[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 80 (Thursday, April 26, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20869-20870]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-7962]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Office of the Secretary


Combating Exploitive Child Labor Through Education

AGENCY: Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of 
Labor.

ACTION: Notice of intent to solicit cooperative agreement applications.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL), Bureau of International 
Labor Affairs (ILAB), intends to obligate approximately U.S. $54 
million to support cooperative agreement awards to organizations to 
address exploitive child labor internationally. ILAB intends to award, 
through a competitive and merit-based process, cooperative agreements 
to organizations to develop and implement formal, non-formal, and 
vocational education projects as a means to combat exploitive child 
labor in the following ten countries: (1) Democratic Republic of the 
Congo, (2) Uganda, (3) Togo, (4) Colombia, (5) Bolivia, (6) Dominican 
Republic, (7) Indonesia, (8) Morocco, (9) the Philippines, and (10) 
Cambodia. ILAB intends to fund projects that focus on innovative ways 
to provide educational services to children engaged, or at risk of 
engaging, in exploitive labor. The projects should address the gaps and 
challenges to basic education found in the countries mentioned above. 
ILAB

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also intends to award a cooperative agreement to an organization(s) to 
conduct research on exploitive child labor and forced labor in the 
carpet sectors of Nepal, Pakistan, and India. ILAB intends to solicit 
cooperative agreement applications from qualified organizations (i.e., 
any commercial, international, educational, or non-profit organization 
capable of successfully developing and implementing child labor and/or 
research projects) to implement these projects. Please refer to http://www.dol.gov/ILAB/grants/main.htm for examples of previous notices of 
availability of funds and solicitations for cooperative agreement 
applications.
    Information on the specific sectors, geographical regions, and 
funding levels for the potential projects in the countries listed above 
will be addressed in a solicitation(s) for cooperative agreement 
applications to be published prior to September 30, 2007. Potential 
applicants should not submit inquiries to USDOL for further information 
on these award opportunities until after USDOL's publication of the 
solicitations. For a list of frequently asked questions on 
Solicitations for Cooperative Agreement Applications, please visit 
http://www.dol.gov/ILAB/faq/faq36.htm.
    USDOL intends to hold a bidders' meeting on June 14, 2007, to 
answer questions potential applicants may have on this Solicitation for 
Cooperative Agreement process. Please see below for more information on 
the bidders' meeting.

DATES: Key Dates: Specific solicitations for cooperative agreement 
applications will be published in the Federal Register and remain open 
for at least 30 days from the date of publication. All cooperative 
agreement awards will be made on or before September 30, 2007.

ADDRESSES: Submission Address: Applications, in response to 
solicitations published in the Federal Register, must be delivered to: 
U.S. Department of Labor, Procurement Services Center, 200 Constitution 
Avenue, NW., Room S-4306, Attention: Lisa Harvey, Washington, DC, 
20210.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Lisa Harvey. E-mail address: 
[email protected]. All inquiries should make reference to the USDOL 
Combating Child Labor Through Education--Solicitations for Cooperative 
Agreement Applications.
    Bidders' Meeting: A bidders' meeting is scheduled to be held in 
Washington, DC, at the Department of Labor on Thursday, June 14, 2007, 
from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The purpose of this meeting is to provide 
potential applicants with the opportunity to ask questions concerning 
this Solicitation for Cooperative Agreement process. To register for 
the meeting, please call or e-mail Ms. Doris Senko (Phone: 202-693-
4843; E-mail: [email protected]) by June 1, 2007. Please provide Ms. 
Senko with contact information including name, organization, address, 
phone number, and e-mail address of the attendees.
    Background Information: Since 1995, USDOL has supported technical 
cooperation programming to combat exploitive child labor 
internationally through the promotion of educational opportunities for 
children-in-need. In total, the U.S. Congress has appropriated to USDOL 
over U.S. $595 million to support activities to combat exploitive child 
labor internationally. In turn, ILAB has signed cooperative agreements 
with various organizations to support international technical 
assistance projects to combat abusive child labor in over 75 countries 
around the world.
    USDOL international programming to combat exploitive child labor 
through education seeks to nurture the development, health, safety, and 
enhanced future employability of children around the world by 
withdrawing or preventing children from involvement in exploitive labor 
and providing them with access to basic education, vocational training 
and other services. Eliminating exploitive child labor depends, in 
part, on improving access to, quality of, and relevance of educational 
and training opportunities for children under 18 years of age. Without 
improving such opportunities, children withdrawn from exploitive forms 
of labor may not have viable alternatives to child labor and may be 
more likely to return to such work or resort to other hazardous means 
of subsistence.
    International projects funded by USDOL to combat exploitive child 
labor seek to:
    1. Withdraw or prevent children from involvement in exploitive 
child labor through the provision of direct educational and training 
services;
    2. Strengthen policies on child labor and education, the capacity 
of national institutions to combat child labor, and formal and 
transitional education systems that encourage working children and 
those at risk of working to attend school;
    3. Raise awareness of the importance of education for all children 
and mobilize a wide array of actors to improve and expand education 
infrastructures
    4. Support research and the collection of reliable data on child 
labor; and
    5. Ensure the long-term sustainability of these efforts.
    When working to eradicate exploitive child labor, USDOL strives to 
complement existing efforts, to build on the achievements of and 
lessons learned from these efforts, to expand impact and build 
synergies among actors, and to avoid duplication of resources and 
efforts.

    Signed at Washington, DC, this 20th day of April, 2007.
Lisa Harvey,
Grant Officer.
[FR Doc. E7-7962 Filed 4-25-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-28-P