Peer-reviewed article
Street and working children: perspectives on child labour and child work
Jónína Einarsdóttir ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001A 2021 report from the ILO and UNICEF examines global progress on eliminating child labour. While some regions have made progress, sub-Saharan Africa has seen an increase in child labour since 2012, with agriculture being the primary sector. The region accounts for a significant share of the world's working children, with particularly high numbers of very young workers aged 5–11 years.
Key points
- Global progress on eliminating child labour has stagnated since 2016
- Sub-Saharan Africa is the only major region where child labour numbers and percentages have increased since 2012
- Agriculture accounts for 70% of child labour globally, and 82% in sub-Saharan Africa
- In sub-Saharan Africa, 24% of children aged 5–17 are engaged in child labour, representing nearly 87 million children
- Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest global proportion of the youngest child labourers (aged 5–11 years)
Limitations
The document does not provide information on the causes of child labour, the specific interventions to address it, or detailed analysis of outcomes. It presents regional statistics without discussing the effectiveness of any particular policies or programmes.
Abstract
The 2021 report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and UNICEF indicates a stagnation in progress towards eliminating child labour since 2016.1 While prevalence has declined in Asia, the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has experienced an increase in both the number and percentage of labouring children since 2012, surpassing figures in other regions. Globally, agriculture accounts for the highest proportion of child labour (70%), particularly among younger workers. In SSA, the child labour prevalence among children aged 5–17 stands at 24%, encompassing nearly 87 million children. Moreover, the region exhibits the highest global share of child labourers in agriculture (82%) and the largest proportion of youngest labourers (5–11 years).