Proceedings of the 7th World Conference on Research in Education
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Is a non-profit organisation’s intervention to combat child labour effective? Child labour and school attendance in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Isidore Murhi Mihigo
ABSTRACT:
Child labour remains a pressing concern in numerous industries worldwide, including Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM). In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the prevalence of child labour in ASM has raised alarm about its negative effects on children’s education and school attendance. To address this critical issue, a project was implemented to combat child labour in ASM, known as the PIAH project. This research paper focuses on evaluating the impact of the PIAH project, specifically examining the relationship between child labour and school attendance within the context of ASM in the DRC.
The evaluation aims to assess the effectiveness of the Panzi Foundation’s project in reducing child labour and promoting education by increasing school attendance rates and providing economic opportunities to parents. The project targets areas with high instances of child labour and utilizes a difference-in-differences (diff-in-diff) methodology to evaluate its impact. By comparing changes in school attendance rates between the beneficiaries of the Panzi Foundation (treatment group) and non-beneficiaries (control group) of the PIAH project, the study investigates the causal relationship between the intervention and school attendance outcomes. The analysis takes into account various factors that may influence school attendance, such as socioeconomic status, parental education, and geographic location.
The findings of this evaluation will contribute to understanding the effectiveness of the project in reducing child labour and promoting school attendance. These insights will be valuable for future interventions and policy decisions aimed at combating child labour.
keywords: Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining, Child labour, Democratic Republic of the Congo, School attendance