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ILAB News Release: [03/09/2004]
Contact Name: Mike
Biddle
Phone Number: (202) 693-5051
Labor Department Projects Boost Women’s Prospects
Worldwide
International Women’s Day and Week Highlight
Administration’s Efforts to Improve Social and Economic
Opportunities
WASHINGTON—As part of President Bush's effort to improve the
social and economic opportunities for millions of women and children in
developing countries, the Department of Labor (DOL) has distributed
approximately $176 million since 2000 to implement 84 projects to strengthen
workers’ rights, eliminate gender discrimination and improve
governments’ capabilities to enact and enforce labor laws around the
globe. Additionally, since 1995 the department has provided more than $275
million in grants in over 60 countries to combat the worst forms of child
labor, including child soldiering.
“During International Women’s Day and Week, we want to
emphasize President Bush’s global effort to press for the human dignity
that millions of women and children are entitled and yet denied,” said
Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. “The Department of Labor is
establishing international cooperative projects that combat the devastating
practice of using children as laborers or combatants, provide social assistance
programs for workers, protect basic workers rights and offer workplace-based
HIV/AIDS education and prevention programs, all of which have great impact on
women and children.”
Many of these projects, which are administered by DOL’s Bureau of
International Labor Affairs, help to improve the social and economic status of
women in developing countries. They do so by stressing education, improving job
skills and working conditions, providing micro-enterprise training, increasing
employment access, strengthening women’s worker rights, and addressing
gender-based employment discrimination.
Several of these programs are in Afghanistan and Iraq, where some 25
million women and children have recently been liberated in the War on
Terrorism.
In Afghanistan, the DOL is funding a $3 million project to improve the
social and economic status of vulnerable groups, including women. Activities
include vocational, apprenticeship and skills-training programs and the
development of an employer network. Another $300,000 project is training Afghan
women to sew school uniforms for girls who cannot afford to purchase or make
their own uniforms.
In Iraq, the department has provided $5 million to help demobilize
former soldiers and to establish employment centers to address the needs of
Iraqi men and women alike, as their transition to productive employment is
critical for the country to begin to achieve economic growth. The Coalition
Provisional Authority (CPA) has scheduled the opening of 28 employment centers
by the end of April. Additionally, the department is funding a Bureau of Labor
Statistics scholarship program designed to increase the labor market
information capacity of developing nations, teach participants how to gather
information on workers rights’ indicators, thus increasing DOL’s
access to accurate and complete international workforce and economic data.
Iraqi participants in the next training are anticipated to be women.
In more than 60 countries around the world the department has provided
more than $275 million in grants to protect children from exploitive and
hazardous child labor and give them access to a basic education. These programs
also have been used to demobilize, rehabilitate and reintegrate child soldiers,
who have been victimized in many trouble spots around the globe. An integral
part of these programs is to assist children’s families in finding
alternatives to child labor. In particular, the projects provide opportunities
for mothers, who often play a leadership role in their households, to earn
income that reduces the pressure on children to work.
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