Promoting occupational safety and health for working children through microfinance programming.

Microfinance programs are recognized as a way of improving incomes and creating employment for large numbers of low-income families, but there are concerns that working conditions within these informal microenterprises are far from ideal. For example, when families receive loans to expand a microenterprise, children may make up the labor shortfall until the family can afford to hire adult workers. Through the Promoting and Protecting the Interests of Children who Work (PPIC-Work) project being carried out in Egypt, a set of interventions that can not only improve working conditions, but can also be integrated into standard microfinance programs has been developed. By working with and through self-financing microfinance programs, the PPIC-Work approach provides a way of improving occupational safety and health not only for children working in microenterprises but also for large numbers of children and adults working in the informal sector more generally.