research on child labour in ghana

Child Labor in Ghana: Current Policy, Research, and Practice Efforts

• First Online: 23 November 2021

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• Alice Boateng 4 &
• Mavis Dako-Gyeke 4  

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Historically, in many African countries children engaging in some form of work is accepted as a crucial aspect of socioeconomic development. Yet, children engaging in productive work to support families is one of the major controversial issues that are increasingly being critiqued, especially given the circumstances under which many children work and the implications of such work conditions on children’s health, overall growth, and development. This chapter aims to discuss children engaged in productive economic activities that deprive them of their childhood, potential, and dignity, and that is harmful to their physical and mental development, often defined as child labor by the International Labour Organization. Emphasis is on current efforts in policy, research, and practices to curb the current observable trends in Ghana. The chapter commences with the concept of childhood in the Ghanaian context. Additionally, it focuses on factors contributing to child labor in Ghana, consequences of child labor, legal framework, and policies in place for addressing child labor. In addition, we provide suggestions on how social workers and public health practitioners could be involved in the development and implementation of socially relevant and culturally responsive interventions that would help address the needs of children engaged in productive economic activities. Throughout the chapter, we provide examples based on Ghana’s field experiences.

• Child labor
• Risk factors
• Behavioral health

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Boateng, A., Dako-Gyeke, M. (2022). Child Labor in Ghana: Current Policy, Research, and Practice Efforts. In: Ssewamala, F.M., Sensoy Bahar, O., McKay, M.M. (eds) Child Behavioral Health in Sub-Saharan Africa. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83707-5_13

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Prevention of child labour, unicef works with partners in ghana to ensure that children don't have to work to survive.

• Child Labour

Of all children in Ghana aged 5 to17 years, about 21 per cent are involved in child labour and 14 per cent are engaged in hazardous forms of labour. This is twice as common in rural areas.

For poorer households, child labour is a negative coping mechanism and most of the children are involved in agriculture and fishing industries.  In all regions, the vast majority of working children are unpaid family workers  between the ages of 5 and 7 years.  While usually boys are more likely to be doing manual work, this could be due to the household interpretation of what constitutes child labour. Thus, the heavy domestic workload for girls, including childcare, is not considered as labour.

There are no reliable figures on the number of children affected by the worst forms of child labour (sale of children, child prostitution and trafficking) and children living and working on the streets of Ghana. While accurate numbers of human trafficking cases don't exist, it is believed that the large majority of all cases involve children, mainly girls.

Child labour is a significant problem in Ghana, affecting almost two million children

Elements that impede the prevention of child labour include social norms that consider it acceptable for children to work and promote the view that many adolescent children should be treated as adults, poorly enforced legislation and policies prohibiting child labour, insufficient allocation of resources for the prevention of and response to child labour, inadequate services to support working children or prevent child labour and family reliance on income generated by children due to extreme poverty.

UNICEF supports the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to develop and implement a National Plan of Action. 

This is a five-year plan aimed at reducing the number of children engaged in labour by 10 per cent and direct national efforts towards achieving the SDG 8.7 - ( Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers and by 2025 end child labour in all forms )

N.P.A to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labour

Working together to achieve SDG Goal 8.7

N.P.A. for the Elimination of Human Trafficking in Ghana

Rapid assessment - child protection in ghana.

Related attitudes, beliefs and practices

Child and Family Welfare Policy

Designing a Child Protection System fit for Ghana

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Child labour in Ghana

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This study sought to explore the issues of child labour and its human rights implications within the context of the spirit and goals of the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The issue was also examined in line with the national and other international instruments and principles on the protection and promotion of the rights of the child. Child labour is seen as a global phenomenon. Just like other developing countries, Ghana has percentage of its children engaged in labour. This study was therefore centred on the human rights issues of child labour and economic activities in the Aowin and Suaman Districts of Ghana. The objectives of the study were to assess: the causes of child labour in the Aowin and Suaman Districts; and the economic activities in the districts in which majority of child labourers are engaged in. Sequential mixed method approach was employed. Questionnaire, interviews, focus group discussion and observation were employed as the data collection instruments. A total of 500 respondents were selected from five different target groups, namely, teachers, head teachers, children, opinion leaders and parents/guardians for the study. Purposive, convenience and snowballing sampling techniques were employed for the study. The findings of the study indicated that the fundamental reason why children are forced to work in the study areas is poverty. Cocoa farming sub-sector is identified as the major agricultural activity where most (88.4 percent) of the children are engaged in the Aowin and Suaman Districts. It is recommended that there should be sustainable livelihood strategies like resourcing identified vulnerable families to carry out viable ventures that will help reduce poverty in the catchment zone.

Enock Takyi

One of the major socioeconomic problem that have engaged the attention of world leaders and researchers presently is child labour. The phenomenon persists in spite of the effort made by International Labour Organization and other reputable organizations to eliminate it. This paper examines this phenomenon in African context, with specific reference to Ghana. It draws on the ecological approach in Community Psychology which claims that, in both research and intervention planning, the notion of context must be placed front and centre. International conventions that seek to eliminate child labour, as well as Ghana's Children's Act, are examined in relation to the Ghanaian culture. Besides, several studies and articles in the area of child labour are also examined. It is argued that, for interventions to be successful, it should take into account the culture of the people. Thus, child labour and its related light work should be given contextual definitions.

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Sustainabilty

High-level initiative set up to tackle child labour in Ghana

08-Apr-2024 - Last updated on 08-Apr-2024 at 14:17 GMT

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The project, 'Tackling Child Labour and Enhancing Youth Opportunities in Ghana’ will leverage expertise and resources to create sustainable solutions through a technical partnership between UNICEF Ghana and the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) - and bringing together stakeholders from the government, the private sector, and local communities.

The Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa is also part of the project, which has been co-funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). The project also has the support of the governments of Ghana, Switzerland, the Netherlands, UNICEF, the International Cocoa Initiative, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), The World Bank, and the International Labour Organization.

During the launch event, the following projects were announced:

• Child labour Multisectoral and Multistakeholder Public-Private Partnership (PPP), supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa (SWISSCO), UNICEF and ICI (Implemented in Bibiani-Anwiaso-Bekwai, Asunafo North, Ayensuano and Assin South districts from 2024 to 2025, total US$ 4 million).

• Project for Mainstreaming Child Protection through Child Labour Free Zones (CLFZ), supported by JICA

In his keynote address, Hon. Ignatius Baffour Awuah, Minister for Employment and Labour Relations (MELR), appealed to all partners within the project implementation areas to join this collaboration and leverage the respective resources and expertise to expand coverage of the interventions towards eliminating child labour.

“I am very confident that this will pave the way for other partners to emulate this approach in the implementation of their programmes and projects to support the child labour-free zone approach that harnesses the benefits of complementarity of efforts to achieve greater impact,“ he said.

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Labour urged to end two-child benefits cap as research reveals policy pushing families into poverty

New data shows families with disabled children, and single parents with offspring under the age of three facing financial hardship

Keir Starmer is facing new calls to end the controversial two-child limit on benefits if Labour comes to power – as new data shows it is pushing large numbers of families with disabled children, and single parents with offspring under the age of three, into poverty.

The limit restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households and means families cannot claim benefits worth well over £3,000 a year per extra child after the second.

The policy was introduced by the Conservative government led by David Cameron and George Osborne as part of their drive to cut welfare spending. It had been promoted by Iain Duncan Smith , the then work and pensions secretary, who believed it would discourage people struggling with their finances from having more children. But new data uncovered by the End Child Poverty Coalition (ECPC) shows that it is hitting single parents with very young children, as well as many parents with at least one disabled child.

Analysis of official data by the ECPC reveals that 25% of all households affected by the two-child limit are currently single-parent households with a child under three years old. About 106,000 families fall into this category. The ECPC says these are parents who would not be required to work under universal credit rules.

The analysis also shows that 20% of households affected by the policy have at least one disabled child. While there are exceptions if the third or subsequent children are disabled, there are no provisions in place for the disability of other children. About 87,500 families with a disabled child are affected.

The findings will place particular pressure on Starmer to end the cap, if and when his party comes to power. The vast majority of constituencies with very high numbers of children in poverty and children affected by the cap are held by Labour MPs.

Over recent years, several shadow cabinet ministers have been severely critical of the cap. Jonathan Ashworth, when shadow work and pensions secretary, said last year: “We are very, very aware that this is one of the single most heinous elements of the system which is pushing children and families into poverty today.”

Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, described it as “obscene and inhumane”, while in 2020 Starmer himself tweeted: “We must … scrap punitive sanctions, two-child limit and benefit caps.”

But in a BBC interview last summer, Starmer said he was “not changing that policy” if Labour won power. After a backlash from the party he defended his position, saying “we have to take the tough decisions”.

Some Labour MPs with high number of constituents affected are growing increasingly impatient.

The former minister Liam Byrne, the MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, which has the third highest proportion of children affected by the cap (26%), said: “If we want to make food banks history, then bluntly, some way, somehow, we have to end the ­appalling two-child cap – or risk losing an entire generation to the horror of child poverty.”

Clive Efford, the Labour MP for Eltham, added: “I fully understand that we can’t make commitments on financial priorities until we see the full state of the country’s finances but it is inconceivable that a Labour government would not want to address something that is such a roadblock to tackling child poverty.”

Joseph Howes, chair of the ECPC, said: “These new figures clearly show that the two-child limit is a policy which pushes single parents, and families with disabled children, into poverty – the very families that our benefit system should be helping. In this election year, scrapping this cruel policy should be the top priority for every political party.”

Across the UK, about 422,000 households who claim benefits have them reduced by the cap. One in 10 children – 1.5 million – live in a household affected by the policy. Removing the cap is widely recognised by economists and thinktanks as the most effective way to reduce child poverty. To do so would cost well under £2bn, according to most estimates. The ECPC says doing so would lift 300,000 children out of poverty and mean 800,000 would be in less deep poverty.

A government spokesperson said: “The two-child policy is about fairness, asking families on benefits to make the same financial decisions as families supporting themselves solely through work, and safeguards are in place to protect people in the most vulnerable circumstances.

“We know work is the best route out of poverty, and with over 4 million more people in work and 100,000 fewer children in absolute poverty since 2010 it’s clear our plan is working.”

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The Research Brief: the private rental sector is extortionate

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Welcome to the Research Brief, where Spotlight , the New Statesman ’s policy section, brings you the pick of recent publications from the government, think tank, charity and NGO world. See more editions of the Research Brief here.

What are we talking about this week? Rent and why it’s going up. The Resolution Foundation just published a report called: Through the roof: Recent trends in rental-price growth . They found that, on average, rents have risen by 20 per cent since the start of 2022.

Don’t tell me about it, get my landlord to do something. Well, actually the report found that neither rising landlord costs nor landlord greed alone could explain the rise in rents. More than a third (38 per cent) of landlords don’t have a mortgage, but it does acknowledge that landlords have more power than tenants when it comes to setting the rent. Some have suggested that landlords are selling up and reducing the overall supply of rented housing, particularly in response to new regulations on no-fault evictions coming in, but there is little evidence of this affecting a large enough number of homes.

Is the population increasing too rapidly for us to build adequate housing? Not really. Housing supply has fluctuated for a while. But right now, the ratio of houses available to number of families is roughly the same as it was in the 1990s (780 homes to 1,000 families), so it’s not about population growth or immigration.

Screw this, I’m leaving London. Too late – rents are rising across the UK but are rising faster in some areas. Rents in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Leicester and parts of Greater Manchester have risen by 50 per cent since 2016. By contrast, rents in West Lancashire, Richmond upon Thames, Redcar and Cleveland and Blackpool have risen by less than 15 per cent in that time.

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How broke am I?   The average private renter spends a third of their income on rent. Private renting is the most expensive form of living, and its provides relatively small and poor quality housing. The threat of a no-fault eviction is also always around the corner. One in five families now lives in private rented housing (up from 11 per cent at the end of the 1990s), and 30 per cent of low-income families headed by someone aged 30-49 now privately rent.

So, who should I picket? Capitalism. Rises in earnings are a big part of the overall rise in rents. If your wages go up, your rent does too. This was a relationship that was disrupted during the pandemic but has since returned in order to “correct” the market. Higher inflation and interest rates since 2022 have also fed into this problem. 

And I just put down a deposit on a takeaway coffee . Don’t expect to be splashing out on luxuries like coffee or showers. The Resolution Foundation predicts that rents will continue to rise by a further 13 per cent over the next three years. 

How do we avoid this bleak future? The Resolution Foundation suggests a rent stabilisation model, where a landlord can’t increase rents beyond inflation for the first three years of a tenancy. Increasing the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) would also mean poorer people are less likely to be “priced out” of rented housing, but the government has said it will freeze the LHA from 2025. Long-term, the only way is to build more homes.

In a sentence? The private rental sector is broken – we need curbs on price hikes, and for someone to build some damn housing.

Read the full report from the Resolution Foundation here .

If you have a report, briefing paper or a piece of research that you’d like featured in the Research Brief, get in touch at  [email protected] .

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