Child labour: what is harmful, and what isn't?

Child labour on farms can be categorised as hazardous, but not all such activities are harmful. James Sumberg and Rachel Sabates-Wheeler, research fellows at the Institute of Development Studies in the UK, explain.

- James Sumberg and Rachel Sabates-Wheeler

Children across the vast expanse of rural Africa hoe, dig, plant, carry, tend livestock, cook, scrub, care for their siblings, and undertake many other farm and domestic tasks. Most of their work is on the farms of parents or relatives, and in most rural communities, learning to work is a normal part of growing up.

We examined a number of dimensions of children’s work in African agriculture in papers published in 2020 and 2022. It is certainly the case that some children are harmed by the work they do, and others may be forced to work, exploited or trafficked.

Yet, based on this and other work informed by an extensive literature review and initial research, children who are harmed by working represent a minority of working children. And critically, neither their interests nor those of other rural children are necessarily served by ongoing efforts to eradicate child labour from African agriculture.

We are researchers in development studies with long-standing interests in the complex intersections of agriculture and social development in rural Africa. Between us we have researched and published extensively on poverty and vulnerability, land, rural youth, social protection, and policy across West and East Africa.

As part of our ongoing academic work, we recently co-edited a book, Children’s Work in African Agriculture: The Harmful and the Harmless. It is the first book that directly and singularly addresses children’s work in African agriculture. It puts the notions of ‘harm’ and ‘harmful work’ at centre stage, and argues that in most cases the work children do on farms does not result in harm.