PART FOUR Child Labour: Definitions, Data and Misconceptions
Child Labour in Global Supply Chains; a commodity perspective
This blog post will focus on two examples of commodities, the supply chains that contain these commodities and describes child labour in two countries that have been proven to use child labour to produce these commodities. We have used the US Department of Labor (US DoL) List of Goods Produced with Child Labor or Forced Labor to identify the commodities and associated countries.
Tin in Indonesia
Tin has been proven to be produced with child labour by the US DoL in 2 countries; Bolivia and Indonesia. Tin Ore (cassiterite) is a separate commodity on the US DoL list and has been identified to be produced with child forced labour in the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to the US DoL, an authority on this topic, there is no validated evidence to prove that Tin or Tin Ore (cassiterite) are produced with forced labour.
In 2018, it was estimated that 25% of global tin comes from Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM). The fact that there is limited data from more recent years is indicative of the nature of ASM as an area of supply chains that is difficult to monitor. The World Bank estimates that ASM occurs in nearly 80 countries across the world, and is the main source of income for more than 44 million miners, which has tripled since 2000. Child labour is extensive within ASM, but estimated numbers vary considerably between sources. Much of the focus and data is around cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it’s been identified that at least 13.7% of ASM cobalt miners are children.
However, Indonesia is the second largest producer of tin after China, and the province of Babel is responsible for 88% of Indonesia’s tin. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated in 2015 that there were 6,300 children in informal tin mining in the region, with 69% of these children being 15-17 years old. The median working hours for this group is 42 hours per week, with hazardous work being classified as 43 hours or more per week. Mining, and specifically informal tin mining, is categorised as a hazardous industry; some examples of working conditions include working underground, on slippery land, at dangerous heights, and in places exposed to noisy or high vibrations that is potentially damaging to a child’s health.
How is the tin supply chain constructed, and where is child labour most likely to occur?
The mineral supply chain actors. Source: European Partnership for Responsible Minerals at https://europeanpartnership-responsibleminerals.eu/cms/view/5a5784ac-d006-42db-8017-7e01c46c2c5a/eprm-due-diligence-hub
In the image above, we can see a typical supply chain for minerals including tin/ tin ore (cassiterite). As the trader buys tin from both Large Scale Miners and ASM, it is clear to see where difficulties in traceability begin. Additionally, the first stage of transition from ASM to trader can be expanded to include multiple levels of trading, making it difficult to trace back to the initial miner. This is especially the case when trading chains are illegal, exploitative, underpaying or overly regulated (IIED report for more detail here).
Tin is an essential commodity needed for producing electronics such as mobile phones and laptops, with circuit boards using 49% of global tin. In a recent interview, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, was questioned on the use of child labour in Apple supply chains. He claimed that “we have an intense level of tracing in our supply chain all the way back to the mine and the smelter to make sure that the labor used is not child labor”. As supply chains become increasingly under scrutiny, the traceability of supply chains becomes paramount as an initial starting point to gain transparency into potential child labour risks. Apple Inc. may claim to have intense levels of tracing to mines and smelters, but due to the complexity of the tin supply chain and increasing demand for raw minerals, as discussed in the IIED report, companies need to be aware of the possible brand risk of such claims.
Sugarcane in Zimbabwe
Sugar (from sugarcane) is one of the most widely distributed and utilised commodities globally, with some more recent applications in renewable energy. However, as with many useful commodities, the prevalence of sugarcane also has negative implications; it has been proven to be produced by child labour and/ or forced labour in 19 countries by the US Department of Labor. The breakdown of these countries is as follows:
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14 countries
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1 country
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4 countries
It is clear that while sugarcane is a high-risk commodity for both child labour and forced labour, there is more than an overlap in these risks; there are 14 countries where only child labour been identified versus 1 country where only forced labour was found. Whilst monitoring for and managing forced labour risk in sugarcane may show some overlap with child labour, there are significant unexplored child labour risks across the world, even more so if child labour isn’t viewed as a standalone risk outside of forced labour or modern slavery.
How is the sugarcane supply chain constructed, and where is child labour most likely to occur?
Sugarcane supply chain for consumer goods: Source: KnowTheChain https://knowthechain.org/wp-content/uploads/KTC-SugarcaneReport-Final_August-2017-1.pdf
In 2020, 70% of child labour occurred in Agriculture, according to the ILO, which means that stage one of the sugarcane supply chain shown above is the highest risk area for child labour. Unfortunately, this area of the supply chain is also where companies tend to have the least data, and therefore the least traceability and visibility.
As countries don’t tend to gather industry-specific data on child labour, it is difficult to estimate the number of child labourers working in sugarcane in Zimbabwe, or even on a global scale. Additionally to this, children’s labour in sugarcane production is often informal, sporadic or transient, therefore the ILO has identified sugarcane as a difficult commodity to research and quantify the prevalence of child labour that occurs in the growing of this crop. However, some estimates place 10,000 children working in the sector in Zimbabwe, the main region for production being the Masvingo Province.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, sugarcane currently accounts for 86% of the world’s sugar crops, with sugar beets making up the remaining 14% (which have also been proven by the US DoL to be produced with child labour in Türkiye). In Africa, sugar output is projected to increase by 36% compared to 2018-2020 output levels, reaching 15.1 Mt by the end of 2030. Such rapid growth is likely to have significant impacts on labour dynamics in African, and Zimbabwean, sugarcane supply chains. Therefore, child labour in this region should be closely monitored and certainly seen as a separate and specific risk area.
This blog post concludes our 4-part series on Child Labour: Definitions, Data and Misconceptions.
We will be releasing the full Child Labour: Definitions, Data and Misconceptions Whitepaper on the 15th February, for those who didn’t sign up to our early-release waiting list. The Whitepaper will cover the content of the 4-part series alongside additional HACE analysis.
Look out for our next series, “Reporting on Child Labour” which will explore the legislation around company and investor reporting on child labour, and will begin on 22nd February.