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In 2017, the International Labor Organization (ILO) published the Global Estimates of Child Labor for 2012 to 2016; The highlights of the report suggest that Africa is home to the largest population of child laborers with a total of 72.1 million children in child labor and 31.5 million engaged in hazardous work. One fifth of the children on the African continent are engaged in child labor, the highest in the world. Again, 9% of children in Africa are engaged in hazardous work; this ratio is also the highest of any region. As observed in other parts of the world, the highest proportion of child labor prevails in the agricultural sector. Similarly, the agriculture sector in Africa accounts for 85% of child labor, representing 61.4 million children.
In Africa, children involved in child labor are often unpaid, so the relationship between employer and employee is non-existent, as children work predominantly on farmland and family businesses; child labor is more prevalent in Africa than in any other region.
Source: Global Estimates of Child Labor, 2012-2016, ILO.
Studies have shown that poverty is the main cause of child labor: according to a World Bank report, the majority of the world’s poorest people live in Africa, and the region is home to 27 countries of the 28 poorest countries in the world . In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where these 27 poorest countries are located, the average poverty rate for the region is 41%. World Bank projections suggest that sub-Saharan African countries are not doing enough to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. With such extreme poverty levels in Africa, families are forced to rely on the services of their children on farms family and family businesses: agriculture serves as a source of employment for approximately 70% of the entire population of Africa. Highlights from the US Department of Labor report reveal that the cocoa industry in SSA is significantly dependent on child labor: in Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, children are forced to work on cocoa plantations.
Cocoa is an essential commodity for cocoa-producing countries in Africa, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), for the 2013/2014 crop year, Ivory Coast and Ghana, the two producing countries largest cocoa plants in the world along with other countries. On the continent, it represented 3.2 million tons of cocoa, that is, 73% of world cocoa production. Research by Tulane University suggests that for the 2013/2014 crop season in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, the total number of children who worked in cocoa production, child labor in cocoa production, and hazardous work in cocoa production was 2.26 million, 2.12 million and 2.03 million, respectively: from 2008/2009 to 2013/2014, the total number of children involved in cocoa production, child labor in production of cocoa and hazardous work in cocoa production had increased by 440,000, 360,000 and 310,000, respectively in Ghana and Ivory Coast. While the total number of children involved in hazardous work in cocoa production decreased by 6% in Ghana, the number of children involved in hazardous work in cocoa production increased by 46% in Ivory Coast, a condition strongly influenced by an increase in cocoa production in the two countries.
There is also an incidence of child labor in other agricultural activities such as fishing, livestock, and the production of palm oil, corn, cassava, rice, cotton, tobacco and many other crops. In Ghana, where 1 in 6 children between the ages of 6 and 14 is involved in child labor, 88% of these children work on farms and 2.3% work in the fishing industry; baiting, draining canoes, casting and hauling fishing nets, and selling fish among many other activities. In Eastern and Southern Africa, there are high levels of economic activity among young people aged 7 to 14; this economic condition is predominant in Ethiopia, Somalia and Zambia. In Tanzania, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Niger, services for boys and girls ages 5 to 14 and ages 15 to 17 are mainly dedicated to the agricultural sector. Although among the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), child labor rates for children aged 5 to 14 are higher in Guinea Bissau, Togo and Burkina Faso, i.e. 39%, 38% and 36 %, respectively – Nigeria, Ghana, Niger and Burkina Faso are home to the largest population of child laborers (5-14 years old), when expressed in absolute terms, representing 10.5 million, 2.1 million, 1.9 million and 1.8 million, respectively. In all the countries of the region, agriculture represents at least 2 out of every 3 children (from 5 to 14 years old) in work.
Child labor has plagued the economic landscape of African countries, but eradication of this canker has been rather slow, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where one in three working children is not enrolled in school.
Source: World Development Indicators, 2005-2016.
Studies have shown that the high incidence of child labor in sub-Saharan Africa is attributed to the high level of poverty, the underdeveloped agricultural sector in the region, high fertility rates leading to high population growth and a high rate of illiteracy. To quell child labor on the African continent, evidence-based policies that focus on alleviating poverty, adopting labor-saving technologies in the agricultural sector, and improving access to quality education must be implemented.
Increasing children’s access to a free and appropriate public education can break intergenerational cycles of poverty and also provide a sustainable alternative for children in the workforce. Research shows that, in the long term, children who benefit from education are more likely to invest in their children’s education. In the short term, providing free, quality public education to children in the workforce reduces their exposure to child labor, as they spend part of the day in school. The adoption of education as a tool to eradicate child labor is not valid for everyone. Innovative educational interventions that include non-formal learning projects can be implemented to support homeless children living on the streets; Most of these children are unable to access primary education due to substance abuse, challenges of daily survival, precarious family systems, and experiences of informal education failure.
Eliminating child labor in the agricultural sector is a major challenge, as the agricultural sector is poorly regulated in most African countries, making the regulation of child labor in the sector less stringent compared to other sectors . In most cases, national labor legislation does not broadly cover family farms, which is where a large proportion of child labor occurs. In addition to implementing effective labor legislation that protects children from child labor on family farms, governments and development partners should channel the resources needed to increase labor-saving technologies on farmland to reduce the human labor in the agricultural sector.
Alexander Ayertey Odonkor He is a Chartered Economist and Chartered Financial Analyst with a specialization in the economic landscape of developing economies. Alexander has conducted the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program on Financial Programming and Policies; with a master’s degree in finance and a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance, he also has graduate certificates in; Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies and Electronic Commerce in Financial Markets from Harvard University and the New York Institute of Finance, respectively.
