A young girl washes her hands in a puddle near a UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC. Photo Credit: UN Photo/Sylvain Liechti

By Juliana White
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 21 2025 (IPS)

Electric vehicles contribute to an ongoing environmental and humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Mining operations cause deforestation, pollution, food insecurity and exploitative labor practices.

Advertisers paint electric vehicles as an environmentally friendly option to help save the planet. In the West, American states like California and New York incentivize citizens to go green and help their cities by ditching gas-powered vehicles.

California officials are trying to enact legislation to reach 100 percent zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035. Across the country in New York, officials implemented the Drive Clean Rebate. Through this program, New Yorkers can receive up to 2,000 USD off the purchase or lease of an electric vehicle.

Governments are pushing for more electric vehicle sales because they are helping reduce the damage inflicted by fossil fuels. In the United States, emissions have reduced by around 66 percent. In China, a country dominating the electric vehicle production and sales market, emissions have been reduced by an estimated range of 37 percent to 45 percent.

However, consumers must understand that electric vehicles primarily benefit the environment in wealthier regions. Rising demands for electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries foster destruction and exploitation in poorer countries like the DRC.

One of the key minerals used to make lithium-ion batteries is cobalt. The DRC is the world’s top producer of mined cobalt, at a staggering 75 percent. To fulfill high demands for the mineral, the DRC has become a hot spot overrun by industrial and artisanal small-scale mining operations.

“The surge in demand for lithium-ion batteries has dramatically increased global demand for cobalt, and DRC cobalt production is projected to double by 2030,” said the International Labor Organization (ILO) to IPS. “Because industrial mines can’t keep pace, this has encouraged expansion of artisanal and unregulated mining.”

Artisanal small-scale mines are poorly regulated, informal operations for extracting minerals. Located all over the DRC, these mines exploit child labor, use basic handheld tools, and disregard safety protocols.

“ASM can also lead to conflict as clashes take place between traditional licensed large-scale mining operations and ASM over access to minerals,” Dr. Lamfu Yengong, the Forest campaigner for Greenpeace Africa, told IPS. “While statistics on the actual number of ASM miners in SSA are hard to find, it is estimated that in the DRC alone, there are between 200,000 and 250,000 ASM miners who are responsible for mining as much as 25 percent of the DRC’s cobalt.”

The growth of mining is also decimating the DRC’s environment. Mining sites need large areas of land to operate. As laborers dig, open pits form, releasing dust and other toxic chemicals into the air and polluting surrounding waterways.

Cobalt mines often contain sulfur minerals, which can create acid mine drainage. This process occurs when sulfur minerals are exposed to both air and water.

Sulfuric acid is incredibly harmful because it can make water unsafe for human consumption, kill aquatic life and produce algal blooms. Contact with the acid causes skin irritation and burns, and respiratory issues, and long-term exposure increases the risk of cancer.

Deforestation, erosion, contaminated soil and water sources, increased noise levels and dust and smoke emissions from mining pursuits disrupt the lives of Congolese locals and wildlife. Many are killed or forced to relocate as land, once prosperous for life, now nourishes profit-fueled exploits.

“Mining in the DRC is tearing through the heart of the Congo Basin, one of the world’s most important carbon sinks, leaving behind poisoned rivers, deforested landscapes, and devastated ecosystems,” Yengong said. “What once were lush forests are now scarred by unregulated extraction, threatening biodiversity, accelerating climate change, and robbing future generations of their environmental heritage.”

Despite having over 197 million acres of arable land, the DRC is one of the top-ranking areas of food insecurity globally. Over 25 million Congolese people suffer from a lack of access to food.

Mining endeavors only fuel the hunger crisis because contaminants in the soil and water make growing crops difficult. Forest resources also disappear as more land is cleared for new mines.

Alongside food insecurity impacted by pollution, agriculture efforts suffer from climate change. Weather patterns have drastically changed across the globe, making rain patterns unpredictable. A heavy reliance on rainfed agriculture and prolonged droughts in the DRC immensely impact food supplies.

One of the many camps in the DRC for people displaced by conflict and environmental devastation. Credit: UN Photo/Sylvain Liechti

The pursuit of minerals for lithium-ion batteries encourages mass destruction and egregious human rights violations in the DRC. But mining operations cannot simply stop to solve the problem. Many Congolese people rely on working in the mines to support their families.

Groups such as the ILO, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the World Food Programme (WFP) are actively working on sustainable solutions to stop further exploitation and harm to the DRC.

“To improve the health of workers in or near mine sites, the ILO is supporting the roll-out of the universal health insurance scheme (Couverture Santé Universelle—CSU), which aims to provide coverage for all individuals in DRC, including those working in the mining sector and their families,” the ILO said. “The benefit package will include a range of services such as general and specialist consultations, hospitalization, essential medicines and vaccines, medical procedures and exams, maternity and newborn care, palliative care, and patient transfers between facilities.”

The UNEP is forming plans focusing on minimizing the environmental impacts of mining. Working with the DRC’s government

“UNEP is working with the DRC’s government to develop a national plan for the extraction of minerals like cobalt. The plan would focus on minimizing the environmental impact of mining,” said Corey Pattison in a UNEP press release. “We are also exploring whether local and international institutions can help resolve conflict around mineral extraction, including through processes like revenue sharing and dispute resolution.”

The WFP is trying to ease the problem by investing in resilience programs. Activities are created to build skills in communities to improve long-term food security. Skill building includes educating farmers in post-harvest loss management, literacy, business and collective marketing.

They also work closely with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to limit negative environmental impacts. Reforestation initiatives are actively underway across the DRC. The WFP reported that 3,850 women in North and South Ubangi planted tree seedlings in 2022.

The crisis in the DRC should not mark the end of lithium batteries and electric vehicles. Scientists are working on new solutions for cleaner, more efficient power sources. Some new batteries in the works include sodium-ion batteries, silicon-carbon batteries, and lithium-sulfur batteries. Introducing more power sources could limit the overwhelming strain on resources in the DRC as the need for cobalt would reduce.

A report released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) suggests that sustainable mining techniques and technologies are another tactic to reduce environmental impacts. However, significant change relies on the DRC’s government and its officials. They must enforce stricter mandates to mitigate the harm ravaging Congolese people’s lives.

The ILO says that Corporate Social Responsibility has been made mandatory through the 2018 mining code. Mining companies are required to invest .3 percent of their annual turnover into community development projects.

In turn, the mandate allows for easy tracking of mining companies’ income through transparency mechanisms like the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

While the DRC has enacted environmental regulations and is involved in additional support programs, its history of weak institutions and conflict challenges aid efforts. Rampant instability greatly limits the implementation and enforcement of policies.

“The world’s clean energy transition must not come at the cost of Congolese lives and forests. The critical minerals beneath the DRC fuel the global economy, yet the people above them remain among the poorest and most exploited,” said Yengong. “Real climate solutions must prioritize the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, end greenwashing, and ensure justice, not just extraction.”

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A worker on a farm in Kiambu district, central Kenya, that produces tea for export. Nearly 80 percent of rural farmers in developing countries earn less than USD1.25 per day. Credit: Charles Wachira/IPS

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 24 2018 (IPS)

The very people who help put food on our tables often face numerous human rights violations, forcing them go to bed hungry.

In an annual report set to be presented to governments at the United Nations this week, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Hilal Elver found that agricultural workers worldwide continue to face barriers in their right to food including dangerous work conditions and the lack of employment protections.

“[Agricultural workers] are a major element of our reaching available food but they are among the world’s hungriest people,” she said, highlighting the paradoxical relationship.

“We are dealing with smallholder farmers, poverty, inequality, and land issues but we don’t deal with the actual workers working from farm to table—there’s a huge chain of production that we are not paying attention,” Elver added.

Agricultural workers make up over one billion, or one-third, of the world’s workforce.

Despite playing a critical role in global food security, many farm workers are left without enough money to feed themselves or their families in both developing and developed countries due to low wages or even late payments.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. (FAO), nearly 80 percent of rural farmers in developing countries earn less than USD1.25 per day. In Zambia, for example, agricultural workers earn less than USD2 per day on third-party farms.

In the United States, while the minimum wage is higher, 50 percent of farmworkers were paid less than minimum wage and 48 percent suffered from wage theft.

A survey by the Food Chain Workers Alliance also found that one-quarter of all farm workers have incomes below the federal poverty line, contributing to farmers’ food insecurity and trapping them in poverty.

Migrants and women in the sector often face the brunt of such violations, Elver noted.

“Employers are more likely to consider migrant workers as a disposable, low-wage workforce, silenced without rights to bargain collectively for improved wages and working condition,” she said.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Turkish lawyer Hilal Elver, in Buenos Aires. In an annual report Elver found that agricultural workers worldwide continue to face barriers in their right to food including dangerous work conditions and the lack of employment protections. Credit: Daniel Gutman/IPS

For instance, in California, which produces the majority of the country’s fruits and vegetables, 91 percent of farmworkers are foreign-born, primarily from Mexico. The rates of food insecurity for such labourers and their families range from 40 to 70 percent across the state.

While many industries have adopted minimum wage standards put forth by the International Labor Organization (ILO), they remain unenforced.

Elver also noted that the agricultural sector is the one of the world’s most dangerous sectors with more than 170,000 workers killed every year on unsafe farms, twice the mortality rate of any other industry.

This is partly attributed to the exposure of toxic and hazardous substances such as pesticides, often leading to a range of serious illnesses and even death.

Argentine farmworker Fabian Tomasi, who recently died after contracting severe toxic polyneuropathy linked to his exposure to agrochemicals, is a reminder of this.

Glyphosate, a weed-killer developed by controversial company Monsanto, has been widespread around the world and its use has increased in the South American nation, which is one of the world’s largest soy producers.

Since its use, there has also been an increase in cancer and birth defects in farming regions in Argentina with rural populations experiencing cancer rate three times higher than those in the cities.

The World Health Organization also classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

In developed countries, acute pesticide poisoning affects one in every 5,000 agricultural workers, the report found.

In the U.S., Dewayne Johnson also used Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicides while working as a groundskeeper in California. Years later, he discovered he had non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a debilitating blood cancer.

After bringing the case to court, a California jury ruled against the agrochemical corporation, claiming that it caused Johnson’s terminal cancer and that they acted with malice and negligence in failing to warn consumers.

Monsanto continues to deny allegations that their glyphosate-based products cause cancer.

Now, the U.S. government is trying to reverse a ban on another pesticide chlorpyrifos which has been associated to developmental issues among children and respiratory illnesses.

However, like Johnson, many agricultural workers around the world have begun to organise and rise up to the face of corporations and countries that fail to protect their human rights.

“This is an important new thing, giving the public much more understanding about pesticides,” Elver said.

Migrant farmworkers from Vanuatu recently won a settlement against company Agri Labour Australia after being underpaid and working in dangerous conditions which included exposure to chemicals.

But states must do more to protect and promote the rights of agricultural workers, Elver noted.

“Labour rights and human rights are interdependent, indivisible, and mutually inclusive. The full enjoyment of human rights and labour rights for agricultural workers is a necessary precondition for the realisation of the right to food,” she said.

The report states that governments must set “living wage” and working standards, and it should establish enforcement and inspection mechanisms to ensure such standards are being met.

The international community should also reduce pesticide use worldwide, including the ban of highly hazardous pesticides and the development of alternative pest management approaches.

International organisations such as ILO and FAO also have a role to play and should establish a fact-finding group to examine whether nations are implementing such changes.

Companies who fabricate evidence or misinform the public of health and environmental risks should be penalised, the report adds.

“It is time for States to step up, and take swift and urgent action to hold accountable those who commit human rights violations against agricultural workers and to prevent further violations,” Elver concluded.

Credit: Bigstock

By Tih Ntiabang
YAOUNDE, Mar 20 2018 (IPS)

Last week, the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) governing body postponed yet again a decision to stop accepting money from the tobacco industry for its projects to end child labour in the tobacco growing sector.

A majority of countries and workers in the governing body want to finally break financial ties with the tobacco industry. However, there is still opposition from the employers group and a few countries, mostly in the African region.

The tobacco industry has more to gain from its ties with the ILO than countries themselves. No more postponements. Let the debate on 22 March be the last to finally end this long, unhealthy relationship.

“Our continent of Africa is specifically being targeted by the tobacco industry. The conference theme, ‘Uniting the world for a tobacco free generation’ is so appropriate here – we have a growing and youthful population. The youth are special targets. The main purpose of the tobacco industry is to maximise profits at the expense of often vulnerable people. Our fight now is not just against tobacco, it’s a fight for humanity.”

Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, South Africa Minister of Health
At the ongoing 332nd Session in Geneva, in a statement delivered by Uganda, the African group took the rather surprising position that the ILO should continue taking money from the tobacco industry.

This is in stark contrast to the Uganda Ministry of Health’s compelling presentation at the 17^th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) recently in Cape Town which showcased Uganda’s strong national tobacco control law that prohibits partnerships of any kind or endorsement of the tobacco industry.

At the opening of the WCTOH, the South Africa Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, said: “Our continent of Africa is specifically being targeted by the tobacco industry. The conference theme, ‘Uniting the world for a tobacco free generation’ is so appropriate here – we have a growing and youthful population. The youth are special targets. The main purpose of the tobacco industry is to maximise profits at the expense of often vulnerable people. Our fight now is not just against tobacco, it’s a fight for humanity.”

The WCTOH concluded with more than 2000 participants from about 100 countries adopting a declaration calling on the ILO to “end its collaboration with the tobacco industry immediately.”

Africa is making progress in controlling smoking with countries such as Senegal, South Africa and Uganda enacting strong tobacco control laws. Unfortunately, the progress made in Africa appears to not matter when it comes to the positions taken by some delegations attending the ILO governing body meeting

In a report to the governing body of the ongoing 332nd Session in Geneva, the ILO Secretariat proposed that the body no longer rely on tobacco industry funds. It suggested using funds from its regular budget upon the expiry of tobacco industry funded projects this year. In addition, the Secretariat urged partnerships with other United Nations agencies and international development banks, notably the World Bank.

Ending child labour in tobacco growing can be achieved without accepting money from the tobacco industry. The ILO governing body should embrace the proposed integrated strategy which would mobilise international development partners instead of relying mainly on funds from an industry whose products kill 7 million people each year.

Last week, more than 200 public health and sustainable development organisations called on the ILO’s governing body to institute “the strongest possible policies to prohibit cooperation and public-private partnerships with the tobacco industry.”

While the ILO governing body keeps deferring its decision, the tobacco industry and organisations it funds are ramping up publicity that they are committed to the future of tobacco growing communities. The reality is rather different.

The ILO partnerships with the tobacco industry provide limited results, which do not address the root causes of child labour. Tobacco farm workers remain trapped in labour exploitation, poverty and illness despite the claims of the industry, which benefits the most from an extremely harmful but highly profitable business.

In Zambia and Kenya, rigorous studies demonstrated that tobacco growing rarely benefits farmers. In Malawi, independent farmers generate a loss while profits are much lower for contract farmers, when the cost of family labour is accounted for in the calculation of profits.

Last August, the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) adopted a resolution condemning private sector and multi-stakeholder child labour schemes, which allow companies to evade responsibility for meaningfully addressing the root cause of child labour in their operations.

The tobacco industry has a history of interfering with tobacco control policymaking by using CSR activities to improve its public image, exert undue influence with international and regional intergovernmental organizations, and gain access to high level officials in targeted countries.

This is why, as a member of the UN Interagency Task Force on NCDs, the ILO should fully align with the UN Economic and Social Council Resolution E/RES/2017/8 , Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC)  – a global treaty with 181 Parties and the UN model policy for agencies of the UN system to ensure tobacco control efforts are protected from undue influence by any form of vested interest.

To promote decent work, guard against interference with labour standards, policies and programmes, the ILO must keep the tobacco industry at arm’s length. When the long-standing cooperation agreements between the ILO, the tobacco industry and organisations it funds expire this year, the ILO can finally align itself with the international framework, developed to counter undue influence from the tobacco industry.

Excerpt:

A youth smokes diamba (marijuana) at a gang base in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown. Credit: Tommy Trenchard/IPS

By Josh Butler
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 6 2015 (IPS)

Global youth unemployment may be “six or seven times” what the International Labor Organisation’s (ILO) latest figures state, due to what a youth advocacy group calls a flawed system of assessment.

The ILO recently released its 2015 World Employment and Social Outlook (WESO) report, and presented the findings to the United Nations Friday.“In unequal societies, democracies are more likely to be corrupted, workers are more likely to be exploited and abused, and the safety net for the poor or vulnerable is weakened." -- Dr. Marjorie Wood

One of the report’s major findings is the worldwide unemployment rate among 15 to 24-year-olds of 13 percent, or 74 million youths, is set to rise.

William Reese, CEO of the International Youth Foundation, thinks that figure is significantly underestimated.

“I’m not surprised by that number, because it is probably much higher than they state. We’ve seen reports of over 70 million young people unemployed, but the real number is probably six or seven times that,” Reese said.

He said a flawed system of assessing unemployment led to employment figures far below the reality.

“Those statistics are typically assessing people who are looking for jobs, so if you’re not looking for work, you’re technically not unemployed. People in poor countries are often underemployed or underpaid,” Reese told IPS.

“Unemployment statistics don’t take that into consideration. People in poor countries do work; if they didn’t, they would die. But in poorer countries, data is even worse.”

The WESO report warns the effects of the 2008 global economic crisis are still heavily impacting nations worldwide, especially developing economies.

The report outlines a widening income and wealth inequality, as well as sluggish economic growth, but while overall global unemployment is steady, youth unemployment is tipped to increase in coming years.

“Youth, especially young women, continue to be disproportionately affected by unemployment,” the report states, saying the 2014 youth unemployment rate was almost three times higher than the overall unemployment rate.

The ILO predicts overall unemployment rates “to decline gradually in developed economies” while at the same time “many countries are projected to see a substantial increase in youth unemployment.”

Ekkehard Ernst, chief of the ILO’s Job Friendly Macroeconomic Policies Team, told IPS slow economic growth was to blame for expected spikes in youth jobless rates.

“Growth is too slow to make a difference in job creation,” Ernst said. “Economies take much longer to recover after a financial crisis than a normal recession. It makes a difference to growth acceleration.”

Global growth has risen slowly for the last two years, from 2.2 percent in 2012 to 2.3 percent in 2013 and 2.5 percent in 2014, but is still well below the pre-crisis levels of around four percent.

Reese said a mismatch of skills was also to blame for rising youth unemployment. He said more young people were gaining tertiary qualifications than ever before – backed up by ILO data saying tertiary education rates have increased in 26 of 30 countries surveyed – but that young people were not gaining qualifications relevant to a changing labor market.

“There are job openings, but companies can’t find people with the right skills. Schools are not asking what the business community needs today. They are teaching what businesses might have wanted five years ago,” Reese said.

“There are more college-educated unemployed in some parts of the world, than high school-educated unemployed. Sometimes, kids today don’t come in with the disposition to work hard or be a team player.”

The ILO reports youth unemployment was especially problematic in Europe, with rates of up to 52 percent in Greece and Spain. The ILO predicts between 2014 and 2019, youth unemployment will rise by up to eight percent in parts of Europe, South America and Africa.

Reese said education facilities needed to be more tuned-in to what the modern job force requires, and to encourage students to think and learn about what is expected from them in the labor market.

“We want young people to get and keep a job. When a middle-class flourishes, democracies flourish,” he said. “All levels of education need to be smarter, and teach academic skills through internships and apprenticeships, to help young people learn things about work that they can’t get in a classroom.”

In 2014, global unemployment stood at 201million people, 1.2 million higher than 2013. That number is expected to rise to 212 million by 2019.

“We’re seeing a huge number of unemployed. The global unemployment rate is around six percent and that won’t shrink any time soon,” Ernst said.

Ernst said, however, that rising unemployment was not necessarily a sign of a poor economic climate. He said rising unemployment in many Asian countries, especially in economies such as China and India, was a sign of a modernising economy, as workers move from stable yet low-paying jobs in rural areas to seek higher paying jobs in urban centres.

“This type of unemployment is a rebalancing of the economy. Asian countries will see an increase in unemployment as they develop, which is a normal process of development,” Ernst said.

“New technology requires jobs be shuffled from one industry to another. China is so big, if they have a higher unemployment rate then that will affect world unemployment figures.

“People are moving from low-income agricultural jobs, to middle-income jobs in manufacturing, and then onto higher incomes in the service industry.”

Rising unemployment and sluggish economic growth is predicted to further widen income and wealth inequality worldwide; the richest 10 percent of the world will hold 30 to 40 percent of total income, while the poorest 10 percent will earn as little as two percent.

Dr. Marjorie Wood, senior global economy associate for the Institute for Policy Studies and managing editor of website Inequality.org, said a suite of socially regressive measures rolled out across the United States and the world had contributed greatly to the deepening income inequality.

“It’s important to look at how workers have been disempowered since the 1970s. Union strength was high at that time, and robust taxes on the wealthy and corporations funded public investments to allow opportunity and mobility for ordinary people,” Wood told IPS.

“We’ve seen a reversal of those, into a system what was much more unequal, with wealth concentrated at the top.”

She said a deepening income inequality would have profound impacts on all facets of life, from democracy and politics to social affairs.

“In unequal societies, democracies are more likely to be corrupted, workers are more likely to be exploited and abused, and the safety net for the poor or vulnerable is weakened,” she said.

The ILO report states social unrest and possible violence is linked to rising inequality and youth unemployment. Social unrest is said to have “shot up” during the financial crisis, and worldwide, currently sits at 10 percent higher than before the crisis.

However, Wood said she was encouraged by a growing call for a federally mandated minimum living wage in the U.S., and worldwide calls for a fairer distribution of income.

“People are not satisfied with rising inequality today, just as they weren’t satisfied 100 years ago in the USA’s first ‘gilded age.’ They addressed it then by fighting back, with a robust labour movement, and I think we will do it again,” she said.

“We’re seeing worker justice movements in many places, where people collectively organise to make change. That is where true political change comes from.”

Edited by Kitty Stapp

11-year-old Hassan Abdullahi Duale works 12-hour shifts at a car-repair shop in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu. Credit:Alinoor Salad/IPS

By Muhyadin Ahmed Roble
NAIROBI/MOGADISHU, May 17 2014 (IPS)

Twelve-year-old Halima Mohamed Ali wakes up every morning at five am, but unlike her peers she does not go to school. Instead, she begins her duties as a nanny for five children, the oldest of whom is just two years younger than she is.

She starts off by making breakfast, then wakes the children and washes and dresses them in time for school or madrassa, institutions of religious instruction.

War and famine in Somalia have forced Halima, and thousands of others like herself, to abandon the dream of education and become workers instead. UNICEF statistics from 2011, the last time such data was collected, show that half of all children between the ages of five and 14 hailing from the country’s central and southern regions are employed.

In Puntland and Somaliland, which have been more stable than other parts of Somalia for the past two decades, more than a quarter of all children work for a living.

The grueling jobs for which they are hired – mostly manual and domestic labour – pay little but demand a lot.

Halima says she works from “sunrise to sunrise”, cooking, ironing, washing floors, bathing the children, and finally putting them to bed before calling it a day. “It is a very stressful job,” confessed the girl, who has never set foot in a classroom.

She’d love to shirk her duties and bury her nose in a book, but her 50-dollar monthly salary is a lifeline for her family of five, who have no other breadwinner.

Surrounded by her mother and young sisters on one of her rare half-days off, Ali told IPS, “If I miss even a single day of work, my family will go to bed hungry.”

It is a tremendous burden for a child, but compared to the hardships the Ali family has endured, sending young Halima off to work is not the end of the world.

Originally hailing from the Dinsor district in Somalia’s southern Bay region, located about 266 km from the capital Mogadishu, the family fled the deadly famine in 2011, narrowly missing becoming statistics along with the nearly quarter of a million pastoralists who starved to death as a fierce drought consumed the countryside and resulted in hundreds of thousands of livestock deaths.

When they finally reached Mogadishu, the family took shelter in a makeshift camp called Badbaado, which means ‘salvation’ in Somali, along with 50,000 others refugees.

At first, the camp’s occupants received food rations, shelter and medical assistance, Ali said, but when the United Nations declared an end to the famine in February 2012, the flow of aid slowed to a trickle. Few of the displaced have been able to find work – lacking formal education and possessing no skills beyond the ability to farm or rear livestock, they have turned to the only option open to them: sending the children out to make a living however they can.

Though Halima is exhausted at the end of her 17-hour workday, she is glad of the chance to provide for her family.

Her story echoes those of countless others in the East African nation, according to Mohamed Abdi, programme manager of Somali Peace Line, an organisation that promotes and protects the rights of children.

“Hundreds of girls are brought to Mogadishu from rural areas where there is [extreme] poverty and famine conditions … to work as domestic servants in middle-class homes. They work long hours for food, lodging and low wages, which they send back to their families,” Abdi told IPS over the phone from the capital.

“Lucky ones” like Ali get paid on a regular basis, Abdi said; many others have their meagre salaries withheld for months, are cut off from their families, abused and treated like slaves.

He strongly believes that the on-going violence across Somalia, caused by the outbreak of civil war in 1991, will ensure a steady stream of child labourers, as desperate families lose jobs, and hope.

“When we try to convince parents not to send their children to work, they ask us for alternative sources of income, which we cannot provide,” he admitted.

Citing a human development report released in 2012 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Abdi said more than 70 percent of the population of 10.2 million are classified as “low-income”, with 73 percent of all Somalis living on less than two dollars a day.

The unemployment rate is one of the highest in the world, with 54 percent of all Somalis between the ages of 15 and 64 out of work.

Little Hands, Low Wages

In addition to being vulnerable to informal labour conditions such as long hours, children like 11-year-old Hassan Abdullahi Duale also receive lower wages than their adult counterparts, even when they perform all the same functions.

When his father was killed in a suicide bomb blast in Mogadishu two years ago, Duale – the only boy in the family – left school and took a job in a car-repair centre where he works 12-hour days to support his mother and two young sisters.

Dressed in his ‘uniform’ of an oil-soaked Arsenal T-shirt and matching shorts, Duale tells IPS that his uncle got him this job so his family would be able to eat. Though he is tempted to quit and go back to school, he feels responsible for his family.

With the idea of formal education a distant memory, his only hope is to make a career as a mechanic. For now, however, he is paid far less than his co-workers, and is sometimes even forced to do their jobs without earning a single extra coin for his efforts.

“On a good day, when there are lots of cars to fix, I earn 50 Somali shillings (about 2.5 dollars) a day. On bad days, I am just given my lunch and sent home with nothing,” said Duale, sweat dripping down his face.

“The adults earn about 150 shillings (roughly 7.5 dollars) each day, and sometimes they take my earnings by force. There’s nothing I can do and no-one to complain to, so I just wait for the next working day,” he added.

The director-general of Somalia’s ministry of human development and public services, Aweys Sheikh Haddad, said his country’s constitution bans child labour, adding that the government recently ratified an International Labour Organization (ILO) convention forbidding the worst forms of child labour.

But challenges in law enforcement mean these commitments on paper have not amounted to much in practice. Various studies and reports have found children as young as five years old engaged in virtually every industry, from construction to agriculture.

In addition to their exploitation for military purposes – operating checkpoints, becoming suicide bombers or taking up arms, for instance – children all across southern Somalia can also be seen working on the streets, washing cars, shining shoes and selling khat, a plant that contains an amphetamine-like stimulant.

“The government believes that making education more accessible to the children can help to eliminate child labour and we are in the process of [implementing] such programmes aimed to bring more children back to school,” Haddad told IPS.

“We have launched the ‘Go-2-School’ initiative, which aims to provide one million children with free education,” he added. However, these plans have yet to bear fruit: according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), only 710,860 youth out of 1.7 million primary school-aged children are enrolled in any kind of education.

Without a drastic interruption of the vicious cycles that perpetuate child labour, the future looks bleak for Somalia’s youth.

Working conditions on Kenya’s flower farms do not always meet international labour regulations. Credit: Suleiman Mbatiah/IPS

By David Njagi
NAIVASHA, Kenya, Jun 10 2013 (IPS)

Catherine Mumbi knows the difficulties of working in Kenya’s flower sector. She was fired as a casual worker at a flower farm after taking time off to recover from complications of the liver. But that was just the start of her problems.

“When I felt better I went back but my superior demanded that I have sex with him to keep my job,” says Mumbi, who had taken two months off while being hospitalised for her illness. “I declined.”

“The following morning a watchman knocked on my door with a letter saying my job was over and that I should immediately vacate the company’s compound,” Mumbi tells IPS. “I have been jobless since then…. I am surviving on the generosity of well wishers since December 2011.”

There is a possibility that Mumbi’s job could have also caused her illness in the first place.

IPS visited a few flower farms in Naivasha, in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province, where access is restricted and the grounds are monitored by security guards. Here, for hundreds of workers like Mumbi, a healthy rose means a shortened lifespan.

Inside the greenhouses measuring up to eight by 60 metres, all is quiet except for the occasional supervisor barking orders. The plucking and trimming goes on without a fuss as heaps of newly harvested roses keep piling up.

Even the smell of freshly-sprayed chemicals does not appear to interrupt the order and discipline in the farms that have sprung up in Naiposha, a once patchy terrain 30 kilometres away from the town of Naivasha.

According to Charles Kasuku, a social worker in Naivasha involved in a previous audit on the working conditions in Kenya’s flower sector, there are instances where the labels of chemicals are changed to disguise them from being identified as toxic.

For example, campaigning for the phasing out of methyl bromide, a highly toxic poison, began as early as 1998. But there is evidence that the chemical is still currently being used.

“This explains why incidences of patients with strange diseases are being reported in health centres around flower farms,” he tells IPS. “Recently, a former worker died from what doctors said was chemical complications.”

Experts from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) told IPS the most prevalent diseases caused by chemical exposure include liver problems, respiratory complications and cancer, as well as sexual incapacitation.

“But the severe effects of these exposures could come many years later after workers have been sacked from their jobs,” Dr. Mohamed Karama of KEMRI tells IPS. “People should not work for extended hours in these greenhouses.”

The extent of human rights abuses in Kenya’s flower farms is no anomaly, more than a decade after civil society raised concerns. Documentaries have even been made capturing the trail of cruelty. A recent documentary, “Women of Flowers,” indicates that workers in the sector are so poorly paid that they cannot afford a hospital bill.

A parliamentary debate last year indicated that workers are paid about 47 dollars a month, way below the 118 dollars that Kenya’s constitution recommends for casual labourers.

Those working on the farms are afraid of speaking out for fear of losing their jobs and livelihoods. In addition, a report released this May by Workers Rights Watch, a registered association of workers, shop stewards and key leaders in Kenya, says 60 percent of female workers in the flower sector face sexual harassment.

The Horticultural Development Authority estimates there are more than 70,000 women working in the sector. The Kenya Flower Council (KFC) claims the sector employs close to 100,000 people. According to the KFC, small-scale farmers account for about 2,500 farms, while there are more than 150 medium and large farms.

Horticulture is one of the top foreign-exchange earners for Kenya and the KFC estimates that the industry generates about one billion dollars in earnings annually. But for thousands of women who work here, the flow in profits means suffering in silence.

Legal experts say the International Labour Organization (ILO) binds governments to protect its working force from industrial excesses and abuses.

At the same time, trade movements are backed by the Kenyan Directorate of Occupational Safety and Health Services, which is expected to empower trade unions to rally for the welfare of the worker.

“Labour inspections do not happen anymore,” Mary Kambo, a programme officer with Community Based Development Services, tells IPS while commenting on the implementation of the ILO Labour Inspection Convention.

The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour, Beatrice Kituyi, however, says such allegations are misplaced since records showing progress that Kenya has been making in implementing the convention can be accessed on the Ministry’s website.

“Kenya is on track in terms of implementing the ILO convention,” Kituyi tells IPS. “A lot of what we have done can be accessed at our website.”

Meanwhile, some unionists are hopeful that rallying for the welfare of workers in Kenya is not a lost cause.

The KFC also says it has rallied its members, who are mainly large-scale flower farmers, to comply with health and environmental standards.

According to Jane Ngige, KFC chief executive officer, flower farmers are expected to follow requirements such as trade, statutory, environmental, health, safety, traceability and social standards as enshrined in the Council’s Code of Practice and the Fair Trade set of rules for a safe working environment and fair working conditions.

“We do not allow farms associated with human rights abuses to be members of the council,” she tells IPS. “They have to comply with the ethical standards.”

But Benjamin Tilapei, a civil activist, tells IPS: “The flower council is only concerned about the rich producers and not the struggling poor working on the farms.”