Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

ILAB Press Release: Herman Announces Major Grants to Fight Child Labor in Africa [03/17/1999]

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The U.S. is providing $7.5 million to fund programs to eliminate exploitative child labor in Africa. Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman announced the grants today in her keynote speech to the United States-Africa Ministerial.

The International Labor Organization estimates that 80 million children work in Africa, accounting for 32 percent of the world's working children.

"This is the largest investment ever made by the United States in fighting abusive child labor in Africa," Secretary Herman said. "By partnering with nations throughout the African continent, we can give working children a real chance at an education, and a real future." She announced the grants at the U.S. - Africa Ministerial: Partnership for the 21st Century, the first meeting ever between the U.S. government and all sub-Saharan finance and economic ministers. The three-day conference is focusing on development, trade, investment and environmental issues in Africa.

The U.S. Department of Labor will provide the funds through the International Labor Organization's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor. The grants include:

• $1.5 million to support a regional project to remove children from hazardous work in commercial agriculture and help them stay in school; the countries are Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe;
• $1 million for a regional project to combat the trafficking of children for the purpose of domestic work and provide educational alternatives in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Togo, Cameroon, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Nigeria;
• $3.7 million to fund the participation of Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Nigeria in the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor, and
• nearly $1.3 million to conduct statistical surveys to document the nature and extent of child labor in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia.

The department models new programs to fight child labor after successful projects it helped develop in the soccer ball industry in Pakistan and the garment industry in Bangladesh. Those programs include the following elements: removal of child workers from work; providing children educational and vocational training opportunities; providing income opportunities for children's families; and setting up an external ILO monitoring process to ensure children do not return to work.

Forty-one percent of all African children between the ages of 5 and 14 years old are engaged in some form of economic activity. Children can be found in harvesting products such as coffee, tea, rice and sugar cane. They also work in small coal, gold and diamond mines. In many African countries, children, especially girls, often work as domestic servants. Prostitution and trafficking of children are common.

The United States is the world's leading supporter of IPEC projects. From fiscal year 1995 through fiscal year 1998, the U.S. provided $8.1 million to this effort. In this fiscal year's budget, President Clinton, with bipartisan support in Congress and the active leadership of Senator Tom Harkin, increased U.S. support to $30 million for IPEC and other international child labor activities.

The Labor Department's Bureau of International Labor Affairs works with IPEC in identifying and designing projects which the department finances. Since 1995, the department has provided funding for projects in Africa, Bangladesh, Brazil, Central America, Guatemala, Haiti, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.