EXCERPT FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

“There is broad consensus that child labor remains widespread in Egypt. Several organizations, for example the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Development Programme, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, have chronicled the phenomenon in recent years. The situation with regard to children working in domestic service in Egypt has received rather less attention, probably in part because it reportedly accounted for a very small segment of child labor as a whole. Although insightful, the few studies initiated specifically to look at child labor in domestic service in Egypt have been limited in scope. Geographical coverage was limited, and the research was limited to girls. There was therefore a strong case for looking afresh at the domestic child labor phenomenon, building on the findings of earlier work, and broadening coverage. Accordingly, a study that aimed to gather data on child labor in the domestic service sector in Egypt was designed. The research seeks to address the pathways into and the risk factors associated with child domestic work, the types of work performed, the working and living conditions, the supply chain, the market demands, and the prevalence of the phenomenon of child domestic labor in Egypt. The study used a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, including in-depth interviews (IDIs) with formal experts and other key informants merged in the analysis, as well as data from a quantitative survey of children in domestic work.”