Understanding Child Labor in Ghana Beyond Poverty : The Structure of the Economy, Social Norms, and No Returns to Rural Basic Education
One in six children age 6-14 are engaged in labor activities in Ghana, with child employment being the leading alternative to schooling. By exploring structural, institutional, geographic, monetary, demographic, and cultural factors affecting house...
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| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2013
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/06/17933910/understanding-child-labor-ghana-beyond-poverty-structure-economy-social-norms-no-returns-rural-basic-education http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15872 |
| Summary: | One in six children age 6-14 are engaged
in labor activities in Ghana, with child employment being
the leading alternative to schooling. By exploring
structural, institutional, geographic, monetary,
demographic, and cultural factors affecting household
decisions about child labor, the paper's main purpose
is to identify the conditions and characteristics of working
children, the root causes of their vulnerability, and thus
help to inform decision-makers and actors who draft and
implement public policy of possible ways to tackle child
labor in Ghana. The paper empirically assesses the effects
of individual, household, community, regional, and national
factors on child labor simultaneously. Findings from the
analysis indicate that the underlying causes of child labor
vary from factors as widespread in their influence as the
structure of the economy (which is largely shaped by family
farming), demographics and relevant social norms to those as
specific in their manifestation as the geographic isolation
of particular groups in the North, a lack of higher returns
to schooling up to the basic education level in rural areas,
and the low priority and capacity to enforce anti-child
labor laws. In addition, an interview conducted with the
Minister of Education as well as interviews with Ghanaian
children help identify specific interdependencies between
child labor and schooling and highlight the societal and
economic demand for children to be working. Finally, after
identifying which constraints and enabling factors are most
important, the paper outlines policy and reform approaches
to tackle child labor in Ghana. |
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