Abstract:

Climate change-related events undermine children’s educational attainment, exposing them to child labour, hazardous work and forced migration. This nexus is particularly relevant for agriculture and its subsectors: indeed, they absorb about 26 percent of the economic impacts of climate change-related disasters and host 70 percent of all child labour. This study aims to identify the extent to which climate change-related events and impacts affect child labour in agriculture by exploring the underlying connection between the two challenges as the initial step towards integrating a child labour lens within the international community’s work on climate change. It showcases the multi-dimensional relationship through a mixed-methods approach in four countries: Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Nepal and Peru. The qualitative and quantitative findings propose a set of policy implications that are in line with the concept that one-size-fits-all policy prescriptions are unlikely to work, as they must be tailored to different communities based on their characteristics.