Child labour: the sums need to stack up

Nayeeshia keeps a small herd of mountain goats. They act as security: for example if one of her three children falls ill and needs medical treatment she can sell one for 20,000 Tanzanian Shillings (about £10).

ETI's new Base Code Guidance: Child labour - practical guidance for brands and retailers.

During the day her youngest two children take the goats out into the fields to graze while she works at an Oriental Lily farm which exports to supermarkets across Europe.

Only one of Nayeeshia's children has started primary school, although they're all old enough. She hopes the second eldest will be able to start next year, if she can afford it - classes are free, but the other costs are prohibitive.

The minimum wage for agricultural workers in Tanzania is Tsh 65,000, or around £32.50. Parents must buy a desk, which cost Tsh2500 (£12.50). And at Tsh15,000 (£7.50), school uniforms are also compulsory.

Without even thinking about the necessary shoes (most children go barefoot), pencils and exercise books, that leaves Tsh 15,000 (£2.50) left to pay for everything else for the rest of the month. In Nayeeshia's case this includes feeding her three children as well as mum and dad, both of whom are old and frail.

As Nayeeshia is the sole breadwinner in her family - her husband died 10 years ago - you can see why she uses her children as unpaid goat herders.

Yesterday was World Day Against Child Labour. With 215 million children worldwide still working, and a month after the International Labour Organisation (ILO) reported patchy progress in the battle to eradicate it, it's a chance to renew global momentum.

One of the keys, as the ILO report rightly says, is for governments to invest far more in making basic education available for children.

But, as people like Nayeeshia don't need to be told, there's not much point providing schooling for children if parents can‘t afford to kit them out for it.

To have any chance of making a significant dent in those figures, adult workers' wages must increase.

Retailers have a critical role to play in working with their suppliers to raise wages. A number of members of the Ethical Trading Initiative are already involved in groundbreaking work with suppliers in some of the poorest countries to increase wages and reduce working hours, and there is a strong collective will to broaden this work out much further.

All of us in ethical trade need to do much more to help drive up wages worldwide, so that more parents can send their children to school - not out to work.