[Federal Register: March 20, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 53)]
[Notices]
[Page 14004-14005]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr20mr06-47]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Office of the Secretary
Child Labor Education Initiative
AGENCY: Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of
Labor.
Announcement Type: Notice of Intent to Solicit Cooperative
Agreement Applications.
SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL), Bureau of International
Labor. Affairs (ILAB), intends to obligate up to approximately U.S. $15
million to support cooperative agreement awards to organizations to
develop and implement formal, non-formal, and vocational education
projects as a means to combat exploitive child labor in the following
three countries: (1) Egypt, (2) Peru, and (3) Tanzania. 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
education projects) to implement 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.
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, 2006. 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 Child Labor
Education Initiative Solicitations for Cooperative Agreement
Applications, please visit http://www.dol.gov/ILAB/faq/faq36.htm.
USDOL intends to hold a bidders' meeting on April 21, 2006 to
answer questions potential applicants may have on Child Labor Education
Initiative Solicitations for Cooperative Agreement process. Please see
below for more information on the bidders' meeting.
DATES: Key Dates: A specific solicitation(s) 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, 2006.
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 N-5416, Attention: Lisa Harvey, Washington, DC 20210.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Lisa Harvey. E-mail address:
harvey.lisa@dol.gov. All inquiries should make reference to the USDOL
Child Labor Education Initiative--Solicitations for Cooperative
Agreement Applications.
Bidders' Meeting: A bidders' meeting will be held in Washington, DC
at the Department of Labor on Friday, April 21, 2006 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 the Child
Labor Education Initiative Solicitation for Cooperative Agreement
process. To register for the meeting, please call or e-mail Ms. Alexa
Gunter (Phone: 202-693-4843; e-mail: gunter.alexa@dol.gov) by April 7,
2006. Please provide Ms. Gunter with contact information including
name, organization, address, phone number, and e-mail address of the
attendees.
Background Information: Since 1995, USDOL has supported a worldwide
technical assistance program implemented by the International Labor
Organization's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor
(ILO-IPEC). ILAB has also supported the efforts of other organizations
involved in efforts to combat child labor internationally through the
promotion of educational opportunities for children-in-need. In total,
ILAB has provided over U.S. $400 million to ILO-IPEC and other
organizations for international technical assistance to combat abusive
child labor around the world.
In FY 2006, USDOL's appropriations included funds earmarked for
ILO-IPEC and additional funding for bilateral assistance to improve
access to basic education internationally in areas with a high rate of
abusive and exploitive child labor. All FY 2006 funds will be obligated
on or before September 30, 2006.
USDOL's Child Labor Education Initiative seeks to nurture the
development, health, safety, and enhanced future employability of
children around the world by increasing access to basic education for
children removed from child labor or at risk of entering it.
Eliminating 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.
[[Page 14005]]
In addition to increasing access to education and eliminating
exploitive child labor through direct withdrawal and prevention
services to children, the Child Labor Education Initiative has the
following four strategic goals:
1. Raise awareness of the importance of education for all children
and mobilize a wide array of actors to improve and expand education
infrastructures;
2. Strengthen formal and transitional education systems that
encourage working children and those at risk of working to attend
school;
3. Strengthen national institutions and policies on education and
child labor; and
4. Ensure the long-term sustainability of these efforts.
When working to increase access to quality basic education, USDOL
strives to complement existing efforts to eradicate the worst forms of
child labor, 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 13th day of March, 2006.
Eric Vogt,
Grant Officer.
[FR Doc. E6-3968 Filed 3-17-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-28-P