A photo gallery on labour issues

Africa has the highest incidence of child labour in the world. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), 41 per cent of all African children between the ages of 5 and 14 are involved in some form of economic activity.

Africa's poverty: Nearly 3 billion people around the world live on the equivalent of US$2 a day or less. Some 500 million of them are in Africa, where three-quarters of the population lives in poverty. Of these, some 320 million live in extreme poverty on US$1 a day or less. -- International Labour Organization (ILO).

Migrant workers: Nearly 20 million African men and women are migrant workers. By 2015, one in ten Africans will live and work outside of his or her country of origin.

Effect of HIV/AIDS on labour in Africa: HIV/AIDS is eroding development by decimating the work force and destroying families. Deaths in countries with high levels of HIV and AIDS will cause huge losses of labour over the next decade.

Child Labour: All over the world, children continue to work putting at stake their education, their health, their normal development to adulthood, even their own lives. They toil in mines and quarries, and scavenge in rubbish tips. Too many are enslaved in bonded labour, isolated in domestic service, and traumatized and abused in the commercial sex trade. According to the ILO, 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 15 work, and of that number 80 million of those children are in Africa. That is, Africa comes first in proportion of children participating in economic activity with 41 percent of Africa's children doing so. However, such surveys do not take into account working in one's home, or caring for sick or disabled family members.

Child labour in mines and quarries: The ILO estimates that some one million children work in small scale mining and quarrying around the world. ILO studies show that these children work in some of th worst conditions imaginable, where they face serious risk of dying on the job or sustaining injuries and health problems that will affect them throughout their lives. These children work long hours, carry heavy loads, set explosives, sieve sand and dirty, crawl down narrow tunnels, breathe in harmful ddusts and work in water, often in the presence of dangerous toxins such as lead and mercury, the ILO says. Children mine diamonds, gold, and precious metals in Africa.

Child labour in Agriculture: The largest proportion of children work in agriculture. Many children work long hours a day, some as many as 9 hours each day. Children receive only 1/6th of the minimum wage. The younger the working child, the lower the payment and children usually do not receive overtime pay.

Unemployment: Youth are particularly at risk. In some countries they represent about 60% of the unemployed. African youth had the highest employment rate in the world in the 1990s. Young women are even less likely than young men to have jobs. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by poverty and if they do have jobs, they are frequently trapped in the lowest paid, least-skilled and most precarious occupations.

Information Source: International Labour Organization (ILO). To learn more about labour issues and the work of the ILO, check their website at: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/index.htm

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