There are now 138 million child laborers, down from an estimated 160 million in 2020, the (UNICEF) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) said in a joint report that was released to mark Thursday’s .
The drop represents good news for child welfare, as in 2000, the ILO estimated 245.5 million children were working. The almost 50% decrease is especially promising as the number of children has risen by 230 million over the same period.
The number of children, which the ILO defines as 5 to 17-year-olds, engaged in “hazardous work” — mostly in mining, industrial or agricultural sectors — has also decreased from 79 million in 2020 to 54 million in 2025.
However, the ILO says even optimistic estimates project it will be decades before child labor is completely eliminated.
Challenges remain across Africa
Around 86.6 million child laborers — almost two-thirds of all child laborers — are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Nankali Maksud, regional advisor for child protection at UNICEF, told DW: “In terms of prevalence rate, it has been reduced. So we’ve gone from 24% to 22% between 2020 and 2024. But what we’re challenged with in this region is the rapid population growth. So in absolute numbers, we haven’t made much progress.”
Particularly concerning for Maksud is that younger children (aged 5 to 11) make up the largest share of child laborers.
“We’re not addressing seriously enough poverty at household level, particularly in rural areas. Unless we have the right political will and financing to lift those households, we will not be able to address child labor,” she told DW.
Additionally, Maksud believes regional efforts to increase access to quality education — through building schools and encouraging parents to send children to school — must be prioritized, as well as stronger enforcement of laws to punish child labor practices.
Recommendations also include more stringent labor inspections in high-risk sectors like mining and agriculture, and improved supply chain accountability.
“The majority of our countries have laws in place,” Maksud told DW, noting that enforcement of those laws is weak. “The ministries responsible for issues like child labor, most of the time, they have the smallest budget lines.”
Lisa Zimmerman, head of the UNICEF country office in said 47% of 5- to 17-year-olds there are affected by child labor — much higher than in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
“Child labour affects boys a little bit more than girls. It also affects children in rural areas more than those in urban areas, and it generally affects children from poor families,” Zimmerman told DW, adding that “32% of all children in Madagascar actually engaged in work under dangerous conditions, so that is the worst form of child labor.”
Climate change brings more misery to child workers
Multiple , from , have plagued agriculture-dependent Madagascans.
“Climatic shocks push families and children into labor, new forms of labor and into more hazardous forms of labor,” Zimmermann told DW.
Some rural communities in arid southwestern Madagascar have turned to mica mining, instead of alongside agricultural practices.
Madagascar is the third largest exporter of mica, after Russia and India, and the sector has boomed in recent years as the mineral is used in the renewable energy sector.
“It’s then mostly children that have to climb into the mines to support their families and to have enough to eat,” Zimmermann added.
Mica mining in these communities often involves the whole family, from elders to young children. They also told UN researchers that if their family members do not work, they cannot afford to eat.
The perpetuation of child labor
While the ILO defines child labor as work that deprives children of their childhood, dignity, potential and development, especially with regard to schooling, communities across Africa have their own understandings of what constitutes child labor, and when it is necessary.
Lydia Osei, a researcher from the University of Ghana, has observed trends within Ghanaian society.
“Child labor is a huge problem, except we haven’t as people made conscious efforts to deal with it,” she told DW.
Particularly under scrutiny in West Africa is child labor in mining, agriculture and housework. In reports of child labor in and informal mining are rife.
“I don’t think any parent would want their child as young as 8 years to be at the quarrying site, to be hit and hurt. But because tradition allows that the child helps in the maintenance of the family, they take their children to artisanal mining sites,” Osei told DW.
Often, employers at mining sites participate in child labor by allowing children to work alongside their parents, with small children given jobs in sorting, or climbing into areas that adults cannot reach.
“Usually, young people do not get physical cash as payment. They get some of the rocks or ore as payment,” Osei told DW. “But because the underage workers are usually able to get something they classify as enough, they don’t see it as exploitation. And that is why the relationship keeps going.”
As in other communities, the effects of children being unable to attend school and entering the job market early become apparent only in the long term. For this reason, the ILO and UNICEF say governments across sub-Saharan Africa need to introduce strategies that break the cycle of child labor.
‘Trying to survive’
Despite the disappointment of not , Maksud told DW progress is being made by the introduction legal frameworks to stop child labor, and a continent-wide growth in education opportunities, especially for girls. Maksud says as economies in sub-Saharan Africa grow it raises the chances that all communities will receive better opportunities.
“Families are trying to survive and they’re making choices not because they’re bad people, but because they’re trying to survive. And if we give them a way out that, maybe asking their children to work won’t be a solution they pick,” Maksud told DW.
Edited by: Keith Walker
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