Presentation from international meeting on children's work and child labour hosted by the Africa Child Policy Forum, Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa, and Young Lives in Addis Ababa, 20-21 March 2014

1. ‘Comparisons of case studies of child work in
Young Lives sites in Ethiopia’
Gina Crivello, Alula Pankhurst and Agazi Tiumelissan
East and Southern African Regional Symposium on Child
Work/Labour
Addis Ababa
20-21 March 2014

2. • Young Lives (younglives.org.uk) sub-study funded by the Oak
Foundation, ‘Stimulating evidence-based approaches to child
work/labour in Ethiopia’ (2012-2014).
• Reporting on a qualitative field study designed as part of wider set of
activities exploring the role of research in improving policy and
practice.
• The study followed a series of 3 consultations (2 regional, 1 federal)
with stakeholders working in the area of child poverty and wellbeing in
the country.
• In 3 contrasting YL communities, the study focused on children’s
perspectives and experiences of work, their trajectories through work
(over time) within the context of their families, schooling and everyday
living environments.
• Why work? Why children?
• Why a qualitative approach?
• Why Young Lives?
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

3. Sample & Methods
Girls Boys
YC OC YC OC
26 17 26 19
Total number of children/youth: 88 Age range: 9-19 years old
Work type: aimed to capture diverse child occupations, including
children not involved in paid work, in-school and out-of school, work
organized by self, family and middlemen.
Multiple perspectives: included caregivers and local authorities and
experts (eg HEW, head of iddir, employers, school directors, wereda
reps).
Mix of in-depth individual interviews (with 88 children), caregivers
(23), and key informants (45), and group discussions with children,
youth and adults.
Fieldwork carried out by experienced Ethiopian fieldworkers in June 2013

4. • 3 communities: 2 urban in centres of Addis Ababa and Hawassa,
Southern Region Capital, and 1 rural in Oromia near large town.
• Menderin, in central Addis Ababa, very poor community, caregivers
involved mainly in informal sector activities partly related to vegetable
market; some petty trade; many female headed households. Area may
be demolished for urban development.
• Leku, in central Hawassa, old part of town, many caregivers involved in
informal sector and trading activities, a lot of migrants from other
areas particularly of the Southern Region. Parts of the area may be
redeveloped.
• Leki, rural site in Oromia in Rift Valley, near Lake and major town,
with agricultural investment vegetable and flower farms close by.
Opportunities for work on farms and fishing for sale in town.
COMMUNITY CONTEXTS

5. Gender-age differences in children’s work Leku –
current jobs of the sample
Younger boys Younger girls
Work for hh: fetching water; shopping; food
prep; wash clothes; making coffee; sibling
care; go to grain mill; making fire.
Family woodwork; family restaurant
Trading veg; sell sugarcane; portering;
shoeshine (for self)
Work for hh: fetching water; washing
clothes; cooking; sibling care.
Trading veg; sell sugarcane; domestic
worker (live-in and external); helps sell
injera;; prepares and sells cooked food
Older boys Older girls
Work for hh: fetch water; wash clothes;
cleaning; coffee; cook wat; woodwork (for
family)
Trade veg and fruit; trade traditional and
2nd-hand clothes; sell biscuits (for others);
mobile kiosk; domestic worker (live-in);
waiter; woodwork (for others); hand cart
transport; donkey cart transport; lottery
ticket sales
Work for hh: cooking; cleaning; washing
clothes; fetching water; prepare coffee;
wash dishes; go to grain mill; shopping;
woodwork (for family)
Domestic worker (live-in and external);
buy/prepare/sell maize, avocado; make
and sell coffee, injera; sell in family shop;
stone transport

6. Gender-age differences
Menderin – current jobs of sample
Younger boys Younger girls
Cleaning house, making bed, taking orders
(some helping in cooking),
Selling chewing gum, shoe shining, selling
things with/for family, selling lottery
Cleaning house, making bed, taking
orders, starting cooking
Selling chewing gum, hired in people’s
house, selling rice, petty trade, household
business, baby sitting
Older boys Older girls
Helping in house works (cleaning, making
bed, but not cooking)
Garage, woodwork, taxi assistant, daily
labourer, working in pool house
Cooking, cleaning etc in the house,
Washing clothes, petty trade, washing
uniforms, domestic worker

7. • Can add text here
• Text
• text
Gender-age in children’s work: Leki
Younger boys Younger girls
Family farms and herding
Wage work on irrigated farms
Fishing mainly for consumption
Collecting left-over vegetables for sale
Horse cart driving
Shop keeping
Selling sugar cane
Domestic: cleaning; collecting water and
wood close by; child care
Collecting left-over vegetables for sale
Food and drink: grinding grain, baking
injera, brewing beer
Wage work planting collecting vegetables
Shop keeping, selling sugar cane
Making fishing nets
Older boys Older girls
Family farms, and some own farms, a few
irrigated, house building
Fishing for sale
Wage work on irrigated commercial farms
loading, watering
Driving carts
Public works on safetynet program
A few migrating to towns for work
Domestic: food preparation, cleaning
washing clothes, collecting water and
wood, child care
Working on own farms at peak seasons
and for pay on irrigated vegetable farms;
older girls +16 on flower farms.
Brewing beer, distilling liquor, retailing food
(sugar cane, coffee, sugar, spices), selling
prepared food, making fishing nets, hired in
shops, migrating to work as waitresses.
Gender-age differences in children’s work Leki –
current jobs of sample

8. • More domestic burden of girls cleaning, fetching water and collecting
wood, cooking and child care increasing responsibilities with age; some
younger boys and those without sisters of the right age do take on
domestic tasks.
• In the rural site work for the household for both boys and girls includes
not just domestic work in the house but also agricultural work and
herding; in the urban sites some households for family businesses (eg,
woodworking; restaurant).
• In the two urban sites more opportunities for retailing and petty trade
for boys 2nd hand clothes, lottery tickets, and for girls in food and
drinks.
• Wage work is common in the rural site on commercial farms, whereas
in the urban sites for boys there is work in garages, woodwork, and
transport, whereas for girls employment as domestic workers or
washing clothes.
COMMUNITIES COMPARED ON GENDER AGE

9. Families with problems:
• Children in families when a parent dies or is ill have to work much more
• Children in families with disputes and divorce and single mothers tend to
work more.
• A few cases of drunkard fathers and violent father or father imprisoned
affecting children, some moving to other relatives.
• Family problems of health and disputes in addition to more work lead to
them missing school, dropping out of school.
Poverty and Wealth
• Children in very poor families need them to work more, and the children
themselves expect to work more and often want to work to contribute to
their household.
• Children in richer households may work more on family herding and
farming and less wage labour and have less work and more time to study
Birth order, sibling composition
• First-born may have more work and last born more leisure, where no
siblings of opposite sex, children may perform tasks of opposite sex and
have more work.
Family circumstance matter - Leki

10. • Insufficient household income: forced children to engage
• Divorce and separation of parents
• Sickness of family members especially parents
• Engaging in household chores to free parents to involve in work for
pay
• Children born from different fathers where father do not support
them
• Migration from rural areas (escaping drudgery of farm work, enticed
by friends)
• Living with siblings who demand younger siblings work and contribute
Family circumstances matter - Menderin

11. Family circumstances influence children’s work in multiple ways:
– the kinds of work that children do (eg. uncle who has a garage; assisting
mother in selling hot food)
– shocks and changes: parental death, absence and illness, parental job loss,
sibling migration
– sibling order and family composition (eg. older boys relieved of hh chores
when girls in the hh; care for younger siblings if mother works outside the
house)
– can determine how earnings are spent (eg on self, on parents’ healthcare,
remittances to rural areas, and whether can save)
– start-up funds and support: one barrier to work mentioned by children is the
initial investment required; family members often loaned start-up costs or
items (pots, utensils)
Eg. at 10 yrs old (boy), Henok’s grandma was unwell & had to stop selling
potatoes and charcoal, suggested Henok shine shoes, she borrowed 300 birr
to buy soap, brush, and ‘kiwi’ cream for shoes. He eventually paid back the
loan and continues shining shoes, age 12. Covers school costs, uniform,
clothes, shoes, and hh expenses, last month bought grandma shoes. Saves
money regularly in a ‘bankoni’ (box at home)
** But peer and neighbourhood influences and networks are also important.
Family circumstances matter - Leku

12. Age:
• Stated ‘norm’ is that boys and girls start to work in the home age 7, and
for pay age 14, but in reality start to earn money and work for family
business earlier than age 14.
• Work increasingly more difficult as grow older. (OC)
• Younger ones work indoors without pay, and older ones work outside for
pay. (OC)
• ‘The young ones face many problems because they are not strong and
they are afraid to ask about their right. The older ones ask about their
right and are stronger.’ (OC)
Gender:
• ‘Girls do more domestic work than boys and are domestic workers, but
boys do woodwork and garage work.’ (OC)
• More risks involved in girls’ work (esp domestic work in other hh). (OC)
• Boys work outside, travel longer distances and exposed to rain and sun;
girls work indoors, are sheltered and can rest when work is done (YC)
Migration:
• Young rural migrants considered by other children to be the caterogy of
children most vulnerable to exploitation (esp domestic work in other hh).
Differences, children’s perspectives LEKU

13. Age:
• Younger children less difficult tasks: younger girls fetch wood close by
and cook from 10, grind from 13. Older girls fetch wood further more
cooking and housework, more wage work. Younger boys herding.
•Younger children less engaged in market activities: younger boys fish
mainly for consumption, younger girls brew for mothers; older boys fish
for sale, older girls own sale of food and drinks and trading.
Gender:
• Girls domestic: cooking, clearing and childcare, most of the wood and
water collecting;
•Both boys and girls agriculture: boys ploughing and herding, girls mainly
weeding, and harvesting.
• commercial farms mainly girls employed; boys a bit on loading
unloading, watering and spraying.
• sugarcane selling and shop keeping both girls and boys,
• Drinks and food production and fishing nets mainly girls
•Fishing and cart driving only boys.
Differences children’s perspectives LEKI

14. Age:
• Younger children mostly engaged in household works like cleaning
house, taking messages, caring for younger siblings; outside house
works like baby sitting, hired in bakery, sell in petty trade, selling
chewing gum.
• Older girls involve in cooking, baking injera, washing clothes; older
cohort boys are less involved in works in the house
• Older boys work as taxi assistants, in garage, carry load for people;
older girls are work as waitress, keep shops, work in internet cafes
Gender:
• Younger cohort boys and girls do the same kind of household works;
girls are engaged more.
• More opportunities for boys out of the house boys are engaged in Shoe
shining, carrying loads, selling plastic bags, taxi assistant, and washing
cars;
• girls are hired as domestic workers, washing clothes;
• both boys and girls are involved in selling chewing gum, selling
sweetened ice (mostly girls), petty trade, selling pop corn/kolo,
domestic worker, selling boiled potatoes, changing coins for taxis,
Differences children’s perspectives Menderin

15. ‘Harms’/challenges & Benefits Menderin
HARMS FOR BOYS
Taxi assistants risk car accident
Lottery selling, selling chewing gum and shoe shining exposed to excessive sun and rain
and bad smell, catching cold, some people mistreat them;
Shortage of time to play and rest
HARMS FOR GIRLS
Domestic workers exploitation by employers and harassment,
selling chewing hum exposed to excessive sun and rain, catching cold
Not going to school
Shortage of time to play and rest
BENEFITS FOR BOYS
Contributing to family’s income directly; or indirectly by covering household works; able to
get daily subsistence,
Spending time in a worthwhile activity – not spending time in bad places and hence not
being addicted
Manage their own lives and supporting siblings
BENEFITS FOR GIRLS
Helping family in almost all household works;
Able to get food,
Financial gains to support themselves (pay for college, buy clothes, shoes, cosmeteics)

16. ‘Harms’/challenges & Benefits of work Leki
HARMS FOR BOYS
Cart driving risk of accidents, agricultural and wage work risk of injuries but rare
Difficulty balancing school and work particularly at peak seasons and risk of being tired,
missing classes, bad grades and dropout.
HARMS FOR GIRLS
Domestic work cooking risk of fire, collecting wood thorns and bests, agricultural possible
injuries of cuts hoeing , weeding,
wage work sun headache, backache, risk of injuries, but rare. Risk of employers abuse not
paying correctly, and insults from boys.
Migration risks of labour and sex abuse, in towns and Middle East but known cases rare.
Not enough time to study, risk of missing school, dropping out
BENEFITS FOR BOYS
Able to help family livelihoods in domestic agricultural work; in wage work using wages to
help parents buy food, coffee,
Able to cover school and clothing and shoes; invest in buying goat(s).
Able through half day school to combine work and school.
A few successful through irrigation and fishing improving livelihoods
BENEFITS FOR GIRLS
Able to help parents on domestic and agricultural work and through wages cover school,
clothing and personal needs, food and coffee for household, clothing for parents, some
saving in iqub, buying livestock
Able to combine work with school, some business skills that can grow.

17. ‘Harms’/challenges & benefits of work Leku
HARMS FOR BOYS
Can be injured from daily labour, garage work and portering (considered most dangerous jobs
for boys) (Despite risks associated with garage work, boys ranked working in a garage as one of
the ‘best’ jobs, because acquire skills and pays well)
Many jobs are tiring (but not dangerous) which can impact on schooling and ability to
concentrate
When sell for middleman, miss class when don’t sell ‘quota;’ Being asked to do tasks work
beyond ones capacity; Not being paid for work done
HARMS FOR GIRLS
Men paid more than women
Difficult to balance domestic chores in hh with schooling; get tired doing hh work
Angry seeing those who only go to school
Domestic workers: risk sexual and economic exploitation
Trading: Exposure to rain/sun, small profits, heavy loads, cannot secure loans, get cheated
(unlike boys, can’t chase thieves); worry about failing
Injera: dangerous flames
BENEFITS FOR BOYS
Earn money for school, self and hh; reduce burden on hh; establish independence
Gain skills helpful for the future jobs; savings
Blessing from parents; (some say no benefit; the benefit is for others)
BENEFITS FOR GIRLS
Support oneself, independence, confidence; communication skills, managing money, how to
make profit; Family benefits by getting free labour, and they meet children’s needs
Benefit from being able to combine school and work through the shift school system

18. Intergenerational changes Leku, Caregivers
CHILDREN ‘BACK THEN’
• Worked in rural areas (herding,
farming)
• Worked more & was more
difficult; didn’t go to school
• Only worked for hh
• Rural child could find work
independently in Hawassa
(nowadays, go thru broker, eg
for domestic work)
• Children oppressed by their
families
• Children were obedient
• Working wasn’t considered bad
** What has stayed the same?
unpaid work inside the home for
girls and women
CHILDREN ‘NOWADAYS’
• Things easier in towns, and new farm
technologies
• Children’s time taken with education
• Children work for themselves & hh
• Low risk opportunities for girls and
boys: selling plastic bags, sugar cane,
shoe shining, selling fruit, etc. More
competitive.
• Food requires less prep time
• Children need start up capital and its
difficult
• Brokers, credit opportunities,
vocational training
• Govt has changed parents’ thinking
about children and work; children
have freedom, less work pressure,
more opportunity

19. CHILDREN ‘BACK THEN’
• All caregivers were born and
started to work in rural areas
• Tedious work (fetching water,
cooking, looking after cattle,
agricultural work), took much of
their time
• Women hired as domestic workers
since childhood. Working other
paying works were limited
• School very far: opportunity
limited
• Food available in house
Intergenerational change Menderin
CHILDREN ‘NOWADAYS’
• Children were born in urban
area
• Children help in household
chores that are not very
difficult, takes only part of
their time
• Children have different choices
to engage in work for pay
• Schools are near and most
children go to school and
spend much of their time
• Shortage of food (forcing
children to engage in income
generation and supporting
themselves)

20. Intergenerational changes Leki
CHILDREN ‘BACK THEN’
• Work was only for household,
more herding less agriculture,
no fishing
• generally easier, had time to
play
• Very few went to school and no
wage work.
• Children were obedient, held
lamps for parents while they
ate, washed their feet, did
some handicrafts
• Now better services school
health, electricity mobile but
living conditions worse
• Children used to value being
blessed and praised
CHILDREN ‘NOWADAYS’
• Children have huge workload face
difficulties combining working for
household, school and wage work,
and fishing and cart driving for boys.
• Children now cover the costs of their
schooling, some clothing
• Children more choice, no longer so
obedient, want to fulfil their own
needs first, sometimes refuse to
work; have more choice with wage
work; keep some of income for
themselves
• Children no longer value being
blessed and praised as before and
want rewards.
• Children become independent
earlier, boys build their own house,
chose their own marriage partners

21. • Fundamental transformations within a generation;
• During the parents’ childhood:
– Children mainly did work for the household viewed as part of life and a pathway to
adulthood and similar livelihoods as their parents
– Children very rarely did paid work or self-initiated work
– Children and especially girls going to school was very rare
– In the urban sites caregivers grew up in rural areas with agricultural livelihoods
– Children’s work for household was considered normal and proper
• Children’s lives are now more complex, balancing different needs
– School is an integral part of children’s lives and the main work they do.
– As range of opportunities for work beyond the household opened up, including petty
trade and informal sector work and wage work in farms, cafes or garages
– Children having to balance work for school, for household, for self and for
employers
– Children with more choices and obligations, leading to a wider range of outcomes
– Government, NGO and media thinking on children’s roles and rights have influenced
how childhood is understood by parents and children.
– Children sometimes more able to prioritise their own needs.
Intergenerational comparison

22. School and work - Leki
• Half day school enables children to work in the afternoons, but in
practice children often absent a few days for helping at home, or
peak agricultural seasons, but not so much for wage work.
• Cases of asking permission from teacher to help at home.
• Work means less time to study, can affect grades and lead to dropout
especially in poorest households and those facing health or other
shocks; often dropout initially due to health and family problems.
Some rejoin, several express wish to go back to school.
• Some children do manage to combine school and household and wage
work and even PSNP and still keep up with their grades, and some say
work does not affect their school.
• Some children state that if they had the choice they would prefer not
to have to work,
• Some say work is necessary and allows them to help their households
and cover school costs.
• Secondary school costs can force a few who get there to drop out.

23. • Most children are able to engage in work while still going to school
• Most do not miss school for work
• Some children miss school to work to get daily food
• Those who migrated dropped out of school when they come to Addis
Ababa; two of these want to return back and resume their school; one
wants to continue working and not go back to school
• One child wants to change to evening class if he can get a good paying
work; he mentioned example of two friends hired as domestic workers
and shifted to evening class
• One child said he wished if the school was only for half day so that he
can engage in work. Now misses school to work.
• There are two children who never went to school
• Two children work full time and attend college in the evening and
during weekends
School and work - Menderin

24. School and work - Leku
Shift system (common in Leku sample)
‘If there is not a shift many working children will drop out of school’
• But capacity to manage shift school and work depends on the nature of
the work (can it fit around school hours; can it be interrupted), and
distance between the two
• If children do not use their time outside of school wisely, can fall into
‘bad habits’; for many, work was a good use of their time, and
compatible
Evening classes (older boys)
• Benefit those who work ‘full-time’ or do work that can not be
interrupted.
• Challenges include arriving tired to class, fewer hours of instruction,
electrical power outages. Risks for girls who must travel at night.
Plan to move to full-time schooling (hypothetical)
‘[It] is good for rich family children but it is very difficult for poor families’
‘[I]f this plan is applied we will have more uneducated children in the
future’

25. School and work comparison
Across the sites, school education is valued and associated with hope and
a ‘bright future’. That’s why children go to great lengths to assume jobs
that can be managed around schooling.
Different school systems (shift, full-day, half-day, evening) shape the
type of work children can do if they wish to stay in school. Poorer
children have less choice and perhaps less flexibility and are more likely
to leave school.
For many children work is not so much a ‘choice’ as a part of daily life
and family responsibility, and ‘school’ is more negotiable and fragile.
It’s not just paid work, but also unpaid work for the household (which is
often hidden) that children manage alongside schooling. Girls continue
to shoulder a lot of responsible for household chores, sometimes on top
of paid work, and schooling.

26. Concluding thoughts
Areas we believe do not receive sufficient attention in the literature and
that deserve further examination going forward:
• Local contexts
• Family circumstances
• Intergenerational perspectives
• Relationship between school and work (not school vs work)
Methodologically, more longitudinal approaches that deepen
understanding of the role of different forms of work (and school
experience) for wellbeing outcomes over time.
Listening to children and young people is essential (their views,
definitions and experiences of risk, injury, harm and wellbeing)