Just over half of Ethiopia’s 42.6 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 are working, sometimes causing them to miss out on their education, according to a survey from the Central Statistical Agency (CSA), on child labor. The report also states that a large majority live in Amhara and Oromia.
At the time the survey was taken Ethiopia had a population of 87.7 million including 37.3 million children. Of these children 30.4 percent were working while attending school and 20.6 percent were working without attending school at all; only 30.9 percent of the children were completely focused on school. There are reportedly 18.1 percent of children that do not attend school or work. Of all people seeking work, according to the study, 64.1 percent were between the ages of 14 and 17.
The survey estimates that about 26.5 million children between 5 and 17 work as household servants doing chores like babysitting, cleaning, cooking, shopping and caring for sick people. Girls are more likely to perform these jobs. Of children who work, 65.4 percent were between the 14 and 17 and 41.7 percent were between 5 and 11.
Agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors employ 89.4 percent of children. Many also work in wholesale and retail trades including fixing cars and motorcycles.
Based on the survey’s findings, the largest share of the working children (153,882 of 275,021 that the survey sampled) give all or part of their earnings to their parents or guardians. A large number of them (72,887) said they wanted to save their earnings. These were the youth’s most common plans.
It is estimated that 23 percent of all the children that are working engage in work considered hazardous. Very few of the children said they were working to learn new skills most said they were working to help their family.
Although it was rolled out last week at Capital Hotel, the survey was conducted between May and June of 2015. There were 550 interviewers. The study’s sample size included 21,526 children between the ages of 5 and 17.
CSA conducted the research in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and technical and financial support from the international Labor Organization.
Half of Ethiopia’s children work, according to survey
A new green revolution work was launched by the European Union
A new green revolution work was launched by the European Union which will support medium and small industries to do more work in environmental and climate works.
The project which incorporates 100 leather, textile and art works will stay for the next three years and four months and will cost one million Euros.
Owners of the enterprises will get trainings to do more jobs in wastage management, re-using products and energy consumption.
The launching of the project was carried out last Thursday in the presence of Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce, European Union and other stakeholder who are working in the industry sector.
Low education financing continues to put children out of school
Financing education is becoming increasingly difficult and refugee children are among the most vulnerable group. According to Mary Joy Pigozzi, Director of Educate A Child, there are reasons why financing is an issue.
“First, many do not understand the real value of education in both economic and social terms. The data showing the criticality of investing in education is available. It is incumbent on all of us who care about the future to find ways to convince those making funding decisions of the importance of education. Furthermore, many people see education as a long-term investment and many, especially politicians, are more concerned with short term payoffs,” Pigozzi told Capital.
Educate A Child is a global program of the Education Above All Foundation that was launched in November 2012 that aims to significantly reduce the number of children worldwide who are denied their right to education. The program is committed to children who are out of school to help provide them with opportunities to learn and as such, it contributes to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4: to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning.
According to Pigozzi, Educate A Child has striven for a large goal in a short period of time. By scaling up projects that have a proven track record of delivering quality primary education for marginalized and vulnerable children globally it has shown that there can be impactful progress in providing education on a grand scale.
“We are working with partners in around 50 countries, and together we have managed to leverage USD 1.8 billion to make the dream of education a reality for millions of children,” she said.
The Educate A Child program is working to overcome the barriers to education faced by many children all over the world. Ethiopia hosts the largest refugee population in Africa, yet refugee children have not been receiving education due to over stretched capacities.
“There is the risk that children who are forced to flee their homes, and travel to neighboring countries will grow up unable to read or write, starved of opportunity without access to quality education, and that is what my team is working so hard to prevent. We recognize that there are challenges in host countries to provide education for refugees, but this is their obligation,” Pigozzi says.
Regarding whether or not refugees should be integrated with their host communities in order to benefit already existing structures such as schools, Pigozzi says there is no simple answer to that.
“We need to consider both the host community, including its education system, and the needs of refugees. There is no single solution. But we need to recognize that currently the average life of a refugee in a camp is 26 years; according to UNHCR. Education is fundamental to their new lives, wherever those children find themselves; their education is also fundamental to the well-being of the host community,” she underlines.
In Ethiopia, the Educate A Child program has partnered with imagine1day International, a foundation that works to increase education access to more than 60,000 out of school children in the regions of Oromia and Tigray. It also works with Pact, another organization, to implement the Reaching Educational Attainments of Children in the Hinterlands (REACH) project. REACH is a one-year initiative that uses flexible and innovative models to expand opportunities to the most marginalized and hardest to reach children and families and help them access and complete education in Ethiopia.
US State Department slams Ethiopia’s human right conditions
The 2017 human right report of the US Department of State has detailed very harsh measures against human right in the country.
The 39 page dossier details every aspects of human right issue and mainly focused on basic right abuse in the year 2017.
However the Embassy of the US in Addis Ababa expressed its hope for a better achievement in the current year.
The embassy that issued a statement following the US Department of State 2017 Human Rights Report for Ethiopia, stated that the 2017 Human Rights Report for Ethiopia reflects serious challenges to the Ethiopian people’s ability to exercise their basic rights last year.
“We believe there is reason for optimism that the 2018 Human Rights Report will tell a different story, one of progress,” the embassy said in a statement expressing its hope.
“Notwithstanding the ongoing state of emergency, about which we have already expressed our views, 2018 has seen positive steps as well, including the release of thousands of prisoners. We are also encouraged by strong and clear statements by Prime Minister Abiy regarding the need for reforms that would ensure Ethiopian’s rights are protected and that they are able to participate in an inclusive political environment,” the statement added.
In its dossier with seven sections the State Department has compiled the abuses recorded by international and local agencies and organization that occurred in the past year.
It has claimed that the government does not take measures on those who abuse human rights under its system.
“The government generally did not take steps to prosecute or otherwise punish officials who committed human rights abuses other than corruption,” it said. It added that impunity was a problem; there was an extremely limited number of prosecutions of security force members or officials for human rights abuses during the year.
It argued that impunity remained a serious problem, including impunity for killings and other violence against protesters.
The report further states that there were no public reports whether internal investigations of the federal police for possible abuses during the state of emergency (SOE) occurred. It reminded that the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that stated in April last year that security forces used excessive force in some localities in Oromia and Amhara regions. It added that the commission did not publicly release its report.
The dossier also said that the government rarely publicly disclosed the results of investigations into abuses by local security forces, such as arbitrary detention and beatings of civilians.
It stated that authorities regularly detained persons arbitrarily, including protesters, journalists, and opposition party members. It quoted the local human right non-governmental organization report that it said the May Human Right Commission (HRCO) report stated authorities illegally detained 22,525 persons during the SOE.
The US report has also amplified its concern on the legal system in the country particularly in the criminal cases.
“The law provides for an independent judiciary. Although the civil courts operated with a large degree of independence, criminal courts remained weak and overburdened and subject to political influence,” it explained.
In its harsh report against the Ethiopian human right condition it has also stated that there were an unknown number of political prisoners and detainees at year’s end. “Throughout the year the government detained journalists, activists, and political opposition members, although not explicitly on political grounds. The most common charges against journalists, activists, or opposition politicians were terrorism via the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation (ATP), participation in a proscribed terrorist group, incitement, and outrage against the constitution or the constitutional order,” it added.
“Corruption, especially the solicitation of bribes, including police and judicial corruption, remained a problem,” the report added. “Some stakeholders believed government officials manipulated the land allocation process and state or party owned businesses received preferential access to land leases and credit. The law mandates that the federal attorney general investigate and prosecute corruption cases,” the report stated.
When the latest state of emergency was imposed in mid-February, the US was the first to oppose it. Such kind of criticism was not seen from the US, which is one of the major allies of the Ethiopian government.
