DYA at the 6th World Conference on Child Labor

Marrakech, February 2026.

Maró Guerrero Aguirre, DYA's Regional Project Coordinator, participated as a panelist in the webinar "Investing in Decent Work: Financing the Fight Against Child Labor and Forced Labor," an official side event of the 6th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labor, held in Marrakech, Morocco.

The panel, organized by Georgetown University's Collaborative on Global Children's Issues, brought together high-level specialists to analyze the consequences of funding cuts on child labor prevention programs.

A high-level panel on an urgent crisis

Panelists included Thea Lee, former Deputy Undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Labor; Shawn MacDonald, CEO of Verité; Sadikshya Nepal, GoodWeave International; Sarah Dekkiche, International Cocoa Initiative; and Ana Dumitru, Carleton University.

DYA's experience on the ground

Guerrero shared the direct impact of funding cuts on DYA's programs. DYA was implementing an educational inclusion program for more than 14,000 vulnerable children when it received an abrupt suspension order.

"Within hours, we had to terminate hundreds of contracts. We had to tell 600 adolescents that the occupational training program was over. They had no choice but to go back to work, now without hope for change."

DYA sustained priority services with institutional savings and staff who donated part of their salaries. The organization created the fund "Commitment in Practice" to guarantee continuity.

A call to prioritize direct action in the Global South

"If we have to prioritize one action, we will prioritize direct intervention on the ground, where local NGOs in the Global South are working. This is an emergency. If we are not proactive, we will compromise an entire generation."

More information on the Georgetown University website.