International Technical Cooperation

Child Labor Programs

Since 1995, the U.S. Congress has appropriated $595 million to DOL for efforts to combat exploitive child labor internationally. This funding has been used to support technical cooperation projects to combat exploitive child labor in more than 75 countries around the world. From 1995 to 2006, most funding was allocated to support the ILO’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) and USDOL’s Child Labor Education Initiative (EI).

Technical cooperation projects funded by USDOL range from targeted action programs in specific sectors of work to more comprehensive programs that support national efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor as defined by ILO Convention 182. DOL-funded projects seek to achieve five major goals:

1. Withdrawing or preventing children from involvement in exploitive child labor through the provision of direct educational services, including training services;
2. Strengthening policies on child labor and education, the capacity of national institutions to combat child labor, and formal and transitional education systems that encourage children engaged in or at-risk of engaging in exploitive labor to attend school;
3. Raising awareness of the importance of education for all children and mobilize a wide array of actors to improve and expand education infrastructures;
4. Supporting research and the collection of reliable data on child labor; and
5. Ensuring the long-term sustainability of these efforts.

By increasing access to basic education, DOL-funded projects help nurture the development, health, safety, and enhanced future employability of children engaged in or at-risk of entering exploitive labor in geographic areas or economic sectors with a high incidence of exploitive child labor.

OCFT funds technical assistance projects in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. In addition, OCFT has funded several domestic and global projects.

OCFT grantees include international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and for-profit corporations.

*To view regional lists of projects and access available project-related documents, click on the relevant link.

International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC)

Since fiscal year 1995, the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking has received appropriations of $330 million for the International Labor Organization's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC) for technical cooperation projects in the area of international child labor. These funds are used to support a wide range of child labor projects and activities in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Education Initiative (EI)

In 2001, OCFT launched the Child Labor Education Initiative (EI) to support international efforts to eliminate exploitive child labor through programs that will improve access to basic education in international areas with a high rate of abusive and exploitive child labor. Since fiscal year 2001, Congress has appropriated $205 million to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs for this program. This funding has been used to strengthen DOL's existing child labor elimination strategies and complement ongoing international and national efforts to reduce child labor by providing resources to get child laborers into school and keep them there.

FY 2007 Funding

In fiscal year 2007, Congress appropriated approximately $60 million to DOL for new programs to combat exploitive child labor around the world.

Other Technical Cooperation Programs

OCFT also oversees a number of technical cooperation projects addressing the issues of forced labor and human trafficking. These technical cooperation projects focus on the general population and not specifically on children.

Oversight of Initiatives to Eliminate Exploitive Child Labor in Cocoa Sector

In response to appropriations language in FY 2006, DOL awarded, through a competitive bidding process, a contract to Tulane University to provide oversight of public and private initiatives to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in the cocoa sector in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

Under this contract, Tulane is charged with assessing the incidence and nature of child labor in the cocoa sectors of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, as well as progress being made to:

• implement a transparent, child labor-free, cocoa certification system covering 50 percent of the cocoa growing regions of these two countries;
• enroll and rehabilitate children withdrawn or prevented from exploitive labor in the cocoa sector;
• establish a child labor monitoring system; and
• establish a credible verification system, among other tasks, among other tasks.