During this end-of-year holiday season, top of the presents wish list for many are cell phones, computers, tablets, portable power tools, wearable tech, or a myriad of other products with rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, all powered by cobalt.
Yet, there is a darker untold side. Cobalt, a critical mineral abundantly mined in Africa and vital to the global economy, can often rob African youth of their childhoods.
Teenager Divine Komba was one of those youth, spending years working in hazardous, small-scale or artisanal cobalt mines in Democratic Republic of Congo. She endured long work hours, was subjected to skin rashes and illness - and like most child laborers in the country, earned at best around two dollars a day.
"We didn't like this job, but we had no choice - for us to eat, we had to work in the mine," Komba said.
Rising food prices, rural poverty and limited economic opportunities in the country have resulted in orphans, young parents and families bringing children to work in cobalt mining to put food on the table.
The African Development Bank's "Alternative Well-Being Support Project for Children and Youth Involved in the Cobalt Supply Chain" project is helping thousands of girls and boys like Komba enroll in school or receive vocational training to secure a resilient and more prosperous future. The project is part of the Bank's continentwide skills revolution that realizes women and youth are the engine that fuels Africa's economic dynamism.
The project covers the country's Lualaba and Haut-Katanga Provinces, home to more than 65 percent of global cobalt reserves. Cobalt has long been an essential element in products ranging from rechargeable batteries in electric cars and mobile telephones, to medical radiology equipment and renewable energy technologies like wind turbine generators.
Watch video of Divine Komba, now learning to become a mechanic, explaining the circumstances and dangers of her childhood working in a cobalt mine.
Through the Alternative Well-Being Support Project for Children and Youth Involved in the Cobalt Supply Chain program, former child miner Komba is enrolled in automotive mechanics training at Bank-supported Ruashi Social Promotion Centre in Haut-Katanga Province.
"We had to work to survive. Mining made us sick. Today, I earn a living fixing cars. I encourage other girls to join the programme and study," Komba said.
The project has identified more than 16,800 at-risk children working in cobalt mines and integrated 13,587 children into school systems. The Alternative Well-Being Support Project for Children and Youth Involved in the Cobalt Supply Chain program aligns with the Government of Democratic Republic of Congo's national strategy to eliminate child labor in copper and cobalt ore production, and is also supported by German development agency German Corporation for International Cooperation.
Thirteen-year-old Beni Ciel Yumba Musoya is one of those children back in school. For years she worked collecting minerals at Kasulo mine in Lualaba Province. Today, she aspires to become a doctor.
One of Musoya's family members, Jocelyne Kazadi, said the project is improving the quality of life for entire communities: "[The project] has supported my entire family. Thanks to the Government, the African Development Bank and our partners on the ground, the children are back in school and dreaming again."
Agriculture as a sustainable economic alternative
To reduce financial desperation leading to child labor, the program also provides parents and adult family members with sustainable, income-generating job alternatives in the agriculture sector. Komba's mother, for example, received initiative support to learn how to raise chickens and joined a poultry farming cooperative.
The Bank-financed program helped some 10,500 young parents, more than half of them women, transition into agribusiness activities like raising livestock. Project partners have established 77 percent of a target 1,250 agricultural cooperatives, created two youth agribusiness centers focusing on training in small-scale agricultural and mining trades. Partners also installed specialized units that provide agricultural machinery and equipment to farmers, as well as installed livestock facilities and fish farms.
"The project demonstrates that tackling child labor also means investing in the economic transformation of communities, with a strong focus on empowering girls and women. Gender equality is a catalyst for lasting change," said Juliette Ayuknow Egbe, Gender Officer at the African Development Bank.
Children working in mines are often in remote areas: the project will support the rehabilitation, construction or supplying of equipment to 40 education, health as well as water and sanitation structures in the rural target provinces.
When fully implemented, the program is expected to create 11,250 direct jobs and thousands of additional indirect jobs, increase the share of locally produced staple foods from 10 percent to 50 percent, as well as directly benefit 1.4 million people in the targeted country provinces. In all, the project has the potential to reach more than 5.6 million people.
"By supporting women, particularly young women, through agricultural cooperatives and income-generating activities, the project directly helps reduce rural poverty and keep children out of mines," Project Coordinator Alice Mirimo Kabetsi said.
She added that agriculture, especially quick turn-around activities such as broiler poultry farming, offers a practical, quick, and sustainable alternative for families.
"Providing economic options to parents is providing a future for their children," Kabetsi said.
