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Technical Cooperation Project Summary

Project Title

Reporting on the State of the Nation’s Children: A Statistical Program for Advocacy on the Elimination of Child Labor and the Protection of Working Children in the Republic of South Africa

ILAB Program

International Child Labor Technical Assistance/Statistical Information and Monitoring Program on Child Labor (SIMPOC)

Region/Country

AFRICA/South Africa

Project Duration

November 1998 – August 2003

Fiscal Year & Funding Level

FY1998 & FY1999: $687,697

Problem to be Addressed

The lack of standardized national level data on child labor practices in South Africa.

Project Objectives

Development Objective: The program will contribute to the collection of reliable data to support effective interventions against child labor.

  • To produce comprehensive statistical data on child labor at the national level at a quarterly base.
  • To analyze the state of the nation’s working children, identifying major parameters, priority groups and patterns, extent and determinants of child work, conditions and effects of work, etc.
  • To enhance the capacity of CSS in order to produce and analyze the data on child labor.

Summary of Activities

Research design: An initial survey of 26,801 households utilized to determine if children in the household are engaged in child labor and the reasons. A second survey of 4,494 households known to contain child laborers utilizes a more extensive questionnaire about conditions of labor.

  • Administer a household survey module to investigate child labor practices in South Africa and inform related policy;
  • Use the data collected to develop national policy papers and IPEC country program priorities; and
  • Develop a cost effective tested survey module for the South African Program for Statistical Activities to be administered at regular intervals.

Partner Organizations

Implementing Agency
International Labor Organization’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC)

Collaborating Agencies
Statistics South Africa (StatsSA); South African Department of Labor.

Contact Information

International Child Labor Program

(202) 693-4843