Eritrea Wire

A new report finds 160 million children or nearly one child in ten is involved in child labor globally, an increase of 8.4 million since 2016. A joint report by the International Labor Organization and UN Children’s Fund warns the COVID-19 pandemic is worsening an already alarming situation. The report is being launched in advance of the World Day Against Child Labor on June 12.

This is the first increase recorded in absolute numbers since the International Labor Organization began tracking the extent of child labor globally 20 years ago. The data show nearly half of these children or 79 million are involved in hazardous work, 6.5 million more than in 2016.

Hazardous work is considered as among the worst forms of child labor. It is dangerous, harmful to a child’s physical and mental health, and could result in death. The ILO reports 70% of children work in agriculture, most on family farms, 20% in services, including domestic work, and 10% in industry.

The picture that emerges from this study varies by region. The report finds child labor is continuing to decrease in Asia and the Pacific, as well as in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, child labor has risen substantially in Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.

ILO Director General, Guy Ryder, says in Africa as a whole, 20 million more children are in child labor today than they were four years ago. Of those, he says 16.6 million are in sub-Saharan Africa.

“So, if you look at that in percentage terms, it means that almost one in five African children are in child labor, one in four in the sub-Saharan sub region. They are losing out on their education. They are working at a young age. They are working too many hours. They often are working in hazardous occupations,” he said.

Executive Director of UNICEF Henrietta Fore expresses concern at the alarming rise in younger children who are toiling in child labor. She says half of all children in child labor around the world are aged 5 to 11 years.

She says the COVID-19 pandemic is making this terrible situation even worse.

“Faced with job losses and rising poverty, families are forced to make heartbreaking decisions. We estimate that nine million more children could be pushed into child labor by the end of next year, a number that could rise as high as 46 million if social protection coverage falls victim to countries’ austerity measures,” she said.

To reverse the upward trend in child labor, the ILO and UNICEF are calling for adequate social protection for all, including universal child benefits and for quality education and increased spending in getting children back to school.

They say decent work for adults must be promoted so children do not have to be sent out to work to help support their families.

Source: Voice of America

One of the world’s largest foundations will spend $1.3 billion over the next three years to acquire and deliver COVID-19 vaccines for more than 50 million people in Africa. It’s a first-of-its-kind effort for a Western nonprofit to bolster Africa’s lagging vaccination campaign amid widespread fears of a third wave of infections on the continent.

The Tuesday announcement from the Toronto-based Mastercard Foundation, which has more than $39 billion in assets, comes days after the World Health Organization said Africa was encountering an alarming mix of a spike in virus cases and “a near halt” of vaccine shipments. The delays have been tied to India’s halt on vaccine exports, among other things.

The foundation will purchase single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines at the discounted rate negotiated by the African Union during its 220 million dose deal with the vaccine manufacturer. Those vaccines will begin to be delivered to the AU’s 55 member states from July to September, with an option to purchase an additional 180 million doses through next year.

But some countries have been experiencing issues with the J&J vaccine. In South Africa, the first batch of 1.1 million doses, which should have already been put to use, remain on hold at a plant because of contamination concerns at a factory in Baltimore. Another batch of 900,000 doses was meant to be released in June.

Dr. John Nkengasong, the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a Tuesday press conference that he remains “positive and optimistic that the findings from the manufacturing site in the U.S. will be resolved soon,” and there will be more clarity by the end of this week.

The doses bought by the foundation, which has operated independently from Mastercard since its launch in 2006, will begin to be available in August, “in progressively larger quantities,” said Julie Waiganjo, a spokesperson for the foundation.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is partnering with the foundation on the initiative, and will be consulting African government agencies and other institutions on how to best deploy the shots.

“It is actually a huge moment, and a moment that I characterize as transformational in our ability to fight the war against this pandemic,” Nkengasong told The Associated Press.

“We will engage the countries to understand their vaccination plans, and see exactly where to fit in,” he said, adding the partnership with the foundation will also help deploy the 220 million J&J doses that are slated to arrive.

The foundation says the money will be used, in part, to help transport the vaccines, hold community engagement activities that address vaccine hesitancy, identify potential virus variants, train workers to improve the speed of vaccine deployments and help develop a skilled workforce that could expand vaccine manufacturing in Africa.

“We should expect good things out of this, but it’s going to take time,” said Lawrence O. Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University. “It’s not going to solve all the problems.”

“Africa will soon become the epicenter for the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “It’s going to reverse many of the gains that Africa made in a whole range of areas… It will devastate the African economy.”

Africa has administered vaccine doses to 31 million people out of its population of 1.3 billion. But only 7 million have received both doses, the WHO’s Regional Office for Africa said last week.

Health officials have been raising alarms about the dire situation, and urging richer countries to share their remaining vaccines. The White House said last week the U.S. would allocate 5 million doses to Africa through the United Nations-backed COVAX program as part of a plan to share 25 million doses worldwide.

“I do hope other foundations, and more governments, step up to help the continent,” said Gostin.

Source: Voice of America