One of the most poignant tales in children’s literature is “The Little Match Girl” by Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen. It is New Year’s Eve and a young girl is forced to venture out into the wintry night to sell matchsticks, otherwise, she will face a beating from her father. She is not properly dressed for such cold weather, is hungry and passers-by ignore her pleas for help. Eventually, she succumbs to the cold and hunger, passing away during the night. The story is a gripping illustration of the manifold woes that poverty-stricken children are forced to endure, which deprive them of an idyllic childhood and essential rights such as education, health, and safety.
Children around the globe are currently grappling with harsh conditions that significantly affect their well-being and opportunities in life. It is more than just a story of struggle, it is a story of them being deprived of the right to a happy, fruitful, and safe childhood.
A recent report published by UNICEF shed light on the plight of children around the world. It is estimated that about 160 million children have to work a shocking figure equivalent to one child in 10 globally. Half of these children are engaged in forms of labor considered unsafe and perilous, according to global employment standards, because they can lead to death, injury, permanent disability, psychological damage, sexual exploitation, slavery, or illness.
Countries in the Middle East and North Africa have been working diligently to reduce the levels of child labor. However, the unprecedented, tumultuous events of recent years including armed conflicts, economic shocks, and the COVID-19 pandemic have presented policymakers with enormous challenges related to child labor. It is estimated that 13.4 million, or 15 percent, of children in MENA, are engaged in labor. Many experts have sounded alarms about the harsh realities of life for these child workers, especially those in informal sectors, such as seasonal agriculture, street work, and domestic labor, that often go unmeasured by the authorities.
The issue is further exacerbated during periods of armed conflict and political unrest, when millions can be displaced and, consequently, families resort to child labor to supplement lost earnings. In addition to this, the COVID-19 pandemic, spiraling job losses, and falling incomes have all been driving forces in the increased prevalence of child labor. The nature of the work that children are forced to endure is often abusive and dangerous, leaving them indelibly afflicted, overwhelmed, and distressed. Moreover, it reduces their access to quality education and health services, which are considered important pillars for charting a positive course for life in the future.
Children are forced to work as a result of multiple factors. Poverty-stricken families and those lacking social protection safety nets are the most vulnerable to the economic shocks that affect employment and income. This eventually leads families to force their children to work, just to survive. This has been evident during several economic crises in which countries have experienced reversals in the progress that had been made on reducing child labor and improving school attendance. For example, the 1990 economic shock in Ivory Coast led to a 10 percent decline in income levels, which was followed by a 3 percent fall in school attendance rates and a 5 percent increase in child labor. In the same vein, a sudden illness or the death of a family’s main breadwinner can also drive children into employment to help support their families.
Social protection programs remain a robust measure to support families and safeguard children against various precarious scenarios. A number of successful case studies serve as a wake-up call to policymakers on the importance of such programs.
For example, during the 2000-2001 coffee crisis in Central America, coffee prices plummeted. Many regional governments boosted their social assistance programs in an effort to protect the livelihoods of coffee-growing families. As such, primary school enrollment rates continued to improve thanks to the financial support offered by such schemes, while child labor slightly decreased. The 2015 earthquake in Nepal, on the other hand, caused a dissolution of social protection support, resulting in an increase in child labor and the trafficking of children orphaned by the disaster.
Sustainable and systematic solutions need to be at the heart of strategies to tackle child labor. It is imperative that central governments invest in data systems that monitor child labor rates across different age groups, income levels, and geographies, along with the types of work they are engaged in, to help understand regional vulnerabilities and the root causes that aggravate the trend. An important element of this is the introduction of comprehensive birth registration systems to help keep track of children in a country.
Policymakers should continuously develop job-creation policies to help provide fair and adequate opportunities for families to break the poverty cycle. Authorities should also conduct regular inspections of workplaces to identify incidences of child labor.
