Labor Department Projects Boost Women’s Prospects
Worldwide

International Women’s Day and Week Highlight Administration’s Efforts to Improve Social and Economic Opportunities

WASHINGTON—As part of President Bush's effort to improve the social and economic opportunities for millions of women and children in developing countries, the Department of Labor (DOL) has distributed approximately $176 million since 2000 to implement 84 projects to strengthen workers’ rights, eliminate gender discrimination and improve governments’ capabilities to enact and enforce labor laws around the globe. Additionally, since 1995 the department has provided more than $275 million in grants in over 60 countries to combat the worst forms of child labor, including child soldiering.

“During International Women’s Day and Week, we want to emphasize President Bush’s global effort to press for the human dignity that millions of women and children are entitled and yet denied,” said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. “The Department of Labor is establishing international cooperative projects that combat the devastating practice of using children as laborers or combatants, provide social assistance programs for workers, protect basic workers rights and offer workplace-based HIV/AIDS education and prevention programs, all of which have great impact on women and children.”

Many of these projects, which are administered by DOL’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs, help to improve the social and economic status of women in developing countries. They do so by stressing education, improving job skills and working conditions, providing micro-enterprise training, increasing employment access, strengthening women’s worker rights, and addressing gender-based employment discrimination.

Several of these programs are in Afghanistan and Iraq, where some 25 million women and children have recently been liberated in the War on Terrorism.

In Afghanistan, the DOL is funding a $3 million project to improve the social and economic status of vulnerable groups, including women. Activities include vocational, apprenticeship and skills-training programs and the development of an employer network. Another $300,000 project is training Afghan women to sew school uniforms for girls who cannot afford to purchase or make their own uniforms.

In Iraq, the department has provided $5 million to help demobilize former soldiers and to establish employment centers to address the needs of Iraqi men and women alike, as their transition to productive employment is critical for the country to begin to achieve economic growth. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) has scheduled the opening of 28 employment centers by the end of April. Additionally, the department is funding a Bureau of Labor Statistics scholarship program designed to increase the labor market information capacity of developing nations, teach participants how to gather information on workers rights’ indicators, thus increasing DOL’s access to accurate and complete international workforce and economic data. Iraqi participants in the next training are anticipated to be women.

In more than 60 countries around the world the department has provided more than $275 million in grants to protect children from exploitive and hazardous child labor and give them access to a basic education. These programs also have been used to demobilize, rehabilitate and reintegrate child soldiers, who have been victimized in many trouble spots around the globe. An integral part of these programs is to assist children’s families in finding alternatives to child labor. In particular, the projects provide opportunities for mothers, who often play a leadership role in their households, to earn income that reduces the pressure on children to work.

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