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Millions of children throughout Africa undertake many forms of farm and domestic work. Some of this work is for wages, some is on their family’s own small plots and some is forced and/or harmful.
This book examines children’s involvement in such work. It argues that framing all children’s engagement in economic activity as ‘child labour’, with all the associated negative connotations, is problematic. This is particularly the case in Africa where many rural children must work to survive and where, the contributors argue, much of the work undertaken is not harmful.
The conceptual and case-based chapters reframe the debate about children’s work and harm in rural Africa with the aim of shifting research, public discourse and policy so that they better serve the interest of rural children and their families.
James Sumberg is Emeritus Fellow in the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex.
Rachel Sabates-Wheeler is Professor in the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex.
Foreword – Michael Bourdillon
1. Children’s Work in African Agriculture: Introduction – Rachel Sabates-Wheeler and James Sumberg
2. Theorising ‘Harm’ in Relation to Children’s Work – Roy Maconachie, Neil Howard and Rosilin Bock
3. Understanding Children’s Harmful Work: The Methodological Landscape – Keetie Roelen, Inka Barnett, Vicky Johnson, Tessa Lewin, Dorte Thorsen and Giel Ton
4. Education and Work: Children’s Lives in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa – Máiréad Dunne, Sara Humphreys and Carolina Szyp
5. Disabled Children and Work – Mary Wickenden
6. Value Chain Governance and Children’s Work in Agriculture – Giel Ton, Jodie Thorpe, Irene S. Egyir and Carolina Szyp
7. Blurred Definitions and Imprecise Indicators: Rethinking Social Assistance for Children’s Work – Rachel Sabates-Wheeler, Keetie Roelen, Becky Mitchell and Amy Warmington
8. Children’s Work in Ghana: Policies and Politics – Samuel Okyere, Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah, Felix Asante and Thomas Yeboah
9. Children’s Work in Shallot Production on the Keta Peninsula, South-Eastern Ghana – Thomas Yeboah and Irene Egyir
10. Children’s Work in West African Cocoa Production: Drivers, Contestations and Critical Reflections – Dorte Thorsen and Roy Maconachie
11. Children’s Harmful Work in Ghana’s Lake Volta Fisheries: Beyond Discourses of Child Trafficking – Imogen Bellwood-Howard and Abdulai Abubakari
12. Children’s Work in African Agriculture: Ways Forward – James Sumberg and Rachel Sabates-Wheeler