Gambia is 2nd in 2020 Forbes’ World’s Most Dangerous Countries For Workers Ranking

The Gambia is ranked 2^nd in Forbes’ least glorious classification of “The World’s Most Dangerous Countries For Workers” published this Thursday. The Forbes’ ranking summed up the fact that although many employers in The Gambia are obligated to provide a safe and secure environment for their workers, regulations remain short-sighted while a quasi-complete absence of government oversight exacerbates the situation.

The Forbes’ research gathered data from 150,000 people in 142 countries investigating if how standards in the workplace are sorely lacking. The polling found that the share of workers seriously injured is substantially higher than the global average in some countries, particularly across Africa. An astonishing 69% of workers in Sierra Leone say they have been seriously injured in their jobs, the highest rate of any country. The Gambia and Malawi follow with 64% and 62%, respectively.

Referring to the Forbes’ findings, International Labor Organization’s Joaquim Paulo Pintado Nunes said “this is the first time that we have heard the voices of ordinary workers from across the world, talking about the risks to physical and mental wellbeing they face in the workplace”. He added that “this will give us a better picture, complementing the information from official statistics, which are often incomplete or less detailed“.

Overall, the Forbes’ study paints a picture of two worlds: low-income economies like The Gambia where the most dangerous jobs are in agriculture and fishing and high-income economies where the biggest threats come in the form of mental health issues from workplace harassment and violence. With regards to hazards in the workplace, there is a considerable gender gap with 23% of the world’s men stating that they experienced a serious injury compared to 14% of women.

34% of farmers, fishers and agricultural workers in some of the world’s poorest countries said they had experienced serious injury doing their jobs, making those professions the most dangerous on the planet, followed by construction and manufacturing. The scale of the problem is highlighted by a new poll from The Lloyd’s Register Foundation which found that 19% of the world’s workers have been injured on the job at some point in their lives.

Myanmar is the only non-African country in the top-eight with 58% of its workers saying they have been seriously injured at some point during their work lives. By contrast, the lowest rate of serious occupational injuries was recorded in Poland at just 4%, followed by Singapore with 5% and Italy with 7%. In the United States the rate is noticeably higher than those countries at 20%.