‘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

• 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

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

• 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

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

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

• Can add text here

• Text

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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

• 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

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

• 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

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

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

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

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

‘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)

‘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.

‘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

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

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)

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

• 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

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.

• 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

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’

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.

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)