The project will work with civil society and workers' organizations in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to strengthen their capacity and bolster their collaboration with government agencies, the private sector and other stakeholders to protect labor rights and reduce child labor and forced labor. The project will focus on organizations that represent indigenous, Afro-descendant, and Garifuna populations, while promoting gender and racial equity.

Part of the Root Causes of Migration Strategy for northern Central America, the Promoting Safe and Healthy Workplaces in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador (PREP4Change) project seeks to improve occupational safety and health (OSH) conditions for workers in the sugar and garment (maquila) sectors. The project will focus on workplace illnesses and injuries, chronic kidney disease of non-traditional causes (CKDnt), and COVID-19.

Photo by Luis Fuentes

Part of the Root Causes of Migration Strategy for northern Central America, this project seeks to improve workers’ rights in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador by supporting workers’ organizations in the banana, melon, palm oil, and pineapple sectors in Honduras; the banana and palm oil sectors in Guatemala; and in the garments (maquila) sector in El Salvador.

Promoting acceptable working conditions in trade partner countries helps the U.S. create a fair playing field for its own workforce and for U.S. companies that play by the rules. This project seeks to ensure that workers in the agricultural export sector in Guatemala, with whom the U.S. has a free trade agreement, receive at least the minimum wage, work within legal hours of work limits, receive due compensation for overtime, and operate in a safe working environment. A particular focus is on improving the capacity of the labor inspectorate and judiciary to become more efficient and effective in investigating violations regarding acceptable conditions of work in the agricultural export sector.

All economies, whether in the United States or in Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras), need timely, accurate information to fuel efficiencies in their labor markets. These efficiencies, in turn, help ensure social stability and contribute to economic growth – both within countries and beyond. This project will seek to strengthen labor market information systems in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to create useful labor market intelligence -- helping workers to find jobs, employers to fill the skills gap and economies to grow.

The United States supports the goal of bringing meaningful change to the lives of the 152 million child laborers and the 25 million adults and children in forced labor around the world by eradicating child labor, forced labor and human trafficking. USDOL’s MAP 16 project supports this goal through efforts to (1) improve the knowledge base on child labor, forced labor and human trafficking; (2) improve awareness of these issues through the use of data-driven techniques; (3) strengthen policies and improve the capacity of governments and other stakeholders to combat child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking through national, regional, and global initiatives; and (4) strengthen partnerships to accelerate progress in combatting child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking.