Objective
PPIC-Work seeks to improve the working conditions and learning opportunities of working children who are engaged in the growing micro and small enterprise sector in Egypt. Utilizing a gender-sensitive, rights-based approach PPIC-Work is able to serve the interests of large numbers of working children by working with and through self-financing microfinance institutions.
History
PPIC-Work was funded by the Canadian International Development Agency from 2002 onwards and implemented through locally owned MFIs working in collaboration with Canadian development agencies. Interventions that were first developed in Aswan have been adapted for use in other parts of Egypt and adopted by new PPIC-Work partner MFIs. These institutions work through the lending process to upgrade production processes and business performance while improving the lives of working girls and boys.
Description of the PPIC-Work Approach
 PPIC-Work partners recognized that there were children working in many of their client businesses. Children work for a variety of reasons but the principal motivations were poverty and failures within the formal educational system. By developing interventions that support working children, MFIs have been able to improve the social impact of their programs while continuing to meet conventional microfinance best practice standards.
The PPIC-Work approach emphasizes collaboration and cooperation among business owners, working children and loan officers.The positive relationship between business owners and MFI staff serves as a starting point for discussing ways of improving children’s working conditions and learning opportunities. Loan officers who have been trained in hazard assessment and mitigation are able to help business owners determine what improvements should be made first and what costs are involved. Training provided to working children on children’s rights, workplace safety and other social and technical skills helps them engage in these discussions with adults and advocate for their own rights. Once the interventions are identified, the costs of agreed solutions are incorporated into the dual-purpose loan contract and funds are issued. Business owners and working children worked together to develop a code of conduct that sets out minimum standards for children’s work. This code of conduct is also integrated into the loan contract. Business owners take responsibility for implementing the changes and loan officers monitor children’s working conditions during their routine visits. Improvements for children usually happen incrementally over time and each new loan cycle provides opportunities for additional improvements.
Participatory Design
Working children, along with their families and business owners, have collaborated with PPIC-Work partner agencies to develop a series of intervention tools that can be integrated into microfinance programs. A key part of this process was helping working children build their own self confidence and self esteem and then providing them with training in basic social interaction skills such as team-work, decision making, presentational skills and child rights. Once children were aware of their rights they were ready to ask for changes within their workplaces and within their lives beyond work. Children used their social skills to engage in discussions with adults in generally non confrontational ways that remained respectful of local practices and culture.
Interventions
The PPIC-Work interventions are organized around three main themes:
Working Conditions
Dual Purpose
Loans When businesses receiving loans from microfinance institutions have children working for them, MFIs can provide dual purpose loans: as with regular loans, these provide basic financing for improving the business. As well, they provide additional financing to improve the working conditions and learning opportunities of working children. The dual-purpose loans meet micro finance best practice standards.
Code of Conduct
Business owners and working children helped develop a code of conduct, a set of minimum standards covering conditions connected to the children’s work. Each PPIC-Work partner has negotiated a slightly different code of conduct, adapted to local conditions and industries. The codes include limitations on the number of hours a child may work and the types of tasks a child may be called upon to perform. The code of conduct is integrated into the loan contract and is monitored by loan officers during their routine visits to businesses.
Assessing and Mitigating Hazards
Loan officers are trained to identify, analyze and mitigate hazards within workplaces. They work in collaboration with business owners to find mutually agreeable changes that improve safety without compromising business performance for the workplace owner. The costs of workplace improvements are incorporated into the dual purpose loans.
Learning Opportunities
Education Support Program
Working children are provided with basic literacy and numeracy training through interactive programs that build self-esteem and self-confidence. Separate programs are provided for working children who are attending school and those who have dropped out or did not start school.
Computer Based
Learning Through the Ba’alty (My Shop) computer game working children learn basis business principles and business ethics. This interactive simulation allows children to learn about entrepreneurship by setting up and running a small shop. Through managing stock, recruiting staff and making financial decisions, children learn about how to get ahead in business – ethically!
Learning Through Work
Working children acquire technical, business and life skills through their work. The learning through work program tries to improve this process by engaging with business owners to improve the learning environment within the workplace and in providing supplementary training programs along side of work to fill in learning gaps for working children.
Key Processes
Children’s Rights
When working children learn about their rights, they become better able to negotiate for better working conditions and to act in their own interest. Loan officers and other MFI staff learn about children’s rights in order to help influence business owners so that children are able to fulfil their rights.
Gender Equality
Microfinance staff and working children learn the principles of gender equality and how to practice these principles within their lives and lives.
Children’s Participation
Working children learn how to work collaboratively in teams, form collective decisions, present ideas and concepts, engage with adults in participatory decision making and act in their own interest.
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