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Child Labor in Africa: Facts & Statistics/History

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Child Labor in Africa: Facts & Statistics/History

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/15teRbnhcl2NGQx_kigM1H0VbIiPRqA47/view?usp=sharing

When someone is trying to earn money as a kid, it is usually at a lemonade stand or collecting money in the piggy bank. But in Sub-Saharan Africa kids are forced to earn money through slavery, trafficking, and illegal farming industries. The ILO states that “poverty is the leading cause” of child labor. Many families are stuck in poverty leading them to force their children into work. There are about 120,000 children forced to be soldiers and fight on an illegal battlefield. Starting before the 19th-century children were forced into “agriculture and domestic work” on household farms to gain skills and earn money in order to pay off a debt to their parents. When the Europeans came they wanted control of the mineral and agricultural resources that were only found in Africa. But in order for the operation and control to begin, they needed a workforce that was diligent and cheap. Their best option was children in poverty because whatever they paid the children would accept due to the financial status of their families. From then onwards many children were sought as domestic servants and trade assistants and were not able to gain free rights. They also had no adult protection to save them from the dangers they had to endure. Soon the Declaration of the Rights of a Child in 1924 stated that all children had the right to adult protection, but child labor still continued and children kept turning into soldiers and servants. Then the ILO made contracts with the Minimum Age Convention of 1973, the United States Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Worst forms of Child labor convention in 1999. These groups were adopted in order to protect children's rights and create more allies in the nation. Even though there are many international treaties, they are not very helpful. Small government organizations such as the United Nations International Children Emergency fund started to defend these children's rights and allow them to pursue a work-free life with education.

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Child slavery in West Africa, Cocoa farming

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Child slavery in West Africa, Cocoa farming

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tluRDKbHMgWTb31Ez7POZuqutavNFgBg/view?usp=sharing

In 2000-2001, multiple documentaries came out and exposed the child labor going on in the Chocolate Industry. Ever since cocoa was introduced to Africa in the 19th century, it slowly ended up being associated with child slavery. In the 20th century, the Portuguese started importing slaves to Sao Tome and Principe to work in the "cocoa plantations.” Henry Woodd Nevinson, a British journalist investigated slave rumors his organization had heard that were linked to cocoa farms. Even after these accusations the Portuguese and European chocolate producers denied the fact that they had child slaves or any form of illegal labor. They claimed that they had contracted laborers and did not support child labor. But the contracts were irrelevant because the contracts stated that once it's signed, leaving is permitted for 5 years. Soon civil society groups started calling in campaigns to put an end to this injustice. The campaign was most successful in America because Elliot Langel introduced legislation in which chocolate firms in America must label "slave free" on their packaging to ensure proof to their customers. American Campaigners started to sponsor former slaves in order to sue multinational cocoa industries because of the harm they are producing. Later on, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that Nestle and Cargill couldn't be sued for child slavery being their back source. Surveys and analytical studies produced by Tulane University helped prevent the worst forms of child labor in the chocolate Industry in Ghana. With the new persona of the "Dark side of chocolate," it started to become evident that there was some sort of illegal child labor/slavery going on. In the history and evolution of the Chocolate industry, child labor has always been a major part of cultivating cocoa. Most cocoa cultivation happens in a new forest after the existing forest is dead of exhaustion. But accessing more forestland is difficult due to the scarcity of soil and farms. Mars and Nestle are aware of child labor in cocoa cultivation but still deny it and don't pay attention to it. But now programs are learning to overcome and combat child labor.

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Cocoa farming in West Africa is tinged with socio-cultural activities that are misunderstood by the West. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-SA

In 2000 and 2001, the use of child slaves on cocoa farms in West Africa was exposed in a series of documentaries and pieces of investigative journalism, sparking an international outcry .

This series of events was far from unprecedented.

As discussed in my paper, since the 19th century, when cocoa was first introduced to Africa (and despite the formal abolition of domestic slavery in the region), cocoa farming in West Africa has been linked to narratives of slavery and ensuing protests from chocolate consumers in Europe and America.

As recently as the early 20th century, the Portuguese were importing slaves into São Tomé and Príncipe to work on cocoa farms. This process was described by the British journalist Henry Woodd Nevinson , who had been funded by Harper's Magazine to investigate rumours of slave labour in cocoa plantations. On reaching São Tomé or Príncipe, each slave was asked whether they were willing to work there. Nevinson reported:

In most cases no answer was given. If any answer was made, no attention was paid to it. A contract was then drawn out for five years' labour.

This allowed both the Portuguese and chocolate producers in Europe to argue that the workers were contracted labourers rather than slaves. However, the "contracts" produced were meaningless, as the slaves were not permitted to leave the plantations for five years.

Some things have changed since then. Modern slavery primarily involves the trafficking of children, who are treated as a "disposable" source of labour. However, some things remain the same. Cocoa buyers and chocolate manufacturers still use various strategies to deny, deflect and divert when the issue of child slavery is raised.

Modern Slavery and chocolate manufacturers

After the practice was exposed in the 2000 documentary Slavery: A Global Investigation, the chocolate industry initially denied that trafficked children were involved in cocoa farming. In response, civil society groups in chocolate-consuming countries launched a campaign calling for the elimination of child slavery in the cocoa industry.

The campaign was particularly successful in the US due to its unique history of slavery. It led a US representative, Elliot Engel, to introduce legislation requiring chocolate firms in the US to label their products "slave free" to prove that no child slaves were involved in their supply chains.

Chocolate companies first responded by hiring professional lobbyists to prevent the passage of the "slave free" legislation in the US Senate due to the legal implication of such a label.

Subsequently, conceding that child slavery might actually exist in their supply chains, the companies took a different approach. They teamed up with various stakeholders to create the Harkin-Engel Protocol , which effectively quelled the 2000-2001 campaign. But this was a tactics.

The Harkin-Engel Protocol set out six date-specific actions that were supposed to lead to the establishment of an industry-wide standard for product certification on July 1, 2005. However, the deadline was extended to 2008 and then to 2010. After 2010, the protocol was basically abandoned.

Following the missed deadline in 2005, some US campaigners turned to the courts, sponsoring former slaves to sue multinational chocolate companies directly. However, all hope of winning these cases was lost in June 2021, when the US Supreme Court determined that companies such as Nestlé and Cargill could not be sued for child slavery in their supply chains .

The campaigners were at a clear disadvantage compared with the chocolate makers, not least because they did not fully understand the root causes of child slavery in cocoa farming in West Africa.

The causes

The issue of child slavery in cocoa farming in West Africa has been only superficially addressed in the literature. Survey and survey-type studies have sought to determine the extent of child slavery (and child labour) in West African cocoa farming, but they have failed to consider its causes.

An example is a series of field surveys conducted by Tulane University to ascertain the prevalence of the worst forms of child labour in cocoa farming in Ghana and Ivory Coast.

Meanwhile, investigative reports and televised documentaries have painted merely a qualitative picture of the phenomenon. An example is the 2010 documentary The Dark Side of Chocolate . This sought to provide visual evidence of child slavery in cocoa production in West Africa. Representatives of the chocolate industry declined both requests for interviews and invitations to watch the film.

The filmmaker, Miki Mistrati, broadcast the documentary on a large screen next to Nestlé's headquarters in Switzerland , making it difficult for employees to avoid catching glimpses of child slavery in the company's supply chain.

Scholars, journalists and filmmakers addressing the topic of child slavery in West African cocoa farming have thus far failed to engage with the history of cocoa farming and the evolution of the process of cocoa cultivation.

Properly engaging with this history would help anti-child slavery campaigners understand what exactly they are fighting against. The conditions that created a demand for cheaper sources of labour in the past are still in place today, and nobody understands them better than chocolate multinationals.

This has been the subject of my research.

These conditions arise from changes in the ratio of labour to land needed to continue cultivating cocoa. The availability of forestland is the decisive factor.

Cocoa farming once involved the consecutive phases of boom and bust, followed by a shift to a new forest area (production shift), a different product in the same area (diversification) or a different system of cocoa cultivation requiring extra production factors. Studies of cocoa cultivation in West Africa have provided evidence of planters' migrating to new forest after exhausting existing forestland, resulting in shifts in production centres within and between countries.

However, accessing new forestland is becoming ever more difficult, and far more labour is needed to replant cocoa than to plant on pioneer forest soil.

This labour problem is particularly pronounced in cocoa cultivation areas that depended on migrant labour in the past (such as Ivory Coast). Here, a reduction in migration over time, coupled with deforestation, has resulted in a labour crisis: although post-forest cultivation requires more labour than pioneer planting, less labour is now available. To continue cultivating cocoa, planters in these areas have turned to cheaper sources of labour, such as family members and children.

This change in labour relations seems to have led to an increase in child slave labour.

Investing time

Chocolate producers such as Mars and Nestlé are well aware of the labour problem in cocoa cultivation. Historically, this problem has led to diversification: when cocoa has become difficult to cultivate, planters have turned to other products. Although such diversification may be good for farming communities, it spells bad news for buyers of the raw material. This has led to multinationals intervening under the banner of sustainability to prevent diversification away from cocoa. Their "sustainability" programmes are ostensibly designed to combat child labour, slavery or trafficking or labour. They are, however, in fact productivity-boosting programmes with token anti-slavery components.

It is no longer sufficient merely to show that child slavery exists in cocoa farming in West Africa. To have any chance of combating these practices, campaigners must invest time and effort to truly understand the processes and conditions that create them.

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Child slavery in West Africa: understanding cocoa farming is key to ending the practice

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In 2000 and 2001, the use of child slaves on cocoa farms in West Africa was exposed in a series of documentaries and pieces of investigative journalism, sparking an international outcry . This series of events was far from unprecedented.

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Challenges and perspectives of child labor

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Challenges and perspectives of child labor

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jqCsUndVVxH5y8YUv92MPgQ6VuPlPsVY/view?usp=sharing

Child labor has been taking place for many generations, it wasn’t even illegal during the earlier stages of history; it was simply just a part of “economic life and industrial growth.” But now many children are working in factories or mines instead of going to school and earning proper education. The more poverty there is in a country, the higher the child labor rates are. Most of this type of child labor is found in the least developed countries because rich companies put their factories in poor countries, where children are forced to work rather than be educated. But in most poor countries child labor is not entirely illegal, so there is no way for them to get proper education, and from there, the cycle just repeats for generations. In more developed countries like the U.S., Canada, and Japan, people expect there is no child labor. But it is just all hidden through countries in poverty. Many children are working illegally just to provide financial support for their families. In richer countries, it is easier to take action and prevent this social injustice. But in poor countries where almost 85% of child labor is taking place, there is nothing to be done. Because the laws and rules depend on each country and its ruling government. And the laws in countries with poverty are not as stringent as in more developed countries. In most of these social injustices children “fall easy victims” and have no say in whether they want to work or not. Many children are destined to be child workers from the day they were born. Another scenario is based on gender, many traditional families believe that a girl's right to education is not “as important” as a boy's education. Child Labor can affect a child in their later stages of life due to “physical, behavioral, psychological” consequences. I want to investigate why children in poverty cannot be funded by richer countries to decrease child labor rates. In the broad scope of this world, many children would rather be educated than work 5-12 hours a day, and it definitely won’t be possible to completely extinct this social injustice, but by precautions and financial funding of other privileged countries, the child labor rates can be decreased. And many children can have the opportunity to have brighter and better futures.

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Abstract

Child labor is one of the oldest problems in our society and still an ongoing issue. During the time, child labor evolved from working in agriculture or small handicraft workshops to being forced into work in factories in the urban setting as a result of the industrial revolution. Children were very profitable assets since their pay was very low, were less likely to strike, and were easy to be manipulated. Socioeconomic disparities and lack of access to education are among others contributing to the child labor. Religious and cultural beliefs can be misguiding and concealing in delineating the limits of child labor. Child labor prevents physical, intellectual, and emotional development of children. To date, there is no international agreement to fully enforced child labor. This public health issue demands a multidisciplinary approach from the education of children and their families to development of comprehensive child labor laws and regulations.

Keywords: Child labor, education, ethics, politics, poverty, religion

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL FACTS

Child labor is an old problem well rooted in human history. Children were exploited to various extents during different periods of time. The problem was common in poor and developing countries. In the 1800's, child labor was part of economic life and industrial growth. Children less than 14 years old worked in agriculture, factories, mining, and as street vendors.[ 1] Children from poor families were expected to participate to the family income, and sometimes they worked in dangerous conditions in 12-hour shifts.[ 1]

In the 1900's, in England, more than a quarter of poor families lost their children to diseases and death, endangering their extra financial support.[ 1] Boys worked in glass factories in high heat in three shifts because the furnaces were kept fired all the time to increase productivity, while girls were forced into prostitution. In 1910, it was estimated that more than two million children in the United States were working.[ 1]

With the increase of education, economy, and the emergence of labor laws, child labor decreased. However, child labor is still a widespread problem in many parts of the world in developed and developing countries. With the development of agriculture, children were again forced to be employed mostly by the families rather than factories. The main cause of child labor is the lack of schools and poverty.[ 2]

Per International Labor Organization (ILO, 2002), in the world, there are 211 million children laborers, 73 million under 10 years of age, 126 million children work in the worst forms of child labor, and more than 8 million are kept as slaves for domestic work, in trafficking, armed conflict, prostitution, and pornography. More than 20,000 children die yearly due to work-related accidents. Nearly, one-third of the world's children work in Africa.[ 3] Countries such as India have made efforts to tackle the worst forms of child labor. Despite this, 56.4% of children aged 5-14 work in agriculture and 33.1% work in industry.[ 4] Indian children are forced into labor to pay family debt. They work sometimes in hazardous environments, being forced into commercial sexual exploitation, human trafficking, or forcibly recruited or kidnapped to be part of terrorist groups.[ 4]

Child labor is morally and ethically unacceptable. United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) was the first international body that signed in 1989 the Convention on the Rights of the Children. It is for the first time in history when children are seen as humans with rights rather than economic assets of their parents. Child labor was defined as labor that harms the health of the children and deprives them of education rights. This law does not exclude children that work for their families.

ETHICAL FACETS OF CHILD LABOR

Child labor has many facets from the ethical point of view. Autonomy, beneficence, justice, nonmaleficence, privacy, and veracity are endangered during child labor.[ 5] Utilitarianists would support the idea of child labor as long as they are the sole providers for the family and without their income, the family would not survive and as long as the labor is voluntarily provided. The ends justify the means. Forced child labor is unethical because it is against the autonomy of the children. The consent of the working child is mostly manipulated by the parents. To give consent, a child needs to understand the situation, the consequences, and voluntarily agree to work. Children of young age, who have a less than fully competent capacity, can assent to an action by getting involved in the decision-making process. Children fall easy victims to unfair job conditions, and they do not have the power to stand-up against mistreatments.[ 6] The maleficence of this act has long-term physical, psychological, behavioral, and societal consequences. Even if they are lacking the competency of making informed decisions, they are considered individuals with autonomy that should be protected and safeguarded.[ 6]

Child labor is more common in developing countries where more than 90% of children live.[ 3] Child labor in developing countries affects 211 million children.[ 3] The continent with the highest child employment rate is Asia with 61%, followed by Africa and Latin America. Nearly 41% of the children in Africa are below 14 years old, followed by Asia with 22% and Latin America 17%.[ 3] India has made progress in reducing the child labor. However, more than 4 million children in India between 5 and 14 years old work more than 6 hours a day, while about 2 million children aged 5-14 work 3-6 months in a year.[ 4]

CULTURAL BELIEFS AND CHILD LABOR

Cultural beliefs have an important role in encouraging child labor. In developing countries, people believe that work has a constructive effect on character building and increases skill development in children. There is a tradition in these families, where children follow the parents' footsteps and learn the job from an early age. Some cultural beliefs may contribute to the misguided concept that a girl's education is not as important as a boy's education, and therefore, girls are pushed into child labor as providers of domestic services.[ 7] In India, not putting a child to work means the family would not make enough income to sustain their living. Sociocultural aspects such as the cast system, discrimination, and cultural biases against girls contribute to child labor.[ 4]

RELIGION AND CHILD LABOR

It is generally accepted that parents have the fundamental right to educate and raise their children. Parents almost always try to act in the child's best interest at the best of their knowledge and beliefs. In doing so, they are reasonably motivated by their intellectual growth, social development, and at times by spiritual salvation. Oftentimes, parents seek guidance in religion to shape the upbringing of their children and to enhance their progress. Hard work is among others, an important religious value to instill from a young age.

Krolikowski found that Christian children were the least likely to work, while Muslim children, children with no religion, and children affiliated with a traditional African religion were more likely to work than Christians.[ 8] The 40% higher incidence of child labor among Indian Muslims compared with Indian Hindus is due perhaps to the impoverishment of Muslim community.[ 4] Amish people's life is also regulated by religious values. They believe that work and faith bring people closer to God.[ 9] Amish children are initiated from childhood into apprenticeship to learn the trade, and beyond eighth grade, they have to provide like an adult for the community. Education of children beyond eighth grade is considered a threat to the community values. The U. S. labor laws forbid children less than 16 years of age to work in hazardous places such as sawmill or woodworking. However, in 2004 an exception was made by the United States Department of Labor, who approved an amendment that allows Amish children between 14 and 18 years old to work.[ 10]

POLICIES AND CHILD LABOR

Child labor is rooted in poverty, income insecurity, social injustice, lack of public services, and lack of political will.[ 7] Working children are deprived from a proper physical and mental development. The millennium development goals (MDGs), issued in 2001 to implement the Millennium Declaration, set up commitments for poverty reduction, education, and women's empowerment. Persistence of poverty is the major cause of labor. However, child labor also causes poverty because it deprives the children from education and from a normal physical and mental development hampering a prosperous life as adults. The first MDG in addressing poverty is the elimination of child labor.[ 11]

The International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) was created by ILO in 1992 to progressively eliminate child labor. The priority addresses the worst forms of child labor such as slavery, prostitution, drug trafficking, and recruitment of children in armed conflicts.[ 12] IPEC is working with stakeholders from many countries to increase strengths and promote the fight against child labor. IPEC engage with multiple organizations, international and governmental bodies, community-based organizations, religious groups, private plural form businesses, children and their families.

Policy reform was promoted through country-based programs. The capacity building of institutions has been increased to better understand the obstacles and increase the ability of obtaining sustainable measures. These measures were meant to decrease child labor and bring children back in schools. In all these processes, statistical data were collected at the worldwide level, methodologies were set in place, and guidelines were created.

The Child Labor Platform was created as a business-led initiative by ILO in 2012, to identify the obstacles of the implementation of ILO conventions at the community level and to come up with solutions. This platform is a win-win situation for all parties involved: stakeholders as well children and their families. This platform offers training, research, and specialized tools to member companies, so they can carry out activities against child labor. Eliminating child labor is part of the corporates' social responsibility in line with their values and is what the society expects from them. This platform provides information how to get involved and how to find businesses that work collaboratively with the communities to solve the problem. Training and knowledge is a real value added for companies.[ 12] The Indian Government implemented a national project deemed to assist population to eradicate child labor, and set in place enforcements of criminal and labor law.[ 4]

ARGUMENTS FAVORING CHILD LABOR

Despite all these international and national measures against child labor, there are arguments in favor of child labor. Some argue that poor families would be even poorer without the supplemental financial contribution of children. Lack of money will deprive them of the basic needs of food and shelter which will decrease their survival rate. In addition, an increase in poverty would make children even more susceptible to exploitation.

The supporters of these ideas argue that the benefit of creating a safe workplace and allowing children to work is helpful in certain situations. They also emphasize that child work is not child labor as long as it does not interfere with schooling and children have safe workplace conditions with a limited number of hours per day.[ 13]

STAKEHOLDERS' ROLE AND CHILD LABOR

The stakeholders most directly affected are the children and their families. Children are working at the expense of their education and normal mental development. Education is important not only for the intellectual development but also for the empowerment and acquisition of new skills for adult life. The health of children is endangered by work in hazardous conditions, abuse, exhaustion, malnutrition, or exposure to toxic materials. The psychological harm leads to behavioral problems later on in life.[ 14]

Despite the implementation of laws and measurements at the international level, child labor still persists, and it is caused by the same factors as 100 years ago. There is a need to address poverty and access to education. To date, there is no international agreement to define child labor. Every country has different laws and regulations regarding the minimum age for starting working based on the type of labor. The lack of international consensus on child labor makes the limits of child labor very unclear.[ 15]

Therefore, it is mandatory to create international policies that adopt a holistic approach to free quality education for all children, including labor children from poor families. Education should be continued beyond the primary school level and should be done in a formal setting. Studies show that nonformal education is a necessary but not a sufficient prerequisite for permanently withdrawing children from work.[ 15] The public educational system should be expanded to accommodate laborer children who still do not have access to school. More schools should be built, more teachers should be trained, and more educational materials should be available. A special attention should be given to children living in exceptional geographical conditions and mobility should be provided at the cost of the community. Children who dropped out of school should receive adequate guidance and support, and a smooth reentry should be facilitated. The development of schools in the rural areas would decrease the load of children in urban schools. This will allow parents to accommodate children's needs without having to migrate in big cities.

Another phenomenon that should be addressed is the social exclusion. Children engaged in the worst forms of child labor come from the lowest strata of the society. International Labor Organization launched a project on Indigen and tribal people, who are the most targeted by social exclusion. This project promotes their rights and encourages building capacity among their community.[ 15] Proper enforcement of child labor policies and the focus on education can break the cycle of poverty that drives the children into labor.

CONCLUSION

Child labor is a public health issue with negative outcomes that demands special attention. A multidisciplinary approach is needed to tackle child labor issues. Per ILO, poverty is a major single cause behind child labor. Lack of affordable schools and affordable education is another major factor to force children to work. Certain cultural beliefs rationalize this practice and encourage child labor as character building and skill development for children. Some cultural traditions encourage child labor as footsteps to their parents' jobs. Socioeconomic disparities, poor governance, and poor implementation of international agreements are among major causes of child labor. Macroeconomic factors also encourage child labor by the growth of low pay informal economy. Child labor prevents the normal well-being including physical, intellectual, and emotional psychosocial development of children. This public health issue cannot be eliminated by only enforcement of child labor laws and regulations. Any comprehensive policies should engulf a holistic approach on the education of children and their families, investment in early childhood development programs, establishing public education task forces in rural areas, implementing policies with focus on increasing adult wages, and discouraging consumers to buy products made by forced child labor. As such, ethical practice requires protection of all rights of children and protective policies and procedures which support the provisions of ILO's standards.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to thank the University Writing Center at A.T. Still University for assistance with this manuscript.

REFERENCES

1. Trattner WI. 1st ed. Chicago: Quadrangle Books; 1970. Broadening the field. In: Crusade for the Children: A History of the National Child Labor Committee and Child Labor Reform in America; pp. 111-35. [ Google Scholar]

2. Miller ME. Child labor and protecting young workers around the world. An introduction to this issue. Int J Occup Environ Health. 2010;16:103-12. [[ PubMed] Google Scholar]

5. Koocher GP, Keith-Spiegel P, editors. Children, Ethics, and the Law: Professional Issues and Cases. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press; 1990. Introduction and basic concepts; pp. 1-4. [ Google Scholar]

7. Invernizzi A, Williams J, editors. In: The Human Rights of Children: From Visions to Implementation. 1st ed. London, UK: Ashgate Publishing Ltd; 2013. Understanding a human rights based approach; pp. 61-98. [ Google Scholar]

9. Cheng DG. Wisconsin v. Yoder: Respecting children's rights and why Yoder should be overturned. Charlotte L Rev. 2013;4:45. [ Google Scholar]

11. Haines A, Sanders D, Lehmann U, Rowe AK, Lawn JE, Jan S, et al. Achieving child survival goals: Potential contribution of community health workers. Lancet. 2007;369:2121-31. [[ PubMed] Google Scholar]

13. Basu K, Tzannatos Z. The global child labor problem: What do we know and what can we do? World Bank Econ Rev. 2003;17:147-73. [ Google Scholar]

14. Beegle K, Dehejia R, Gatti R. Why should we care about child labor? The education, labor market, and health consequences of child labor. J Hum Resour. 2004;44:871-89. [ Google Scholar]

15. Siddiqi F, Patrinos HA. Child Labor: Issues, Causes and Interventions. 1st ed. Washington, DC: World Bank; 1995. Correlates of working children; pp. 1-9. [ Google Scholar]

Articles from Industrial Psychiatry Journal are provided here courtesy of Wolters Kluwer -- Medknow Publications

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Challenges and perspectives of child labor

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Child labor is one of the oldest problems in our society and still an ongoing issue. During the time, child labor evolved from working in agriculture or small handicraft workshops to being forced into work in factories in the urban setting as a result ...

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Hunger, Disease, Wars, Labour - Suffrage in Africa

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Hunger, Disease, Wars, Labour - Suffrage in Africa

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fkQiyanDTOXZTz-s0HVfmK3lbQYp7Afr/view?usp=sharing

Many children in Africa die of malnutrition, meaning they are not given the right amount/ type of food. Usually, this death occurs before their 5th birthday. There are currently over 400 million children living on the African continent. The infant mortality rate is the highest in Africa due to diseases, malnutrition, and even AIDS. 45-50% of the citizens in Africa are below the poverty line, and Sub-Saharan Africa is the poorest region located in the world. More than 30% of children bear tortured by malnutrition. Due to this, their physical and mental state easily gets damaged. The 5 most common deaths in Africa include Diarrhea, Malaria, complications while pregnancy and childbirth, and Pneumonia. There are 15 million children in Africa who grow up without parents due to medical conditions. When new education and medication come to take place, the infections in Africa would slowly decrease. Wars were beginning in Africa due to the conflict of child labor and many children were left frightened because they didn’t know what the outcome would be. Many girls are forced into trafficking and illegal work. They are also being forced into child marriages as a part of African Tribal tradition. More girls are working than boys and the workforces are plantations, mines, quarries, and factories. Some girls are even forced into prostitution. In the end, they won't be able to attend school because they have no more time or energy. SOS Children villages in Africa have given shelters and help for 40 years to children and families in poverty. There are a total of 147 villages in 46 African countries. There are also other facilities and developments in order to help little boys and children out of the harm of child labor.

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Children in Africa ... are persecuted, recruited, injured and married

Hunger, poverty, violence and armed conflicts mean that millions of African children are fleeing - alone or with their families. War is raging in many countries of the African continent: millions of children are living in constant terror in the midst of terror and violence. In countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, Somalia, Uganda or Sudan child soldiers are still recruited.

In the countries of western and northeastern Africa, girls are circumcised. Partial or total removal of the clitoris and labia minora is painful, life-threatening, and results in irreparable damage such as incontinence, infertility, or urinary tract infections.

Infibulated girls and women are robbed of their sexual ability to experience and feel strong pain during intercourse. Among the African countries where genital mutilation is widespread are Egypt, Somalia, Djibouti, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone and the north of Sudan.

Millions of African girls are also threatened with forced marriages in many states. The marriage of underage girls is a tradition in many African tribes. Girls in childhood are married as a so-called "child brides" of their parents to a usually much older man and get far too early own children.

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Hunger, disease, wars: children in Africa are particularly suffering

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Hunger, poverty, violence and armed conflicts mean that millions of African children are fleeing - alone or with their families. War is raging in many countries of the African continent: millions of children are living in constant terror in the midst of terror and violence.

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Sub-Saharan Africa’s Dependence on Child Labor Affects Development

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Sub-Saharan Africa’s Dependence on Child Labor Affects Development

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Africa is a country made mostly of poverty with nearly 1 billion people as its population. Many adults who work are getting paid way below the low wage, which means they are unable to financially support their families. This results in the kids having to work to help feed the family instead of going to school to get an education. Recent results showed that “one in five Sub-Saharan children” work under risky conditions. The adults are poor and have low income so they rely on the work of their kids. Most child labor takes place in the fields of agriculture, children go to the farms with their parents to help out and earn a little extra money in order to help financially. Reports show that “99.5% of child labor” takes place on an average family farm. Other child labor occurs in dangerous hazardous activities such as mining, factory work, and even trafficking. With terrible working/living conditions, children are more likely to catch diseases resulting in death or serious injury to the body. The children are risking their lives, but have no option of opting out. Another place where child labor is widely dependent is the Cocoa industry. According to the Tulane report, child labor in the Cocoa industry was 51% more than it was 5 years ago in the years 2013-2014. Anti-child labor activists are trying to work against these cocoa industries. There are lawsuits against Hershey, Mars, and Nestle along with a new rule from the states of the U.S. stating that the customer must be notified that the inside operation of these industries mostly consists of child labor. These physical and mental dangers deprive the child of having a chance at a bright future. If the child cannot get an education there is no way the child would get a guaranteed well-paid job. This means their chances of making good money in the future are stripped away from them. The only way to save these families is to help pull them, families, out of poverty and grant their children a proper education. When children go to school and gain knowledge the economy will grow immensely and allow further development in the country.

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Sub-Saharan Africa's Dependence on Child Labor Affects Development

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As Sub-Saharan Africa strives to break the shackles of poverty, its population of nearly one billion people is hard at work.

A 2014 report by the U.S. Department of Labor concluded that one out of five Sub-Saharan children are working under difficult if not squalid conditions.

Poverty is the driving force behind child labor, says Alex Soho of the International Labor Organization in South Africa.

"They are poor. Their income is low. They cannot afford hiring adult laborers,” he said. ”So they have to rely, you know, on the work of their kids. This is true for farmers. This is true, also, for farm workers, who have to take them [children] along with them to the plantations, in particular, the whole family, to complete the tasks they've been assigned."

For these children, daily life consists of more than just backbreaking labor. Hazardous conditions are commonplace — not just on the farms, where pesticides abound and machinery meant to be run by adults poses threats to children, but also in mining, where conditions are sometimes abominable.

FILE - Boys pan for gold on a riverside at Iga Barriere, 25 km (15 miles) from Bunia, in the resource-rich Ituri region of eastern Congo, Feb. 16, 2009.

Day after day, children stand in muddy creeks and rivers scouring the water for specks of gold dust. There are dangers everywhere — machinery, man-sized or bigger rocks, hazardous chemicals and water-borne diseases.

Cocoa industry

Another Sub-Saharan African industry dependent on child labor is cocoa, used in the production of chocolate. The U.S. Labor Department report said child labor is prevalent on cocoa plantations in Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea and Sierra Leone. In two other nations — Ivory Coast and Nigeria — it's not only that children are working; it’s that they are being forced to work.

What's worse, the use of children in the cocoa industry is increasing. A study by Tulane University found that the number of children working in the cocoa industry in 2013 and 2014 was 51 percent higher than five years earlier. The Tulane report said 1.4 million Sub-Saharan African children were working in the cocoa industry in 2014.

An organization representing the industry says families, not corporations, are mainly responsible for the growth of child labor.

FILE - Children living in a cocoa-producing village walk back from the fields carrying wood and food stuffs on their heads on the outskirts of the town of Oume, Ivory Coast, June 30, 2005.

"More than 99.5 percent of child labor that exists is taking place on the family farm,” said Nick Weatherill, executive director of the International Cocoa Initiative. “And, therefore, the much more extreme and definitely concerning [aspect] of [human] trafficking and kids working in indentured labor — that's less than 0.5 percent. It's still a phenomenon. It's still real, but it's principally driven by criminality. It is not driven by industry [and] corporate business practices."

Anti-child labor activists in the United States are trying to use the courts to confront the chocolate industry. Lawsuits pending in California state courts against Hershey, Mars and Nestle are asking for money for residents who bought chocolate. State law requires candy makers to declare on product packages that child slavery was involved in their making.

Hardships for children

Aside from the physical dangers, experts say working is an obstacle to a child's long-term economic advancement, as well.

"This work deprives a child of education and, obviously, of a future, because if a child cannot go to school, the child cannot have a future at all,” Soho said. “And this is why the measures taken by the ILO and its partners, you know, to support national stakeholders, focus on education.”

Soho and others say that keeping children in school and helping families pull themselves out of poverty are the keys to helping the people of Africa achieve the kind of growth they need to improve their position in the global marketplace.

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Sub-Saharan Africa’s Dependence on Child Labor Affects Development

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One of five Sub-Saharan children working under difficult — if not squalid — conditions, according to 2014 US labor report

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Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labor in West Africa through ECOWAS

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Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labor in West Africa through ECOWAS

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Child labor has always been a problem around Africa, but the highest child labor rates are In West/Sub-saharan Africa. In this area, children are being forced to “engage in hazardous activities” such as cocoa/coffee farming, applying pesticides, mining, and fishing. Even after working in such conditions, they are being paid way below the poverty line. Many girls are also becoming targeted to be trafficked and work illegally as domestic servants. The Economic Community of West Africa States which includes “15 member states” have enforced a Child policy and a plan of action to prevent further child labor and protect the children from being trafficked and forced into doing illegal activities. The Action plan includes 10 steps of justice to put an end to injustice. Adding supervision and a “monitoring system” throughout the farming and cocoa industry could decrease the number of child laborers. National plans and developing allies throughout states for extra support will help the elimination of WFCL. Another way is to conduct “analytical studies” and look at the statistics of the cause of this injustice. Rescuing and providing open shelters and preventing new children to enter the illegal workforce will decrease the dangers the children have to experience. By giving a free “non-formal education” to these children they will be able to gain knowledge rather than having to work. Children will be protected better when there are trained officers and inspectors. And posting on social media will create better awareness among the public and allow them to reach out and help more. And lastly, by building community groups, we will be able to help families out of poverty which will then result in their kids being free of child labor and being introduced to schools where they can have a proper education.

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Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labor in West Africa by Strengthening Sub-Regional Cooperation Through ECOWAS

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In Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, thousands of children are engaged in hazardous activities in cocoa and coffee farming, including clearing fields, using machetes, and applying pesticides. While most of the children work alongside their families, others have no family relationship with the farmer and have been recruited through intermediaries or trafficked.

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Protecting Africa's children from child labour

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Protecting Africa's children from child labour

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The International Labor organization is a group that encourages countries to enforce stronger laws and conditions regarding child labor and poverty rates among their families in Sub-Saharan Africa. The reason for this group to evolve is due to the illegal and unfair usage of children in the workforce of illegal activities. The worst forms of child labor include slavery, prostitution, illicit activities, trafficking of drugs, and the harming of health due to working with poisonous chemicals all day long for a wage under the poverty line. The ILO convention 182 taking place in Africa is “tremendously important” and a new idea relating to the changes in the work field economy and the structures of the children's lives. This organization has taken “national surveys and studies” regarding the problems and injustices of child labor. Many groups such as “Child labor conventions” are responsible for monitoring any injustice taking place towards a child and their rights. Statistics show that 72.1 African-American children are still trapped in the pains of child labor and 31.5 children are still involved in work with hazardous chemicals. Based on the ILO global conducted research, child labor in Africa continued to grow, rather in other countries, it started to decrease. Due to this African countries continued to “extend social protection” and allow access to schools, and transportation, creating a stronger base for the social aspects of the economy. As child labor in Africa began to slowly decline, another problem arose. COVID-19 increased child labor because there was a decrease in supply due to the lack of sources, closure of schools, job shortages, and a major downfall of social protection. The ILO is taking on accelerated action by changing the rules and regulations and enforcing a stable economy with a strong capacity of legal workers and government officials. But the ILO wants to “build back” stronger partnerships and rise over child labor after a huge economic disturbance such as COVID-19. The partnership with the “African Union Ten Year Continental Action Plan” will help decrease the enormous rate of child labor and allow children to have an education. The Alliance 8.7 is an agreement between 11 countries that accelerations actions in order to terminate child labor. Convention 182 is an organization adopted to cause immediate action against the worst forms of child labor.

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Protecting Africa's children from child labour

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However, 72.1 million African children are still involved in child labour, including 31.5 million children engaged in hazardous work. According to the ILO's global estimates on child labour published in 2017, sub-Saharan Africa witnessed a rise in child labour from 2012 to 2016, in contrast to other regions where child labour continued to decline.

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In the entirety of this world, Africa is where most of the child labor takes place. In order for child labor to be eliminated, first poverty must be ended. Due to the immense amount of Child labor in Africa, many organizations decided to take “drastic action.” As they began to evolve and prevent child labor Covid-19 quickly took place. It increased the amount of child labor because without much supply or services available children were used for work during Covid since they were cheaply available laborers. This puts the child in immense danger as they are exposed to hazardous chemicals as well as the deadly Corona Virus. The FAO's Regional Office for Africa brought stakeholders together across the continent to discover new fast methods to decrease child labor in Africa. Child labor is inappropriate for a growing age, this can physically and mentally affect their brain and their safety. The goal is that most of all child labor should be put down by the year of 2025, that way their can be more substantial growth in the economy of Africa. Social protection, investment programs, rural development, and technology can all help get rid of child labor in Africa. Political influences can also drive greater efforts that people can put in throughout the country. FAO, agricultural stakeholders, and rural development groups can all create safe places for agricultural practices rather than using children for work. The European Union and FAO have funded and created programs where families can send their children to school rather than work in cotton fields. This will create progress at "local, national, and international" levels.

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29 September 2021, Accra - Urgent action is needed to address child labour in Africa's agriculture sector, participants heard at a regional conference hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today.

Latest estimates show there are more children in child labour in Sub-Saharan Africa (86.6 million) than in the rest of the world combined, and the vast majority, four out of every five children, are engaged in child labour within the agriculture sector. Root causes include household poverty, limited access to quality education, inadequate labour-saving technologies, and traditional attitudes towards children's participation in agriculture.

"We need zero child labour in agriculture to achieve zero hunger, and we need to act now," said FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa Abebe Haile-Gabriel in his opening remarks at today's event. He noted that "climate change, inequality and poverty continue to pose challenges to rural livelihoods where child labour is often used as a negative coping mechanism," and urged greater leadership from agricultural stakeholders across Africa to accelerate action.

"There is no justification whatsoever for having millions of African children in child labour," said Cynthia Samuel-Olonjuwon, ILO Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Africa. "It is unacceptable that this number is likely to go up due to COVID-19. It is untenable that half of these children are in hazardous work that puts their safety, health and sometimes their lives at risk. It is indefensible that almost a third of them don't go to school. Child labour is a grave problem that requires us to take drastic action," she said.

The event, hosted by FAO's Regional Office for Africa, brought together stakeholders from across the continent to engage on fast-tracking solutions to ending child labour in agriculture in Africa. Participants included technical experts, government representatives, financial institutions, farmers' groups and labour organizations. Today's event is part of a series of regional events around the world ahead of FAO's high-level Global Solutions Forum: Acting Together to End Child Labour in Agriculture, in November.
The problem
Child labour in agriculture harms children, damages the agriculture sector and perpetuates rural poverty. It is defined as work that is inappropriate for a child's age, affects their education, or is likely to harm their health and safety. Much of the work children carry out in agriculture is unpaid and takes place within the family unit. It could include carrying very heavy loads, coming into contact with hazardous pesticides and other chemicals, or working extremely long hours.

Globally, there are 160 million children in child labour. The International Labour Organization and UNICEF estimate that the economic impacts of COVID-19 may drive millions more children around the world into work.

Through the Sustainable Development Goals (Target 8.7), countries have committed to ending child labour in all its forms by 2025, but progress is not on track to meet this target. Eradicating child labour globally will not be achieved without a breakthrough in Sub-Saharan Africa, and particularly in agriculture.
What can be done?
Recommendations discussed at today's event include supporting decent livelihoods for smallholder farmers such as through social protection, stronger and better organized producers' groups, integrating child labour prevention into the design of investment programmes for agriculture and rural development, and introducing labour-saving technologies.

Among those at today's event reaffirming their pledge for greater action was Godfrey Bahiigwa, the Director of Agriculture and Rural Development at the African Union Commission. "The African Union is committed to accelerating the achievement of SDG 8.7 and reducing child labour in Africa, and using its political and convening capacities to drive greater coordination of implementation efforts across the continent," he said.
Taking action to end child labour
Through the Framework on Ending Child Labour in Agriculture, FAO works with agricultural stakeholders and rural communities to improve livelihoods and promote good and safe agricultural practices so that families can afford to send their children to school, rather than to work. FAO also works with national governments to advocate for policy and program changes to end child labour.

The European Union has co-funded a multi-year, multi-country FAO project to support cotton farmers to expand their livelihoods and send their children to school instead of to cotton fields. The CLEAR Cotton Project is implemented by ILO in collaboration with FAO in Burkina Faso, Mali and Pakistan.

In Uganda, teenagers at risk of falling into labour instead attend Junior Farmer Field Schools, or 'schools without walls', where they learn relevant skills including innovative agricultural practices.

2021 is the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour which aims to drive progress at local, national and international levels.
ENDS

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Urgent action needed to stop child labour in Africa, as COVID-19 pushes more children into work - World

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29 September 2021, Accra - Urgent action is needed to address child labour in Africa's agriculture sector, participants heard at a regional conference hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today.

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In order for growth and development to occur in Africa, there must be an end to child labor. Children have the right to go to school and earn an education, they should not be working. Child labor can end when the community comes together and creates strategies and is persistent in its goal. The 5th Global conference is focusing on the elimination of child labor. Without this goal, 105 million will still be in labor by the year 2025. The root causes of child labor are no free education, lots of poverty, and low job opportunities. In many other countries child labor is decreasing but in Africa is increasing due to 83% of its citizens not having any social protection. Social protection allows the monitoring of whether children are going to school or working under illegal conditions. The goal of the ILO is for 40% of the population in Africa to receive social protection by the year 2025. The ILO also supports the National Health Insurance Fund to expand universal medical help for anyone who can’t afford medical care. This allows an increase in access to services many people can’t afford. The African Regional Social Protection strategy will help drive change and protect children from child labor.

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Children working in Kasulu, Tanzania. (Photo by: BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

"We shouldn't wait for development to end child labour. On the contrary, ending child labour is key to sustainable development." says ILO Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Africa, Cynthia Samuel Olonjuwon.

With 92 million girls and boys in child labour - one in five children - Africa is the most-affected region in the world. Eliminating child labour worldwide will not be achieved without a breakthrough here.

This is not justifiable. Children have the right not to work. Children trapped in child labour today are the unskilled labour force of tomorrow. Ending child labour is key to sustainable development. Urgent measures to end child labour should be viewed as an investment for the future.

Is there hope to end this situation? Absolutely Yes! As the ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said "Optimism relies on political will. You don't have to be a dreamer to be optimistic. You need to have good reasons to be optimistic". In Africa, we have 92 million reasons to be optimistic about ending child labour.

So, what should be done? The recently concluded 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour that took place in South Africa reiterated the need to focus on prevention. This is particularly true for Africa - a young continent with a fast-growing population. If we don't act now, we should expect 105 million children will be in child labour in Africa in 2025, which will worsen in the following years.

It is critical to tackle the root causes of child labour in our continent. These include: the lack of access to free quality education; high levels of poverty and vulnerability of households; limited decent work opportunities for parents and young people as well as very high levels of informality and inequalities. In Africa, four out of five children in child labour live in rural areas and work in agriculture, a sector where workers are often functionally dependent on the unpaid work of children. In addition, Africa is one of the regions most affected by crisis linked to conflict and disasters as well as climate change. The Durban Call to Action demands for scaled-up action in six key areas to address these root causes, among which are: the need to ensure free quality education, to promote decent jobs for young people and adults and to the need to invest in social protection as a means to reduce poverty and vulnerability. This year on the World Day on the Elimination of Child Labour, I would like to focus on the critical importance of social protection to end child labour in Africa.

Exposure to shocks (sudden job loss or illness or injury to family members) increases the chances that a child will work. Social protection reduces vulnerabilities and empowers communities by ensuring that children attend and remain in school, and that parents have the income to sustain their development and education. A newly published ILO-UNICEF report shows that social protection reduces child labour and facilitates schooling.

There are regions in the World where child labour has been reduced over time. Some countries have been more successful in lowering child poverty and in raising levels of social protection for children and their families. However, Africa faces a double challenge in comparison to other continents. It is the continent with the highest prevalence and the largest numbers of children in child labour and the lowest social protection coverage. In Africa, 83% of the population has no social protection at all. Similarly, within Africa: Western, Central and Eastern Africa are the three sub-regions with the largest proportion of children in child labour and also have the lowest social protection coverage.

Universal social protection and the elimination of child labour are both priorities in the regional agenda of the African Union, governments, workers' and employers' organizations, the ILO and other development partners. In Africa, anchored in the 2019 Abidjan Declaration, the ILO aims to accelerate social protection coverage to reach 40% by 2025, especially for informal and rural populations.

We see emerging models of interventions designed to simultaneously contribute to improving social protection coverage and ending child labour. In Côte d'Ivoire, for instance, the ILO supports the National Health Insurance Fund to extend universal health coverage to smallholder farmers working in cocoa. Through a supply chain approach, the existing sourcing and operational structure of the value chain is used as an alternative distribution channel, thereby increasing access to services and improving client experience.

Cooperatives and their commercial partners have supported the National Health Insurance Fund in organizing awareness raising and enrollment campaigns as well as exploring financing strategies to cover the payment of contributions. The model also focuses on the delivery of quality services by health service providers at the community level, building trust and reducing reluctance.

As a result 1,815 smallholder cocoa farmers have been enrolled in the universal health coverage scheme and have received a social security number. This is just the beginning. The model is now being replicated in other districts of Côte d'Ivoire with the support of several private sector companies. Moreover, this African good practice is being adapted and replicated in two other African countries, Ghana and Nigeria. Working closely with other development partners, models like this are being scaled up as a crucial part of the implementation of the Africa Regional Social Protection Strategy 2021-2025.

By demonstrating high-level political will and African home-grown, innovative models of interventions, our continent sends a strong message to the world: we are aware of the challenge, we are working on it as a matter of priority and as a region, we are driving the change.
By Cynthia Samuel-Olonjuwon, ILO Assistant Director-General, Regional Director for Africa

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We can end child labour in Africa. Here's how.

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"We shouldn't wait for development to end child labour. On the contrary, ending child labour is key to sustainable development." says ILO Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Africa, Cynthia Samuel Olonjuwon. With 92 million girls and boys in child labour - one in five children - Africa is the most-affected region in the world.

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New Director-General of the International Labour Organization elected

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New Director-General of the International Labour Organization elected

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Gilbert F. Huongo was elected the 11th new director of the ILO as of October 2022. He is also the first colored person to be president of the ILO. He wants the best for his home country which is Africa, but he is in the program to do the best for the entire world. He is open to any side of the argument meaning he will look at all aspects whilst making a decision. He wants people to trust him and his thoughts on making a better environment. There are over 4 billion people in the world who don't have social protection and 200 adults facing unemployment and 160 million children stuck in child labor. Gilbert wants a change in the world and wants these injustices to settle until they are non-existent. Gilbert is beginning his 5-year term on October 1, 2022. Out of the other 5 candidates, Gilbert was voted due to his belief in doing better for the world and putting an end to injustices such as child labor, prostitution, and trafficking. Soon he will create a better economy and environment for people in need so that they have the same rights any other person would have. He wants to settle poverty and allow free services to ensure the safety of all citizens. Most importantly he wants children to be going to school to get an education to have the knowledge and skill to keep creating better environments for people in future generations to live in.

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GENEVA (ILO News) - The International Labour Organization's (ILO) next Director-General will be Gilbert F. Houngbo from Togo.

Houngbo is currently President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

He was elected by the ILO's Governing Body, comprising representatives of governments, workers and employers, during their meeting in Geneva. He will be the 11th Director-General of the ILO, and the first African to hold the post.

Speaking after his election, Houngbo said, "Although my origins are African my perspective is global. In an age, unfortunately of dividedness, my commitment to be a unifying Director-General stands firm... I will be the Director-General of nobody and the Director-General of everybody. Governments, Employers and Workers alike, from all regions across the world, can rely and should rely on my total readiness to represent and advocate the views of all tripartite constituents of the organization."

"I commit to represent the voices of those who rely on us in ILO. I'm thinking about the four billion people around the world who do not have access to social protection. I'm thinking about the 200-plus million of women and men who face unemployment. The 160 million children in child labour. The 1.6 billion people in the informal sector. The enterprises, particularly the small and medium sized enterprises that are facing supply chain disruption or closure due to crises' including the pandemic, climate change and armed conflict. I'm thinking about the women and men who face discrimination, violence and harassment in the workplace and elsewhere. These are all expressions of unacceptable social injustice that we are morally if not legally bound to address."

The new Director-General's five-year term will begin on 1 October 2022. The current Director-General, Guy Ryder, from the United Kingdom, has held the office since 2012.

The ILO's Governing Body is composed of 56 titular members (28 Governments, 14 Employers and 14 Workers) and 66 deputy members (28 Governments, 19 Employers and 19 Workers). The Employer and Worker members are elected in their individual capacity. The ILO is the oldest specialized agency of the UN. It was founded in 1919 and has a mandate to promote decent work for all. It has 187 Member States.

There were five candidates for the post of ILO Director-General. The other candidates were:

Kang Kyung-wha (Republic of Korea), formerly Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, Deputy Director-General for International Organizations for Korea and UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Mthunzi Mdwaba (South Africa), formerly Employers' Vice-Chairperson of the ILO Governing Body and Vice-President to the ILO, International Organization of Employers.

Muriel Pénicaud (France), currently the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of France to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and former Minister of Labour of France.

Greg Vines (Australia), currently Deputy Director-General of the ILO with responsibility for Management and Reform, and formerly Minister (Labour), Australian Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva and Chair of the ILO Governing Body.

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New Director-General of the International Labour Organization elected

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GENEVA (ILO News) - The International Labour Organization's (ILO) next Director-General will be Gilbert F. Houngbo from Togo. Houngbo is currently President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). He was elected by the ILO's Governing Body, comprising representatives of governments, workers and employers, during their meeting in Geneva.

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Child Labor in Sub-Saharan Africa Annotations - Tanvi M