March 1998 Most children in Côte d'Ivoire perform some kind of work. In rural areas, more than four of five children work, with only a third combining work with schooling. Child labor in Côte d'Ivoire increased in the 1980s because of a severe economic crisis. Two out of three urban children aged 7 to 17 work; half of them also attend school. In rural areas, more than four out of five children work, but only a third of them manage to combine work with schooling. Full-time work is less prevalent, but not negligible. Roughly 7 percent of urban children work full time (an average 46 hours a week). More than a third of rural children work full time (an average of 35 hours a week), with the highest incidence in the Savannah region. The incidence of such full-time work rises with age but is by no means limited to older children. The average age of the full-time child worker in Côte d'Ivoire is 12.7. These children have received an average 1.2 years of schooling. That child is also more likely to be ill or injured and is less likely to receive medical attention than other children. Urban children in the interior cities are far more likely to work and their working hours are much longer. Among rural children, those in the Savannah region (where educational infrastructure lags far behind the rest of the country) are most likely to work. Five factors affect a household's decision to supply child labor: * The age and gender of the child (girls are more likely to work, especially when the head of household is a woman). * The education and employment status of the parents (low parental education is a good targeting variable for interventions). * The availability of within-household employment opportunities. * The household's poverty status. * The household's location (calling for geographical targeting). With improved macroeconomic growth, it is hoped, child labor will decline-but a significant decline could take several generations. Meanwhile, it is important to: * Use a gradual approach toward the elimination of child work by aiming initial interventions at facilitating combined work and schooling. * Support the development of home enterprises as part of poverty alleviation programs, but combine it with incentives for school attendance. * Make school hours and vacation periods flexible (accommodating harvest times) in rural areas. This would also improve children's health. * Improve rural school attendance by having a school in the village rather than 1 to 5 kilometers away. * Improve educational investment in the Savannah. This paper is a product of the Social Development Department. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project Child Labor: What Role for Demand-Side Interventions (RPO 680-64). The author may be contacted at [email protected].

The last decade has bought sharp adjustments and rising poverty to much of the developing world. The experiences of Africa and Latin America are contrasted with areas which were able to combine adjustment with protecting the poor.

This, the second title in the World Bank Policy Research Reports (the first was the headline-making The East Asian Miracle), discusses the economic situation in Africa as it has evolved over the past several decades. To reverse the economic decline that began in the 1970s, many sub-Saharan African countries have undertaken efforts to restructure their economies. This has included liberalizing trade, deregulating markets and prices, privatizing public enterprises, and strengthening management of the financial and public sectors. Implementation has been uneven in different countries, and even those countries that have attempted major reforms have not achieved policies that are considered sound by international standards. A key finding is that improving policies paid off in higher GDR and sectoral growth rates, which are vital to reducing poverty; but in countries where policies deteriorated economic performance worsened. The report also shows that, despite the importance of reforming economic policies, countries need to invest more in human capital and infrastructure, expand their institutional capacity, and develop better governance.

Panel data sets show that a lucky few bucked the general trend of economic decline in Côte d'Ivoire -- that among the poorest of the poor, some actually improved their standard of living, despite a great increase in the incidence of poverty.

This book is a penetrating comparative analysis of the economic development efforts of West African countries. It seeks to illuminate the grey areas in development and to emphasize the appropriate actions that should be taken at all levels in the emerging international economy to ensure sustainable development. Olaniyan examines conceptual and theoretical problems of foreign aid and economic development, along with the limitations of the concept of self-reliance. The book also features a comparative analysis of the internal and external development problems associated with West African countries, including difficulties of collective self-reliance at the subregional level. Olaniyan concludes that there are prospects for sustainable development in the area, especially if it is internally generated.