US Department of Labor awards $14.7 million to ILO for two multicountry grants to reduce child labor

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs today announced the award of two cooperative agreements to the International Labor Organization to address the worst forms of child labor by providing direct technical assistance to governments in 20 countries and support for updating statistics related to child labor in another 100 countries.

The department awarded $7.7 million for a cooperative agreement to build the capacity of governments to reduce child labor in at least 10 countries, including Bangladesh, Paraguay, Philippines, Suriname and Uganda. The project will: support efforts to bring national legislation on child labor issues into compliance with international standards, improve monitoring and enforcement of child labor laws and policies, and improve national plans of action on child labor. The project will also enhance implementation of policies and programs to increase access to basic education, vocational training, social protection services and poverty reduction initiatives for populations vulnerable to the worst forms of child labor. The project will collaborate with key government agencies and ministries at the national, regional and local levels.

The department awarded a second cooperative agreement for $7 million to collect and analyze data on working children in 10 countries, including Armenia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Georgia, Jamaica, Malawi, Morocco, Peru, Tanzania and an additional country to be identified. The project will: conduct surveys to collect data on child labor at the national or sector-level, develop policy appraisals, prepare and publish public-use data files, and build capacity of national statistical offices to conduct research and analyze data on child labor. The project will also update statistics on children's work and education for approximately 100 countries.

Since 1995, ILAB projects have rescued approximately 1.7 million children from exploitive child labor. The Labor Department has funded 269 such projects implemented by more than 65 organizations in 91 countries. ILAB currently oversees more than $220 million of active programming to combat the worst forms of child labor. The 12th edition of ILAB's Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor can be found at http://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/findings/. More information is available at http://www.dol.gov/ilab/.

Editor's Note: Read Acting Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs Carol Pier's Transforming Dreams for Child Labors blog post about the department's efforts to reduce child labor globally through its cooperative agreements.

Ethel, an eight-year old from Malawi, works in the field to help support her family. The U.S. Department of Labor provides funding to the ILO-IPEC's Snap Project to help children like Ethel stop working and get an education. This video discusses some of the department's efforts, including through cooperative agreements with the ILO, to reduce child labor globally.