RICHES

About RICHES (Reducing Incidence of Child Labor and Harmful Conditions of Work in Economic Strengthening)

Empowering women entrepreneurs in developing economies can increase their income and household well-being, but may also have unintended consequences, including increased labor burdens, financial stress, and gender-based violence. The RICHES project focused on one additional, less well-known consequence: increased incidence of harmful child work (child labor). When women struggle to balance growing a business with unpaid household and caregiving tasks, they often turn to those closest for help – their children.

Responsible WEE (women’s economic empowerment) actors, such as financial service providers and women’s support organizations, follow “Do No Harm” practices to protect women and families from negative consequences. In order to expand these practices to include harmful child work, the RICHES project began by researching the connection between women’s entrepreneurship promotion and harmful child work.

Drawing from these lessons, RICHES developed, tested, and made available a step-by-step toolkit to raise awareness of the risks of harmful child work among WEE participants and to help them implement policies and strategies to guard against it within their organizations and among their clients.

These recommendations include, but are not limited to the following:

Building awareness of the risks to children and women’s health and safety when supporting women’s businesses or WEE activities.
Assessing the risks and identifying situations of harmful work for children (child labor) and adults (UACW) and how to remedy these issues;
Committing to Do No Harm principles when developing and/or implementing women’s economic initiatives; and
Knowing where to go for help and where to find resources.

The RICHES Toolkit was designed to equip Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Actors with practical ideas and tools to integrate and assess child protection and safe business practices throughout their work. WEE Actors are defined as any entity or individual that supports the development or expansion of women’s businesses, provides livelihood or financial services, and/or supports women (globally) in efforts to increase their access to economic opportunities, especially those living in developing economies. The Toolkit was designed to support a WEE Actor in taking a phased approach to integrating child protection. Almost all tools have been provided in English, French, and Spanish and a few tools in Filipino. All tools can be accessed in below and are in Word and Powerpoint to facilitate their adaptation and use.