The United States supports the goal of bringing meaningful change to the lives of the 152 million child laborers and the 25 million adults and children in forced labor around the world by eradicating child labor, forced labor and human trafficking. USDOL’s MAP 16 project supports this goal through efforts to (1) improve the knowledge base on child labor, forced labor and human trafficking; (2) improve awareness of these issues through the use of data-driven techniques; (3) strengthen policies and improve the capacity of governments and other stakeholders to combat child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking through national, regional, and global initiatives; and (4) strengthen partnerships to accelerate progress in combatting child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking.

The EMPOWER project will reduce child labor in Zambia’s eastern province by increasing adolescent girls and vulnerable women’s access to acceptable work and high-quality training opportunities. In addition, the project will increase public awareness on the importance of addressing child labor and strengthen efforts amongst government and the private sector towards gender equality through the promotion of acceptable work for adolescent girls and vulnerable women.

The Better Utilization of Skills for Youth (BUSY) project works to build the capacity of government, employers, workers’ organizations, and civil society actors to establish and expand workplace-based training programs for vulnerable youth, including by identifying gaps in relevant laws and policies.

The Promoting Apprenticeship as a Path for Youth Employment Project (GAN) worked directly with employers, workers’ organizations, and governments to help increase the number of apprenticeship opportunities for vulnerable youth in Argentina, Costa Rica, and Kenya. The project created and strengthened private sector networks in support of apprenticeship and other types of work-based training, such as internships, in all three countries. It helped employers launch quality work training programs while ensuring these programs were accessible to disadvantaged youth.

The overall objective of this project is to identify the various interventions carried out since the signing of the Declaration in 2010, assess their relative effectiveness, and measure progress towards the achievement of the various goals and targets outlined in the Declaration and Framework, including the goal of a 70 percent reduction in aggregate of the worst forms of child labor in the cocoa sectors of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana by 2020.