Understanding Child Labor in Ghana Beyond Poverty : The Structure of the Economy, Social Norms, and No Returns to Rural Basic Education

Krauss, Alexander

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCOUNT;    ADULT LITERACY;    ADULT LITERACY PROGRAMS;    ADULTS;    AGE GROUPS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6513
RP-ID  :  WPS6513

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

One in six children age 6-14 are engagedin labor activities in Ghana, with child employment beingthe leading alternative to schooling. By exploringstructural, institutional, geographic, monetary,demographic, and cultural factors affecting householddecisions about child labor, the paper's main purposeis to identify the conditions and characteristics of workingchildren, the root causes of their vulnerability, and thushelp to inform decision-makers and actors who draft andimplement public policy of possible ways to tackle childlabor in Ghana. The paper empirically assesses the effectsof individual, household, community, regional, and nationalfactors on child labor simultaneously. Findings from theanalysis indicate that the underlying causes of child laborvary from factors as widespread in their influence as thestructure of the economy (which is largely shaped by familyfarming), demographics and relevant social norms to those asspecific in their manifestation as the geographic isolationof particular groups in the North, a lack of higher returnsto schooling up to the basic education level in rural areas,and the low priority and capacity to enforce anti-childlabor laws. In addition, an interview conducted with theMinister of Education as well as interviews with Ghanaianchildren help identify specific interdependencies betweenchild labor and schooling and highlight the societal andeconomic demand for children to be working. Finally, afteridentifying which constraints and enabling factors are mostimportant, the paper outlines policy and reform approachesto tackle child labor in Ghana.