Over the last two years the global developmental agenda has been dominated by the COVID pandemic and the climate crisis. This has obscured another global issue that deserves to be at the forefront of policy attention: the elimination of child labour.
Currently, globally, about 160 million children are forced into labour. Seventy-twomillion of these are in Africa. Another 62 million children are forced to work in the Asia Pacific. The majority (about 70 per cent) is engaged in agriculture. This is chiefly in subsistence farming and livestock shepherding.
Others are involved in sectors such as export-oriented agriculture, mining, manufacturing, tourism and construction. About half of all these children labour in situations hazardous to their health and growth.
Among the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is one to end child labour in all forms by 2025, including the use of child soldiers.Last year, 2021, was declared by the United Nations, as the International Year for the elimination of child labour. It was to have provided opportunities to deal with the challenges in fighting this scourge that had been amplified by the pandemic.
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