| dc.description.abstract | Objective: This systematic literature review aims to develop a better understanding of how children, families, and communities rationalize or conceptualize children’s work in the Global South. Also, to identify and discuss the tensions and controversies linked to children’s work and what are the policy insights that improve working children’s lives in Global South.
Method: This is a systematic literature review that synthesized 29 studies relating to working children’s perspectives and views in Global South. Web of Science and Scopus were used as the 2 main databases for the search of relevant qualitative research publications. EndNote program was then used to remove any duplicates publications from the search results. Thereafter, a manual screening was conducted for the remaining articles using the criteria formulated earlier and conducted a backward citation tracking of published articles that were included in the systematic literature. The process was recorded using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), and the final count of 29 studies was included for synthesis. The analysis and data extraction were carried out in three stages: 1) Line-by-line coding, 2) Generation of descriptive themes, 3) Generation of interpretive/analytical themes to synthesize findings and categorize studies according to their scope.
Results: The published articles included in the studies focused on the perspectives of working children in the Global South. Seven main themes were generated: Importance of work; Empowerment; Agency; Interdependency; Education; Controversies and Tensions in Policies regarding child work; Policy recommendations.
Discussion and conclusions: This systematic literature review concludes that children’s participation in work is integrated as part of their childhood. There are several reasons as to why children and young people were engaged in economic activities. A single reading of international policies and legislation on child labor is not applicable in every country, especially in the Global South. There is a need to respect working children's living rights and modify the international policies and legislation accordingly to each local context to maximize the effect of providing each child the childhood they deserve. | |
