soccer balls in Pakistan

In a pioneering initiative, the world's leading sporting goods companies and human rights groups agreed on a series of actions to eliminate child labor from the production of soccer balls in Pakistan, the source for more than 75% of the world's billion-dollar soccer ball market. The agreement marks the first time that multinational corporations and their local suppliers in any global industry have joined with human rights advocates to address the problem of child labor.

The World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) and the U.S.-based Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA) announced the creation of a project that includes the sporting goods industry in Pakistan, the International Labour Organization (ILO), UNICEF and the Save the Children Fund (UK) to eliminate child labor in Pakistan's soccer ball industry. Pakistan is the source of approximately 75% of the world's annual sales of hand- stitched soccer balls, a market totaling close to $1 billion/year in retail sales. The partnership will oversee a program of independent monitoring to verify efforts to eliminate child labor by participating manufacturers within 18 months. It will also implement a social protection program that provides educational and other opportunities to children removed from the industry.

More than 50 sporting goods brands connected with soccer _ including virtually all the major global brands _ have pledged to purchase soccer balls produced in Pakistan only from local manufacturers who participate in the monitoring program. These global brands include all of the major international companies that sell soccer balls, such as adidas, Brine, Franklin, Lotto, Mitre, Nike, Puma, Reebok and Umbro, as well as many smaller brands.