Laureates and Leaders for Children has called on world leaders to provide direct social protection for children in Africa amidst the increasing rate of child labour across the continent.
The call was made during a roundtable ahead of the sixth European Union-African Union Summit.
In a statement signed by 86 Nobel laureates and leaders, the group said that freedom remains out of reach for millions of Africa’s children despite the continent possessing much of the world’s natural resources.
Data from the International Labour Organisation’s 2016 Global Estimates of Child Labour shows that one-fifth of all children in Africa were involved in child labour, a proportion more than twice as high in any other region of the world.
The continent has the highest number of child labourers with 72.1 million children, while 31.5 million of them are said to be involved in hazardous work.
In its statement, the Laureates and Leaders for Children said that the historical and systematic exploitation of the continent is partly to blame as injustices and discrimination continues to steal the lives and future of millions of children.
‘African countries are among the most resource-rich in the world, yet they don’t receive the profits they are due because of a discriminatory global tax system’, the statement read.
‘During the Covid-19 pandemic, the world had a common enemy like never before, but instead of uniting humanity with our response, we disproportionately helped businesses and people in richer countries and left the most vulnerable to fend for themselves.
‘We know that only 0.13 percent of the $12 trillion released as Covid-19 relief globally was allocated to multilateral funding to low-income countries. The rest was largely used to bail out large corporations.
‘The emergency IMF Special Drawing Rights gave $2,000 per European child and $60 per African child. The international community’s continued and institutionalised subjugation of Africa is appalling and must end’.
Speaking at the roundtable, the founder of the group and Nobel Peace laureate, Kailash Satyarthi, said it was time for world leaders to fight for the rights of the African child.
‘Our children in Africa need us. With more than half of the world’s child labour in Africa, we call on each of the world’s leaders to stand up and act for the rights, dreams and future of our children’, the statement quoted Satyarthi as saying.
‘There is more than enough wealth for every child to be able to go to school instead of having to work to survive. The question is how we choose to share that wealth, and with whom. I urge governments to pay heed and take action and we must start with Africa’.
The group further called on world leaders to ensure direct child benefits to every child in Africa by prioritising domestic budgets and targeted programmes.
Source: Laureates and Leaders for Children
Photo source: NIH
