Phase 1

Fieldwork was conducted between February and July 2015, following approval from the University of Surrey Ethics Committeee. The first month was spent in Accra, where the majority of international and national actors identified in the stakeholder map were based. Getting in contact with the stakeholders was fairly straightforward since a conference hosted by the University of Mines and Technology Tarkwa, which ran parallel with the reconnaissance trip in August 2014, provided an excellent opportunity to network and dialogue with many of these actors. Prior to the researcher’s arrival, therefore, generic electronic mails (e-mails) which detailed the purpose of the research were sent to donor organisations (ILO and UNICEF). There were no public contact emails listed on Ministry websites so the researcher on a contact at the Minerals Commission to access the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR) – namely its Child Labour Unit – and Ghana Education Service (GES). This method called snowball sampling, which in Ghana, proved to be a far more effective way of accessing hard- to-reach subgroups such as mid- and high-level civil servants, and security-conscious diplomats (Barbour, 2008; Wilson, 2005). For contact with NGOs and CSOs, social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, proved to be very effective at facilitating a faster response.

All the interviews took place in the offices of the respective organisations, except the ILO officers, whose interview had to be conducted a second time via Skype due to technical difficulties that led to the corruption of the storage device containing the initial interview recording. Furthermore, reflecting on the first time this interview was conducted, the researcher is of the view that the atmosphere affected the research participant’s responses anyway. To elaborate, the ILO officer confirmed a date of availability and an interview was arranged. Upon arrival, the researcher discovered that the entire MELR office – where the ILO team was based at the time – was preoccupied with the President’s State of the Nation address which was aired at the exact time the interview had been set. As a result, the office was loud, there were several interruptions from colleagues and the informant was in a sense rushing the interview to focus attention on the President’s live address on national television.

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Despite being identified in the stakeholder map, the Ghana Education Service (GES), whose policy perspective, particularly the nuances surrounding Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE), was central to the discussion on the impact of child labour on human capital accumulation, did not respond to the request for an interview. The literature confirms that this is not a unique development in research studies (Gokah 2006; Perks 2014). Gokah (2006) in particular highlights the challenges of negotiating access to government ministries where civil servants are reluctant to share their views on policy over fears of ‘political repercussions, government clampdown, fear of being labelled anti-government and the consequences that go with it’ (p. 67). This was also the case for the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Ghana, which, as the ‘main umbrella organization for trade union activities in Ghana’,24

would have provided a unique insight on the general diagnosis of child labour in Ghana’s rural informal economy.

A brief overview of the key international and national actors who participated in this research are highlighted below, with a full list of all research participants provided in the Appendix (11 and 12).

International Labour Organization (ILO)

The ILO has been instrumental in the design of policies aimed at eliminating child labour. Examples include the Minimum Age Convention (C138) and Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (C182). Its IPEC branch has been responsible for implementing multimillion-dollar child labour projects across Ghana, namely ECOWAS I and ECOWAS II. They have worked with a variety of implementing partners such as the NGOs Afrikids and Free the Slaves, organisations that were also surveyed in this research study. Two programme officers who have worked extensively in Ghana and West Africa for over a decade, and on ECOWAS I and II were

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referred to the researcher by a senior official at the ILO IV Global Conference on Child Labour in Argentina.

UNICEF Ghana

UNICEF was also important to this research because its Mission Statement declares that it is ‘mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential’25_{. While their projects in Ghana at the time were not specifically targeting child labour}

in mining, they offered interesting perspectives on the Western Region’s26 birth registration challenges, an aspect of child labour that is covered in Chapter 2 and which will be elaborated on further in Chapter 4. A programme officer who had been instrumental in launching the birth registration campaign in Ghana was interviewed to gauge the extent of UNICEF’s involvement in child labour eradication activities.

Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR)

Through the Minerals Commission, the researcher gained access to the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR), which is the main government body responsible for tackling child labour in the country. The bulk of the work, however, is carried out through its Labour Department where the Child Labour Unit (CLU) sits (Figure 3.3).

Figure 3.3 MELR organisational structure

The CLU was formed as a result of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between Ghana and ILO-IPEC in 2000. The CLU’s main role is to co-ordinate the child labour elimination

25 _{‘UNICEF’s Mission Statement’ https://www.unicef.org/about/who/index_mission.html (Accessed 14}

December 2018)

26 _{Child Protection Baseline Research: Western Regional Profile}

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agenda at the national level, and to promote participation, efficiency and flow of information among its partners. The CLU is also the Secretariat of the National Steering Committee on Child Labour (NSCCL) (Embode Ltd, 2016; MESW, 2010), which meets regularly to discuss the National Plan of Action (NPA), now in its second phase (2017-2021). This unit was central to this research because it works in partnership with the ILO on every child labour-related project and therefore, staff members interviewed were able to offer some interesting perspectives on the power/influence dynamic between budget-strapped government departments and donor organisations. The Head of the Child Labour Unit, who had been leading the department since 2008, was interviewed to get a full picture of Ghana’s policy position on the child labour problem.

Minerals Commission of Ghana (Accra and Tarkwa)

The Minerals Commission is the main promotional and regulatory body for the mining sector in Ghana, responsible for regulating and managing the exploration and extraction of mineral resources, and coordinating and implementing mining-related policies. Its staff are able to provide a national perspective on issues that emerge from the ASM sector, which meant it was important for the researcher to begin the journey by securing their approval. Officers at the head office in Accra linked the researcher to tits Tarkwa branch, whose staff facilitated visits to mining communities. It is important to note that during the first meeting in Tarkwa, it was made clear that the eradication of child labour was not in their mandate. On the subject of ASM, they were focused on enforcing the Small-Scale Gold Mining Law 1989 (PNDCL 218) – a law, since subsumed by the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 that prohibits persons below 18 years old from applying for a mining license – meaning they only inspect ‘licensed’ mine sites, which are prohibited from employing children. To recapitulate, the general view of policymakers is that child labour is a problem in galamsey (illegal mining), not in licensed small-scale mining. The nuances of the former and definitions of small-scale mining were discussed in some detail in Chapter 1.

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