Gender inequality in coffee picking and bean processing in Ethiopian coffee producing areas

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The U.S. Department of Labor and the multinational non-profit organization (CARE) have signed a $5 million cooperation agreement funded by the U.S. International Labor Office (ILAB) for a period of 50 months. The cooperation project aims to focus on gender equality, improve gender inequality in the coffee industry in Ethiopia and reduce the employment of child labour.

The U.S. International Labour Office (ILAB) says the project will work with several Ethiopian government agencies to provide direct assistance to 10 towns in the coffee-growing areas of Gedeo and Oromia in southern Ethiopia, changing community and social norms and traditions and safeguarding gender inequality in the coffee industry, benefiting 10300 people.

According to statistics from the Ethiopian National Bureau of Statistics, compared with other coffee producing areas in Ethiopia, women (as well as child labourers) in the two coffee producing areas of Kiddio and Eromi have a very serious imbalance between labor and income, with more than 7,000 out of more than 10,000 people.

Child labor has become commonplace on small-scale coffee farms in Ethiopia. Because of regional poverty and lack of educational resources, children are naturally one of the burdens of families. Compared with adults, the labor force is not high, but the cost of employment can be very low.

The employment of child labour is very serious in almost all coffee-producing countries, and although the situation in Ethiopia is not optimistic, it does not reach the Verite (international non-profit organization mainly engaged in corporate social responsibility review, training and management system development) to maintain coffee production through forced labour and excessive employment of child labor. The United States International Labour Office (ILAB) also did not identify Ethiopia as a place with excessive child labor in the coffee industry, but the project followed up a large number of reports of discrepancies in child labor employment records.

The project increasing Labour Employment in low-income countries, funded by the UK's Department for International Development (UKAID), pointed out in a recent report that if Ethiopia's coffee labour force was surveyed and recorded by men, then the actual proportion of women and child labour in Ethiopia's coffee labor would have a difference of 7 per cent and 10 per cent.

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