The Incidence of Child Labour in Africa with Empirical Evidence from Rural Ethiopia

There has been a growing interest in the subject of child labour in Africa in recent years among academics, professionals and the media primarily for two reasons: Firstly, because the number of children affected is growing, and secondly because of the negative repercussions that work at an early age may have on the personal development of children and the economic and social development of countries concerned. The main intent of this paper was to examine the incidence of child labour in Africa with the help of empirical data from rural Ethiopia, since it is one of the countries with a high incidence of child labour in Africa. The analysis showed that the incidence of child labour is indeed very high in Africa, where children's participation rate in economic activities could be as high as forty percent. If present trends continue, Africa could be faced with more than 100 million child labourers in the year 2015. The empirical data from Ethiopia, although it may not be representative of the whole continent, showed that children as young as five years old are made to participate in farm and household work activities, some of which could be totally incompatible with schooling. Child labour has also been one of the main reasons for low school enrolment in rural Ethiopia. In order to mitigate the problem of child labour in Africa, there is a need to adopt serious poverty reduction strategies, compulsory but flexible primary education and training policies, appropriate community awareness programs, and enforceable legal measures. In addition, more research on the push and pull or demand and supply factors on child labour are needed if progress is to be made on the efforts to curtail child labour in Africa.