Children’s work in the livestock sector: Herding and beyond

Cattle herding
1 Introduction
1.1 Background
Child labour has been common practice throughout
time in many parts of the world. Despite the
growing efforts to reduce child labour, it has not yet
been eradicated, and a very large number of child
labourers are still found in the agriculture sector.
The causes of child labour and its consequences
are intertwined. In addition to poverty, education
has an important role within child labour dynamics
(child labour and formal education have an inverse
relationship) and has potential to be a major key
to breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and child
labour.
Of the 215 million child labourers worldwide
in 2008, about 60 percent, or 129 million, were
engaged in the agriculture sector, which includes
farming, fishing, aquaculture, forestry and
livestock. The agriculture sector is one of the most
dangerous sectors in terms of fatalities, accidents
and occupational diseases. Almost 60 percent of all
children (aged 5–17) in hazardous work1 (one of the
worst forms of child labour2 ) are in the agriculture
sector; this amounts to approximately 70 million
children worldwide (ILO, 2010a). Two-thirds of
the children in hazardous work are unpaid family
workers (ILO-IPEC, 2011).
Globally, one billion people are estimated to
depend on livestock (Neely et al., 2009). Pastoralist
societies make up the largest number of livestockdependent
people (who rely heavily on livestock for
their food security and livelihood), around 120 million
according to 2002 data (Raas, 2006 in FAO, 2011).
Livestock also serves as at least a partial source
of income and food security for 70 percent of the
world´s 880 million rural poor who live on less than
USD 1.00 a day (Neely et al., 2009). The density
of rural people below the poverty line and keeping
livestock is highest in South Asia (India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh) and sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria,
Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi and
some systems in Kenya, South Africa and Niger).
These two regions dominate in the absolute number
of poor livestock keepers and together account for
72 percent of the 436 million poor livestock
keepers. Of the poor livestock keepers in livestockonly
systems (65 million), 47 percent (31 million)
are located in sub-Saharan Africa (Robinson et al.,
2011).
Livestock as defined by FAO means “any
domestic or domesticated animal including bovine
(including buffalo and bison), ovine, porcine,
caprine, equine, poultry and bees raised for food or
in the production of food. The products of hunting
or fishing of wild animals shall not be considered
part of this definition.” 3
Livestock keeping is a multifunctional activity in
many places around the world. Besides generating
food and income, livestock as such are a valuable
asset and can serve as a store of wealth, collateral
for credit and an essential safety net during times
of crisis (SOFA, 2009). Livestock are also important
in mixed farming systems, where they consume
waste products from crop and food production,
help control insects and weeds, produce manure
for fertilizing and draught power for ploughing
and transport. According to the FAO State of Food
and Agriculture report (SOFA, 2009) the livestock
sector is one of the fastest-growing 4 segments
of the agricultural economy and contributes
40 percent of the global value of agricultural output.
This growth and transformation offers opportunities
1 Hazardous work is work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm.
2 See chapter 2.3 of this report for more information on the “worst forms of child labour”.
3 http://termportal.fao.org/faoterm/search/pages/termUrl.do?id=35800
4 This is due to income growth as well as technological and structural change.
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