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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: (202) 219-8211
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.
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