Sub-Saharan Africa records 16.6m increase in child labour in four years

Sub-Saharan Africa has recorded an increase of 16.6 million in child labour in four years, due largely to some extreme factors peculiar to many African countries.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Children Funds (UNICEF), made this known in a new report titled: ‘Child Labour: Global estimates 2020, trends and the road forward’, jointly released to commemorate the 2021 World Day Against Child Labour, which is marked globally on June 12, every year.

Giving the root causes of the increase, the reports said poverty, population growth and other factors were largely responsible for the increase.

“In sub-Saharan Africa, population growth, recurrent crises, extreme poverty, and inadequate social protection measures have led to an additional 16.6 million children in child labour over the past four years,” the report said.

The report also noted that global progress to end child labour has come to a halt for the first time in over two decades, reversing the downward trend that saw child labour fall by 94 million between 2000 and 2016.

One other critical factor responsible for the increase is the COVID-19 pandemic, and the report indicated that even in regions where there has been some headway since 2016, such as Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean, COVID-19 is endangering that progress.

The report warns that globally, nine million additional children are at risk of being pushed into child labour by the end of 2022 as a result of the pandemic; while a simulation model shows that this number could rise to 46 million if they don’t have access to critical social protection coverage.

Additional economic shocks and school closures caused by COVID-19 mean that children already in child labour may be working longer hours or under worsening conditions, while many more may be forced into the worst forms of child labour due to the job and income losses among vulnerable families.

“We are losing ground in the fight against child labour, and the last year has not made that fight any easier,” said UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore.

Henrietta added: “Now, well into the second year of global lockdowns, school closures, economic disruptions, and shrinking national budgets, families are forced to make heart-breaking choices. We urge governments and international development banks to prioritize investments in programmes that can get children out of the workforce and back into school, and in social protection programmes that can help families avoid making this choice in the first place.”

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