fast and updated fashion. However behind these appealing and inexpensive items lies a hidden reality - Child Labour.

In September, the US Bureau of International Labor Affairs released a new and updated TVPRA List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor. One focus of the new list was the expansion of inputs produced with Child Labour. This focus on downstream Goods means that previously unseen Child Labour risk, such as in Indium production, is now included.

HACE: Data Changing Child Labour has raised £450,000 in its pre- seed funding round, beating its initial target by 20%.

The final blog post in the 4-part series will explore two examples of commodities, their supply chains and what child labour looks like in two countries that have been proven to use child labour to produce those commodities.

The third blog post in the 4-part series will describe the overlap between child labour and modern slavery, which is a complex area.

The second blog post in the 4-part series will describe the data landscape of child labour, including current trends and issues we see in the data quality.

This first blog post in the 4-part series will describe the definition of child labour and while somewhat complex, the delineations are integral to the rest of the series.

There have been many prominent child labour scandals in recent months and years. This blog post will explore two of them, similar in that they both feature household names that we all shop with every day in the UK and globally.

There have been many prominent child labour scandals in recent months and years. This blog post will explore two of them, similar in that they both have multiple, industry-leading company defendants.

There have been many prominent child labour scandals in recent months and years. This blog post will explore two of them, similar in that they are both based in the United States.