Accel Africa Supports Integration of Child Labour Survey into the National Household Survey EMOP

The new survey will measure for the first time in Mali the prevalence and extent of child labor based on the new resolution on child labor statistics aimed at harmonizing international statistical standards for the identification (and classification) of children in productive activities and child labor.

The Government of Mali had requested ILO support to update data and statistics on child labor. Therefore, it is proposed to implement a module on child labor (EMTE 2020) in the third round of the modular and continuous household survey (EMOP 2020-2021).

EMOP is a sample survey implemented annually in four rounds and each round covers three months of collection. Its main objective is to produce on a regular and permanent basis relevant indicators on the economic situation of households, data necessary for the monitoring-evaluation of the CREDD, the SDOs as well as the formulation of various sectoral policies.

The EMOP collection mechanism offers the possibility of adding modules to the survey questionnaires at the request of partners and users. Thus, INSTAT was requested by the ILO to integrate a module on child labor in the third round of EMOP-2020.

The questions and sections added concern information on: household chores, production of agricultural products and other goods for household consumption, unpaid trainee and volunteer work, and hazardous and healthy work of children (working household members aged 05-17 years).

The Modular Child Labor Survey (EMTE 2020) covers about 7,200 households with children in the household aged 5 to 17 across the country.

For the successful implementation of the Modular Child Labor Survey, the ILO provides technical assistance, as needed, particularly during the phases of development and improvement of survey tools (questionnaires), training of data collection staff, and analysis of data and results.

Although EMTE 2020 will be implemented by the National Institute of Statistics (INSTAT), the National Observatory of Employment and Training (ONEF-Mali) and the Ministry of Social Dialogue, Labor and Civil Service, the main users of the survey results will be closely involved in its design.

In Mali, the last national survey on child labor was conducted in 2005. The data were collected by the National Directorate of Statistics and Informatics in collaboration with ILO/IPEC. The survey revealed that about two out of every three children aged 5 to 17 were economically active, representing just over 3 million girls and boys for the country as a whole.

Among these children, there were nearly 2.4 million working children between the ages of 5 and 14 (65.4% of children aged 5 to 14), with the phenomenon affecting both girls and boys in both rural and urban Mali.

The incidence of child labor was higher in rural areas (71% among 5 to 17 year old versus 68% among 5 to 14 year old) than in urban areas (63% among 5 to 17 year old versus 59% among 5 to 14 year old). At the same time, the school attendance rate was 40.8% among children aged 5 to 17 versus 42% among children aged 5 to 14.