International Labor Organization receives $8 million award from
US Labor Department to prevent and reduce child labor in Vietnam

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs today announced the award of an $8 million cooperative agreement to the International Labor Organization to implement a technical cooperation project to prevent and reduce child labor in Vietnam. This project will be undertaken in coordination with the Government of Vietnam.

"2015 marks the 15th year of our bilateral cooperation on labor issues with the Government of Vietnam," said Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs, Carol Pier. "The Government of Vietnam has taken great strides to enhance national and local capacity to address child labor, and the funding of this project highlights our continued partnership and underlines our commitment to provide assistance to vulnerable children and their families."

Supporting Vietnam's national plans of action on children, child protection and child labor, the project will increase the capacity of national institutions and stakeholders to identify and respond to child labor, raise awareness of child labor at all levels of society, and implement an area-based intervention model aimed at preventing and withdrawing children at risk of or in the worst forms of child labor in selected areas.

Of the estimated 1.75 million children in Vietnam who work as child laborers, most work in agriculture — tending crops and cattle or even logging — and come home to families who struggle to make ends meet. One in three child laborers works more than 42 hours a week, and of this group, very few see the inside of a classroom.

Since 1993, ILAB has produced reports to raise awareness globally about child labor and forced labor. ILAB has also provided funding for more than 280 projects in over 94 countries to combat the worst forms of child labor by providing assistance to vulnerable children and their families.