Combating Exploitative Child Labor Through Education in Egypt, Peru and Tanzania, 30175-30197 [06-4857]

Agencies

• Office of the Secretary
• DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 101 (Thursday, May 25, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30175-30197]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-4857]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Office of the Secretary


Combating Exploitative Child Labor Through Education in Egypt, 
Peru and Tanzania

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

    Announcement Type: New. Notice of Availability of Funds and 
Solicitation for Cooperative Agreement Applications.
    Funding Opportunity Number: SGA 06-06.
    Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: Not 
applicable.
    Key Dates: Deadline for Submission of Application is July 24, 2006.
    Executive Summary: The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of 
International Labor Affairs, will award up to USD 15 million through 
three or more Cooperative Agreements to an organization or 
organizations to improve access to and quality of education programs as 
a means to combat exploitative child labor in Egypt (up to USD 5 
million), Peru (up to USD 5 million) and Tanzania (up to USD 5 
million). Projects funded under this solicitation will provide 
educational and training opportunities to children and/or youth under 
the age of 18, as a means of removing and/or preventing them from 
engaging in exploitative work or the worst forms of child labor, and 
will ensure their retention in and completion of the education or 
training program(s) in which they are enrolled. The activities funded 
will complement and expand upon existing projects and programs aimed at 
eliminating the worst forms of child labor and improving basic 
education in the target countries. Applications must respond to the 
entire Scope of Work outlined in this solicitation for each country for 
which an application is submitted.

I. Funding Opportunity Description

    The U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL), Bureau of International Labor 
Affairs (ILAB), announces the availability of funds to be awarded by 
Cooperative Agreement to one or more

[[Page 30176]]

qualifying organizations for the purpose of withdrawing and preventing 
children from entering into exploitative child labor by (a) expanding 
access to and improving the quality of basic education; (b) 
strengthening the capacity of government and civil society to address 
child labor and education; and (c) collecting data on this target 
population.
    Entities applying under this solicitation must develop and 
implement strategies consistent with the overall purpose of USDOL's 
Child Labor Education Initiative as described below. ILAB is authorized 
to award and administer this program by the Consolidated Appropriations 
Act of 2006 (Pub. L. 109-149), see Conference Report (H. Rept. 109-
337). Cooperative Agreements awarded under this initiative will be 
managed by ILAB's International Child Labor Program (ICLP). The 
duration of the projects funded by this solicitation is three to four 
years. The start date of program activities will be negotiated upon 
award of the Cooperative Agreement, but will be no later than September 
30, 2006.
    Part 1 of this section provides an overview of USDOL's support of 
the global elimination of exploitative child labor. Part 2 provides 
USDOL definitions of key terminology. Part 3 provides an overview of 
the barriers to education for working children. Part 4 describes the 
scope of work of the awards themselves, and Part 5 provides an overview 
of country-specific information and cross-cutting themes to be 
incorporated in the project design.

1. Background: USDOL Support for the Global Elimination of Exploitative 
Child Labor

    The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that 211 
million children ages 5 to 14 were working around the world in 2000. 
Full-time child workers are generally unable to attend school, and 
part-time child laborers balance economic survival with schooling from 
an early age, often to the detriment of their education. Since 1995, 
USDOL has provided approximately USD 477 million in technical 
assistance funding to combat exploitative child labor in more than 70 
countries around the world.
    Programs funded by USDOL range from targeted action programs in 
specific sectors of work to more comprehensive efforts that target the 
worst forms of child labor as defined by ILO Convention 182. From FY 
2001 to FY 2006, the U.S. Congress has appropriated over USD 205 
million to USDOL for a Child Labor Education Initiative (EI) to fund 
programs aimed at nurturing the development, health, safety and 
enhanced future employability of children around the world by 
increasing access to quality, basic education for working children and 
those at risk of entering work, in areas with a high incidence of 
abusive and exploitative child labor.
    In addition to withdrawing and preventing children and/or youth 
from exploitative child labor through direct education and training 
opportunities, the EI has four goals:
    i. Raise awareness of the importance of education for all children 
and mobilize a wide array of actors to improve and expand education 
infrastructures;
    ii. Strengthen formal and transitional education systems that 
encourage working children and those at risk of working to attend 
school;
    iii. Strengthen national institutions and policies on education and 
child labor; and
    iv. Ensure the long-term sustainability of these efforts.

2. Definitions

    Exploitative child labor refers to the worst forms of child labor 
outlined in ILO Convention 182 and all types of work that prevent a 
child from obtaining an education or impede a child's ability to learn 
as outlined in ILO Convention 138. (See Appendix B for a visual 
presentation of the categories of exploitative child labor).
    ILO Convention 182, Article 3, defines the worst forms of child 
labor as comprised of:
    (a) All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as 
the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and 
forced or compulsory labor, including forced or compulsory recruitment 
of children for use in armed conflict;
    (b) The use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, the 
production of pornography or for pornographic performances;
    (c) The use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit 
activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs 
as defined in the relevant international treaties;
    (d) Work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is 
carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of 
children.
    ILO Convention 138, Minimum Age Convention, Article 7.1(b) is also 
used to identify exploitative child labor. Article 7.1(b) states that 
children within a particular age range shall not participate in work 
that will ``prejudice their attendance at school, their participation 
in vocational orientation or training programmes approved by the 
competent authority or their capacity to benefit from the instruction 
received.''
    Unconditional worst forms of child labor refers to the worst forms 
of child labor that fall under Article 3(a)-(c) of ILO Convention 182. 
For USDOL's Child Labor Education Initiative, children involved in the 
unconditional worst forms of child labor must no longer be working in 
an unconditional worst form of child labor to be considered as 
withdrawn from exploitative work. That is, no improvements in the 
working conditions of children involved in slavery or slavery-like 
practices, prostitution or pornography, or illicit activities will 
create an acceptable environment for children to work, even for one 
hour.
    Hazardous child labor refers to work that falls under Article 3(d) 
of ILO Convention 182. Applicants are encouraged to consult 
Recommendation 190 accompanying Convention 182 for additional guidance 
on identifying hazardous work.
    In some cases, the work conditions of children involved in 
hazardous work may be improved so as to make the work conditions 
acceptable for children. This may include, for example, reducing hours 
of work or changing the type of work children perform (i.e., 
disallowing children in agriculture from working with heavy machinery 
or pesticide applications). However, conditions can be improved to make 
work acceptable only for children who may legally work according to the 
specific laws of the implementing country. If, for example, a nine-
year-old child is working in hazardous child labor in a country whose 
minimum age is 15 years, this child should be completely withdrawn from 
child labor, since conditions cannot be improved to make it legally 
acceptable for the child to work.
    USDOL defines children withdrawn and prevented as follows:
    Children withdrawn from exploitative work refers to those children 
who were found to be working in exploitative child labor and no longer 
work under such conditions as a result of a direct project 
intervention. This category includes: (a) Children who have been 
completely withdrawn from work, which is required by ILO Convention 182 
for unconditional worst forms of child labor, and (b) children who were 
involved in hazardous work (Article 3(d) of Convention 182) or work 
that impedes a child's education (ILO Convention 138) but are no longer 
working under hazardous conditions or impeded from schooling due to 
improved working conditions (i.e.,

[[Page 30177]]

fewer hours or safer workplaces) or because they have moved into a new, 
acceptable form of work. To be considered as withdrawn from 
exploitative child labor each child must also have benefited or be 
benefiting from a direct educational service (as defined below) 
provided by the project.
    Children prevented from entering exploitative child labor refers to 
children not yet working but who are considered to be at high-risk of 
engaging in exploitative child labor (see definition above), for 
example, siblings of (ex-) working children. A ``high-risk'' situation 
refers to a set of conditions or circumstances (i.e., family 
environment or situation, vicinity of economic activities prone to 
employ children, etc.) under which the child lives or to which he or 
she is exposed. In order to be considered as ``prevented,'' these 
children must also have benefited or be benefiting from a direct 
educational service (as defined below) provided by the project.
    Direct beneficiaries are children who, as a result of a USDOL-
funded project, are (a) withdrawn or prevented from entering 
exploitative child labor and (b) are provided with a direct educational 
service (as defined below) that results in their enrollment in at least 
one of the four categories of educational activities listed below. 
Note: For a child to be counted as a direct beneficiary for the 
purposes of USDOL Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) 
reporting, the Cooperative Agreement awardee (hereafter referred to as 
``Grantee'') must complete the following three (3) steps:
    (1) Assess the specific needs of each child targeted by the project 
in order for the child to (a) be withdrawn from or prevented from 
entering exploitative labor and (b) to be enrolled in an educational 
activity;
    (2) Develop and implement an appropriate strategy for the child 
that provides a direct educational service that supports their 
enrollment in at least one of the educational activities defined below; 
and
    (3) Monitor and report to USDOL on the work (e.g., Is the child 
working in an exploitative labor situation?) and education status 
(e.g., Is the child still attending an educational or training 
program?) of each child beneficiary.
    Direct educational services may involve either (a) or (b):
    (a) The provision of at least one of the following educational 
activities:
    (1) Non-formal or basic literacy education--This type of 
educational activity may include transitional, levelling, or literacy 
classes so that a child may either be mainstreamed into formal 
education and/or can participate in vocational training activities;
    (2) Vocational, pre-vocational, or skills training--This type of 
training is designed to develop a particular, marketable skill (e.g., 
mechanics, sewing); or
    (b) The provision of goods and/or services (if lack thereof is a 
barrier to education) that meets the specific needs of the targeted 
children and results in their enrollment or retention in at least one 
of the four categories of educational activities listed below. Examples 
of goods and/or services that may meet the specific gaps/educational 
needs of targeted children include tutoring, school meals, uniforms, 
school supplies and materials, books, tuition and transportation 
vouchers, or other types of incentives. The four categories of 
educational activities that qualify for USDOL's EI are:
    (1) Non-formal or basic literacy education;
    (2) Vocational, pre-vocational, or skills training;
    (3) Formal education--This is defined as the formal school system 
within the target country; or
    (4) Mainstreaming--This type of educational activity involves a 
project transitioning children from non-formal education into the 
formal education system. Generally, mainstreaming involves the 
provision of goods and/or services (e.g., school uniforms, registration 
fees, transportation vouchers and/or tutoring) that may assist in 
placement testing and enable a child to attend and stay in school.
    Other project interventions may include such activities as 
awareness raising and social mobilization campaigns, psychosocial 
services for children, improvements in curriculum, teacher training or 
improvements to school infrastructure that are also important for 
improving access to and the quality of basic education. While grantees 
are encouraged to address the needs of working children in a 
comprehensive manner, these activities will not be considered as direct 
educational services. Therefore, individuals benefiting solely from 
these interventions cannot be counted in GPRA reporting. USDOL 
recognizes that, in many cases, a combination of services--both direct 
educational services and other project interventions as outlined in 
this paragraph--may represent the most effective strategy for 
prevention or withdrawal of a child from exploitative labor. USDOL 
encourages applicants to propose the most effective package of services 
to achieve the goal of prevention or withdrawal.
    Strengthening the capacity of government and civil society to 
address child labor and education may involve one or more of the 
following four elements:
    (1) Adaptation of the legal framework to meet international 
standards;
    Examples of actions that demonstrate progress toward this element 
include:
     The official adoption of an approved or revised list of 
hazardous work activities for children after tripartite consultation 
(e.g., through law, presidential decree);
     The adaptation of labor code or education laws to include 
or modify child labor-related issues;
     The adaptation of the criminal code to include or modify 
child labor-related issues;
     The adaptation of existing legislation concerning child 
labor or education to put it in line with Conventions 138 or 182; or
     The approval of new legislation concerning specific forms 
of child labor.
    (2) The formulation of specific policies and programs at the 
national, regional, or sectoral level within a country dealing with the 
worst forms of child labor or basic education;
    Progress toward this element can be demonstrated by the development 
of a policy, plan or program document on the worst forms of child 
labor, a specific worst form of child labor, or basic education which 
addresses the worst forms of child labor by one or more of the 
following entities:
     Any level of Government (local, regional or national);
     The National Steering Committee; or
     Social Partners.
    (3) The inclusion of child labor or basic education concerns in 
relevant development, social and anti-poverty policies and programs;
    Examples of actions that demonstrate progress toward this element 
include:
     The incorporation of basic education (in non-education 
related programs) or the elimination of child labor as an explicit 
objective in poverty reduction, development, educational or other 
social programs;
     The inclusion of child labor or basic education (in non-
education related strategies) as an indicator in poverty reduction, 
development or educational strategies, etc. (e.g. United Nations 
Development Assistance Framework, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, 
Education for All, the United Nations Millenneum Development Goals) ;
     The inclusion of child laborers as a priority target group 
in poverty reduction, development or educational strategies; or

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     Requiring families to ensure children go to school and do 
not work in order to receive benefits from social and stipends 
programs.
    (4) The establishment of a child labor monitoring system (CLMS).
    Progress in this field can be demonstrated if one or several of the 
following systems has been established and is in operation:
     A CLMS covering various forms of child labor at the local 
and/or national level;
     A CLMS in any formal or informal sector, urban or rural; 
or
     A comprehensive plan and/or pilot program to develop and 
establish national, local or sector specific CLMS.
    The characteristics of a comprehensive and credible CLMS include 
the following:
     A focus on the child at work and/or in school;
     Involvement of all relevant partners in the field, 
including labor inspectors, if appropriate;
     Regular observation to identify children in the workplace;
     Referral of identified children to the most appropriate 
alternative to ensure that they are withdrawn from hazardous work;
     Verification that children have actually shifted from 
hazardous work to an appropriate situation (school or other); and
     Recordkeeping on the extent and nature of child labor and 
the schooling of identified child workers.

3. Barriers to Education for Working Children

    Throughout the world, there are complex causes of exploitative 
child labor as well as barriers to education for children engaged in or 
at risk of entering exploitative child labor. These include: Poverty; 
education system barriers; infrastructure barriers; legal and policy 
barriers; resource gaps; institutional barriers; informational gaps; 
demographic characteristics of children and/or families; cultural and 
traditional practices; tenuous labor markets; and weak law enforcement.
    Although these elements and characteristics tend to exist 
throughout the world in areas with a high incidence of exploitative 
child labor, they manifest themselves in specific ways in the country 
of interest in this solicitation. Therefore, specific, targeted 
interventions are required. Applicants must be able to identify the 
specific needs of children in order to ensure (1) their long-term 
withdrawal or prevention from exploitative child labor, (2) for 
children of appropriate age, a reduction in the number of hours they 
work and improvement in their working conditions in accordance with 
national labor laws and (3) their attendance, retention, and completion 
of relevant educational and/or training programs. This includes 
identifying barriers to education and the educational needs of specific 
children targeted in their project (e.g., children withdrawn from work, 
children at high-risk of dropping out of school and joining the labor 
force, and/or children still working in a particular sector) and 
defining how direct education service delivery, capacity building and 
policy change can be used to address these particular barriers and 
needs. Brief background information on education and exploitative child 
labor in the country of interest is provided below in Section I(5): 
Country-Specific Scope of Work.

4. Scope of Work--General Requirements

    Each project must promote the goals of USDOL's EI listed above in 
Section I(1). Applicants should propose an innovative project strategy 
that will build on existing efforts to withdraw children from the worst 
forms of child labor and improve the conditions of children engaged in 
other types of legal work, while concurrently enrolling and maintaining 
these children in suitable educational programs. USDOL considers 
efforts to strengthen legal frameworks to prohibit exploitative child 
labor and to improve law enforcement practices against such illicit 
child labor activities as critical strategies for achieving a long-term 
impact in combating exploitative child labor and improving access to 
basic education. Applicants are encouraged to propose creative ideas in 
addressing the nexus between better enforcement of child labor laws and 
the improvement of educational opportunities for children.
    EI projects are expected to contain at least five critical 
elements: (1) Focus on Action Research and Data Collection; (2) Direct 
Educational Services; (3) Clear and Specific Outcomes; (4) 
Collaboration and Leveraging Resources; and (5) Sustainability. 
Applicants are expected to consider the economic, social and cultural 
contexts of the country when formulating project strategies and to 
recognize that approaches applicable in one country may not be relevant 
to others. Applicants must take into account cross-cutting themes that 
could affect project results, including those outlined in Section I(5) 
for each target country, and meaningfully incorporate them into the 
proposed strategy, either to increase opportunities or reduce threats 
to successful implementation.
    i. Focus on Action Research and Data Collection. In order to 
identify gaps, unmet needs and opportunities that could be addressed 
through a USDOL Child Labor Education Initiative project, applicants 
must conduct a needs assessment in preparing their application(s) to 
make a preliminary identification of the current working and 
educational status of the children that the applicant proposes as 
direct project beneficiaries. It is expected that the information 
gathered during this assessment will be refined after award. The 
assessment, with data sources, must include information on the 
incidence and nature of exploitative child labor, particularly the 
worst forms, among target children, hours of work, age and sex 
distribution of the proposed beneficiaries, educational performance 
relative to other children, if available, and any research or other 
data that might indicate correlations between educational performance 
and child labor. In the proposed strategy, applicants must consult and 
make reference to relevant literature and documents relating to child 
labor and the education of target children.
    Applicants are also encouraged to propose strategies for collecting 
further data on exploitative child labor and children's participation 
in schooling in the early stages of the project's baseline data 
collection. Applicants must design and implement a project monitoring 
system that allows for the monitoring and tracking of direct 
beneficiaries' work and school status throughout the life of the 
project (including type of work, conditions of work, such as hours of 
work and hazardous conditions, and school attendance).
    ii. Direct Educational Services. Projects funded under this 
Cooperative Agreement solicitation must provide for the long-term 
withdrawal and prevention of children and/or youth from exploitative 
labor through the provision of a direct educational service(s) that 
ensures their enrollment, retention and completion in at least one of 
the four educational activities identified in Section I(2). 
``Withdrawn/prevented,'' ``exploitative child labor,'' and ``direct 
educational services'' are defined in detail in Section I(2). USDOL 
encourages interventions aimed at children and youth under age 18, such 
as literacy and income-generating activities. Applicants are encouraged 
to be creative in proposing cost-effective interventions that will have 
a demonstrable impact in eliminating exploitative child labor; and 
promoting school retention and completion in the geographical areas 
where children are engaged in or most at risk of working in

[[Page 30179]]

the worst forms of child labor. Applicants must demonstrate knowledge 
of the school calendar and the requirements of basic, non-formal, and 
vocational education systems, and develop an approach that successfully 
enrolls children in educational programs with the shortest delay and 
without missing an academic year or program cycle.
    iii. Clear and Specific Outcomes. Within the countries identified 
in this solicitation, the applicant must identify the geographic areas 
of greatest need and establish the number of children the project is 
targeting for withdrawal or prevention from exploitative child labor 
through the provision of direct educational services that support 
enrollment in educational activities. Applicants must use the 
definitions provided in Section I(2) when establishing these targets. 
The expected outcomes/results of the project are to: (1) Reduce the 
number of children engaged in or at risk of entering exploitative child 
labor; (2) increase educational opportunities and access (enrollment 
and attendance) for children who are at risk of, engaging in, and/or 
removed from exploitative child labor, particularly its worst forms; 
(3) ensure retention in, and completion of, educational programs; (4) 
expand the successful transition of children from non-formal education 
programs into formal schools or vocational programs; and (5) reduce 
children's return to exploitative labor.
    iv. Collaboration and Leveraging Resources. Due to the limited 
resources available under this award, applicants are expected to 
implement programs that complement existing efforts, and where 
appropriate, replicate or enhance successful models to serve a greater 
number of children and communities. In order to avoid duplication, 
enhance collaboration, expand impact, and develop synergies, the 
Grantee must work cooperatively with national stakeholders in 
developing project interventions, including the Ministries of 
Education, Labor, and other relevant ministries, and are encouraged to 
work with other key stakeholders, including non-governmental 
organizations (NGOs), national steering/advisory committees on child 
labor, education, faith and community-based organizations, and working 
children and their families.
    Furthermore, applicants are strongly encouraged to collaborate with 
existing projects, particularly those funded by USDOL, including 
Timebound Programs (TBP) and other projects implemented by the 
International Labor Organization's International Program on the 
Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC). As discussed in Section V(1)(F), 
up to five (5) extra points will be given to applications that include 
committed non-U.S. Federal Government resources that significantly 
expand the project's scope. However, applicants must not duplicate the 
activities of existing efforts and/or projects and are expected to work 
within host government child labor and education frameworks and 
priorities.


    Note to Applicants:  USDOL has notified host government ministry 
officials of the proposed project. During the preparation of an 
application for this Cooperative Agreement solicitation, applicants 
may discuss proposed interventions, strategies, and activities with 
host government officials and civil society organizations.


    v. Sustainability. USDOL considers the issue of sustainability to 
be of paramount importance and recognizes that questions of 
sustainability must be addressed at all stages, including project 
design, implementation and evaluation. From their inception, project 
strategies should foster sustainability. To USDOL, sustainability is 
linked to project impact and the ability of individuals, communities, 
and a nation to ensure that the activities or changes implemented by a 
project endure. A project's impact is manifested at the level of 
individuals, organizations, and systems. For individual children and 
their families this would mean a positive and enduring change in their 
life conditions as a result of project interventions. At the level of 
organizations and systems, sustained impact would involve continued 
commitment and ability (including financial commitment and policy 
change) by project partners to continue the actions generated by the 
project, including enforcement of existing policies that target child 
labor and schooling. Applicants are encouraged to develop approaches 
that support youth participation in project efforts to eliminate the 
worst forms of child labor. Applicants are encouraged to identify 
organizations in the country, including type of local organizations 
(i.e., rural, indigenous, etc.), which could potentially implement or 
contribute to a future project. In addition, as child labor projects 
tend to be implemented in resource-poor environments where government 
education and labor inspection systems may be limited, applicants are 
encouraged to work with local stakeholders to develop sustainable child 
labor and education monitoring systems, including community-based 
systems, that can complement government efforts to monitor children's 
working and educational status beyond the life of the project and 
enforce the country's child labor and education laws.

5. Country-Specific Scope of Work

A. Combating Child Labor Through Education in Egypt
    i. Background. An estimated 5.9 percent of children ages 6 to 14 
were counted as working in Egypt in 1998. Rural children and children 
from poor or female-headed households account for the overwhelming 
majority of working children. Approximately 70 percent of child labor 
in Egypt occurs in rural areas. Many children work long hours in the 
agricultural sector where they work in dusty environments, without 
masks or respirators, and receive little or no training on safety 
precautions for work with toxic pesticides. Children are also found 
working in a number of hazardous sectors, including leather tanneries, 
pottery kilns, glassworks, blacksmith, metal and copper workshops, 
battery and carpentry shops, mining and quarrying, carpet weaving, auto 
repair workshops, and textile and plastics factories.
    Reports indicate a widespread practice of poor rural families 
making arrangements to send daughters to cities to work as domestic 
servants in the homes of wealthy citizens. Child domestic workers are 
excluded from the protections of the labor code and may be susceptible 
to physical and sexual abuse, harsh working conditions, and 
exploitation. Urban areas are also host to large numbers of street 
children who have left their homes in the country-side to find work, 
and often to flee hostile conditions at home. The number of working 
street children in urban areas is estimated at 2 to 5 million. Street 
children work shining shoes, collecting rubbish, begging, cleaning and 
directing cars into parking spaces, and selling food and trinkets. 
Street children are particularly vulnerable to becoming involved in 
illicit activities, including stealing, smuggling, pornography, and 
prostitution. The commercial sexual exploitation of children may be 
under-acknowledged given that Egyptian cities (Alexandria and Cairo, in 
particular) are reported destinations for sex tourism. Egypt is a 
country of transit for child trafficking, particularly for underage 
girls from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union who are 
trafficked into Israel and parts of Europe for forced labor and sexual 
exploitation.
    Child labor is one of among many problems associated with poverty. 
In 1999, the most recent year for which

[[Page 30180]]

data are available, 3.1 percent of the population in Egypt were living 
on less than USD 1 a day. In addition to poverty, numerous other 
interrelated socio-cultural factors affect whether or not a child 
enters exploitative work in Egypt, including: The deterioration in 
access to quality education; low rates of female labor force 
participation and literacy; the decline of the economic and social 
benefits of education; local economic inequalities; prevailing customs 
and traditions; protracted geopolitical conflict; and globalization.
    The recent, unprecedented demographic growth in the region has had 
a profound impact on children, increasingly pushing them into the labor 
market, often at an early age. The population of Egypt exceeded 75 
million in 2004, of which approximately 44 percent were under the age 
of 19 years. Poverty levels and unemployment rates are significant in 
urban centers, especially for young people: 15-to 24-year-olds 
represent only 21 percent of the labor force in Egypt, but over 60 
percent of the unemployed population. The high levels of youth 
unemployment in Egypt increase the likelihood that youth will work 
under exploitative conditions, particularly in the informal sector, 
which accounts for approximately 55 percent of the labor force in 
Egypt.
    The Constitution guarantees free and compulsory basic education for 
children ages 6 to 15 who are Egyptian citizens. Despite the 
constitutional guarantees to universal education, parents are 
increasingly responsible for both the direct and indirect costs of 
education. Egyptian law allows public schools to charge fees for 
services, insurance, and equipment. In 2002, the gross primary 
enrollment rate was 97 percent and the net primary enrollment rate was 
91 percent. Gross and net enrollment ratios are based on the number of 
students formally registered in primary school and therefore do not 
necessarily reflect actual school attendance. Primary school attendance 
statistics are not available for Egypt. As of 2001, 98 percent of 
children who started primary school were likely to reach grade 5. A 
2000 national survey of children ages 6 to 15 years found that 14 
percent of girls were not currently attending school, compared to 8 
percent of boys. Working children are predominantly school dropouts or 
have never been enrolled in school. The 2000 Egyptian Demographic and 
Health Survey of children ages 8 to 10 found that 3.4 percent of boys 
had never attended school, compared to 8.4 percent of girls in the same 
age group.
    Due to a significant investment in building and renovating primary 
schools in the 1990s, access to primary school education in Egypt is 
now nearly universal; however, concerns about the quality of education 
persist. The following factors were cited as weaknesses in the 
education system that contribute to low school attendance among working 
children in reports from the United Nations Development Program; 
Egyptian Institute of National Planning; Egyptian Ministry of Planning; 
and the ILO: The centralized educational structure, inadequate teacher 
incentives, a shortage of trained teachers, misallocation of resources, 
overcrowding, corporal punishment in schools, lack of participatory 
learning techniques, irrelevant curricula, and inadequate school 
infrastructure, such as sanitation facilities.
    ii. Relevant Policies, Programs and Projects. The Government's 
National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) is implementing a 
national plan to increase educational opportunities for girls and 
combat the worst forms of child labor, among other goals. The NCCM is 
executing action programs related to the plan's objectives in 
collaboration with the Ministry of Manpower and Migration (MOMM), 
Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF), ILO, UNICEF, and the Ministries 
of Social Affairs, Agriculture, Education, Health, and Interior. While 
the action programs being implemented to support the national plan 
began with technical support from ILO-IPEC and the American Federation 
of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) Solidarity 
Center, the projects are now operated independently by the NCCM, ETUF, 
UNICEF, and MOMM without continued support from ILO-IPEC or the 
Solidarity Center. Efforts by NCCM and MOMM to collaborate with other 
line ministries and NGOs to increase awareness of child labor and 
strengthen enforcement of existing laws, include:
     Training police officers to raise awareness of child 
rights and best practices for dealing with at-risk children and youth 
in partnership with the Ministry of Interior;
     Conducting an awareness raising campaign in all 26 
governorates to highlight the negative impact of child labor on 
children, their families and employers and to educate them about 
relevant legislation and enforcement issues in partnership with the 
Ministry of Information;
     Identifying governorates with high dropout rates in 
collaboration with the Ministry of Education, in order to increase 
child labor inspection in those areas;
     Preventing underage children from working in the cotton 
harvesting sector and providing children working legally with the 
necessary protection while engaging in agricultural activities in 
partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture.
    The NCCM is implementing projects in the governorates of Sharkia, 
Menofia, Minya, and Damietta to shift working children into non-
hazardous activities and gradually eliminate all forms of child labor. 
Additionally, the NCCM is executing a large-scale project supported by 
the European Union and other donors, which addresses children's issues, 
focusing on 7 priority areas: Child labor, street children, disabled 
children, early childhood education, drug abuse, girls' education, and 
prevention of harmful practices against girls. The Egyptian Prime 
Minister recently earmarked 100 million Egyptian pounds (USD 17.5 
million) in matching funds towards this initiative.
    Since 2003, the NCCM and UNICEF have been implementing the National 
Strategy for the Protection and Rehabilitation of Street Children 
(launched under the auspices of the First Lady), which aims to 
rehabilitate and reintegrate street children back into society. In June 
2005, the NCCM and UNICEF jointly organized a 3-day conference in Cairo 
entitled ``Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Regional Consultation on 
Violence Against Children,'' at which Egypt's First Lady, Mrs. Suzanne 
Mubarak, announced the establishment of a national hotline to receive 
complaints of abused children, including child laborers. Following the 
conference, the NCCM established a permanent committee to combat all 
forms of violence against children, which will include branches in all 
governorates and representatives from the Ministries of Interior, 
Social Affairs, Justice, Education and Health, as well as 
representatives from civil society.
    In January 2006, ILO-IPEC launched a campaign against child labor 
under the banner Red Card to Child Labor. The campaign is organized in 
cooperation with the NCCM, Federation International de Football 
Association (FIFA) and the African Football Confederation, and 
sponsored by the First Lady. ILO-IPEC is also currently working with a 
number of NGOs such as the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social 
Services (CEOSS), CARITAS, Terre des hommes, the Boy Scouts, and the 
Red Crescent to raise awareness on child labor. The new Minister of 
Labor has also expressed her full-fledged support to this campaign and 
to the fight against child labor in general. In previous programs 
supported by ILO-

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IPEC, 11 governorates benefited from programs to provide education 
services for working children, and 5 of these governorates have been 
declared ``child labor free.''
    Large-scale programs and initiatives have focused on the expansion 
and improvement of basic education in Egypt. The Government of Egypt 
has established a National Taskforce for Girls' Education to promote 
girls' education and eliminate gender disparities in the education 
system by the year 2015. Other programs include USAID's basic education 
programs and the World Bank's Education Enhancement Project in Egypt, 
both of which are ongoing. The World Bank's Education Enhancement 
Program Project is working to ensure universal access to basic 
education, with an emphasis on girls, and to improve the quality of 
education. In February 2005, the World Bank also began supporting a USD 
108 million Early Childhood Education Enhancement Project, which aims 
to increase access to and improve the quality of pre-primary education, 
and increase the capacity of the Ministry of Education to improve 
kindergarten programs. USAID's Basic Education and Policy Support 
Activity (BEPS) program provided policy support on child labor and 
education issues, but this project is no longer active.
    iii. Scope of Work. Applicants must propose activities that build 
upon and complement the work that has been previously carried out by 
other relevant programs and avoid any unnecessary duplication of 
effort. The applicant must take into account cross-cutting themes and 
specific considerations that could affect project results in Egypt, and 
meaningfully incorporate them into the proposed strategy, either to 
increase opportunities or reduce threats to successful implementation. 
In Egypt these could include one or more of the following:
    (1) Rural/Urban focus. Applicants should demonstrate thorough 
knowledge of child labor and barriers to education for working children 
in both rural and urban areas. The project should develop targeted 
strategies to decentralize inspection systems, improve monitoring 
mechanisms, raise awareness and improve access to education and 
training for working or at-risk children and youth that address the 
contextual realities and needs at the local level.
    (2) Targeted groups. The project should focus direct interventions 
primarily on withdrawing children and youth under 18 years of age from 
exploitative labor, with particular emphasis on the worst forms of 
child labor.
    (3) Targeted sectors. In rural areas, the project should 
specifically target exploitative child labor in the mining and 
quarrying and the cotton-farming sectors. In urban areas, the project 
should target child labor in formal establishments such as factories 
and workshops, as well as informal activity in the streets, markets and 
tourist centers. The project may also target children (mostly girls) 
who are sent from rural areas into the cities to work as domestic 
servants, either in the sending or receiving areas (or both). 
Applicants may also identify other child labor sectors/areas of 
intervention, but must provide convincing reasons why the targeted 
sector/focus merits funding.
    (4) Targeted regions. In addition to complementing the upstream 
policy and awareness activities of the NCCM and ILO-IPEC in the 15 
governorates in which child labor elimination programs are already 
underway, this project should focus direct action efforts primarily in 
the 12 governorates without ongoing activities: ad-Daqahliyah, Port 
Said, Suez, al-Isma'iliyah, Asyut, Bani Suwayf, Matruh, al-Bahr al-
Ahmar (Red Sea), al-Buhayrah, Kafr ash-Shaykh, al-Gharbiyah, and Suhaj.
    (5) Girls' education. The project should address the unique 
barriers to education for girls in rural as well as urban areas and 
incorporate these into the proposed interventions.
    (6) Collaboration. The project must work collaboratively with 
institutions and organizations already engaged in child labor and 
education issues in Egypt and the Middle East and North Africa region 
at the local, national and regional levels. At a minimum, national 
collaborations should take place with the ETUF, ILO-IPEC, MOMM, NCCM, 
the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Central 
Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), and the private 
sector.
    (7) Political and civil society environment. In their approach to 
project interventions, applicants should take into account the complex 
legal and political relationship between civil society groups and 
government structures. Applicants should also factor in the effect that 
personnel changes in cooperating ministries might have, and design 
strategies that minimize disruptions when such events occur. Applicants 
should demonstrate how they have managed to operate within such 
environments in the past and/or include a plan for doing so under the 
proposed project.
    (8) Weak organizational capacity and conflictive social relations. 
Evaluations of USDOL projects in the Middle East and North Africa 
region have noted incidents of weak local organizational capacity and 
conflictive social relations, including teachers' strikes leading to 
absenteeism. Applicants should indicate to what extent these challenges 
might be significant in the areas where the project would be 
implemented, how they would be addressed and how relationships with 
grassroots community organizations would be developed.
    (9) Educational relevance and cultural sensitivity. Applicants must 
develop a strategy that will increase the perceived relevance of 
education and training for working children, their parents, and the 
communities where they live. If cultural traditions and norms impact 
decisions about schooling, applicants must show how education programs 
would be sensitive and responsive to these expectations, particularly 
as they relate to girls' education.
B. Combating Child Labor Through Education in Peru
    i. Background. The urban informal sector in Latin America is 
dynamic and complex, often an alternative source of employment and 
entrepreneurship for those not able to obtain jobs in the formal 
sector. Although there are no recent statistics available on employment 
in Peru's informal sector, it is estimated that more than one-half of 
the economically active population works in this sector. Urban informal 
work makes up a large percentage of services and sales activities. 
Recent migrants from rural areas who often live in urban slums or 
barriadas and pueblos jovenes tend to find precarious livelihoods in 
the informal sector.
    According to a World Bank study published in 2005, 18.1 percent of 
the population in Peru in 2001 was living on less than USD 1 a day. 
Urban poverty has increased during the past decade. The United Nations 
Development Programme's Human Development Report shows that Peru's 
population living below the poverty line grew from 49 percent in 1997 
to 54 percent in 2002. More recent statistics are not available, but 
the rapid growth of pueblos jovenes in the outskirts of the main urban 
centers suggests a continued challenge with issues of poverty and 
migration.
    In the urban informal sector, migrants may also reproduce economic 
relationships common in rural areas that include self-employment and 
family labor, including child labor. Young people unaccompanied by 
their families, or not living with relatives,

[[Page 30182]]

may be forced to survive alone as street children. An estimated 16.5 
percent of children ages 6 to 14 were counted as working in Peru in 
1994. The number of children engaged in urban informal work in Peru is 
unknown, but given the size of the country's informal sector, it is 
likely that many children are involved. In urban and surrounding areas, 
they are involved in street-vending, fireworks production, and brick-
making. They shine shoes, wash and guard cars, perform at traffic-light 
intersections, and sell goods on public transportation and markets. 
Many children, particularly girls, move from rural to urban areas to 
work as domestic servants. Children are also involved in crime, 
including petty theft, and drug trafficking. Some children and youth 
are trafficked internally along commercial routes, where some fall 
victim to prostitution and other forms of commercial sexual 
exploitation in tourist and other locations such as beaches, markets, 
cinemas, theaters, and restaurants.
    Whether living on the streets or in slums, urban child laborers are 
exposed to high emotional and physical risks and levels of violence. 
Children working in the streets can be harassed by the police, and are 
extremely vulnerable to traffic accidents and weather conditions. Being 
on their own and struggling for survival, they generally do not attend 
school. On the other hand, children who live in slums with their 
families may manage to combine work with school attendance. Yet poor 
school quality, combined with many of the social conditions faced in 
the slums such as family breakdown, domestic violence, early 
parenthood, and crime may deter school attendance or lead to drop out.
    In Peru, the General Education Law establishes free and compulsory 
public education through secondary school. Despite the legal guarantee 
for free education, some primary school fees continue to be charged. In 
2002, the gross primary enrollment rate was 118 percent and the net 
primary enrollment was 100 percent. As of 2001, 84 percent of children 
who started primary school were likely to reach grade five. Girls 
attend school at a lower rate than boys, and school attendance is lower 
in rural than in urban areas.
    In recent years there have been positive efforts to decentralize 
school management, giving parents and teachers some decision-making 
power in relation to the school budget. However at the school 
performance level, children from poor families continue to learn 
significantly less and leave school sooner than other children. In the 
2003 Programme for International Student Assessment, Peruvian students 
from poor families scored sharply lower in reading and math than those 
from higher income families. School performance is a greater issue 
among indigenous and Afro-Latin students. While 35 percent of students 
reached sufficient levels of reading comprehension in national tests, 
that level was only reached by 0.3 percent of native Quechua and 8 
percent of native Aymara speakers.
    In Peru, the minimum age of work is 15. Various laws regulate the 
hours and types of jobs that working adolescents may perform. The 
National Police, local prosecutors, Municipal Child and Adolescent 
Defender Centers, and the Ministry of Labor and Employment Promotion 
are involved in the enforcement of child labor laws. Most labor 
inspections are conducted in the formal sector rather than the urban 
informal sector, where child labor usually occurs.
    ii. Relevant Policies, Programs and Projects. There are a number of 
efforts by the Government of Peru, international organizations, and 
NGOs to address exploitative child labor in the urban informal sector. 
Three important policy frameworks in place in Peru include the National 
Plan for the Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor, the National 
Action Plan for Children and Adolescents, and Network Now Against Child 
Sexual Exploitation. See Comit[eacute] Directivo Nacional para la 
Prevenci[oacute]n y Erradicaci[oacute]n del Trabajo Infantil (CPETI), 
Plan Nacional de Prevenci[oacute]n y Erradicaci[oacute]n del Trabajo 
Infantil, 2005 available on ICLP's Web site https://www.dol.gov/ilab/
grants/bkgrd.htm.
    The Government of Peru is participating in a USDOL-funded ILO-IPEC 
program to eliminate exploitative child labor in the domestic service 
and commercial sex sectors. USDOL also supports a project to provide 
education to children involved in small-scale artisanal mining in Puno. 
In order to promote education for child domestics, the Ministry of 
Education offers night classes and has lengthened matriculation periods 
for such children. The government also supports NGOs that provide 
services to sexually exploited and trafficked minors.
    There are a number of programs that promote basic education for 
children involved in or at risk of urban informal work. The Ministry of 
Women and Social Development (MIMDES) supports the program Street 
Educators, which provides education and services to children in the 
streets and urban markets. The National Institute of Family Well-Being 
has a program that provides a variety of services to working youth, 
including school support, school reinsertion, reintegration to the 
family, and vocational training.
    The Ministry of Education implements a basic education program to 
strengthen teachers' skills and provide them with free educational 
materials. The Ministry also oversees a project to build the capacity 
to develop innovative teaching materials and operates a tutoring 
program for children formerly excluded from the public school system, 
including working children. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) 
is providing a loan to the Ministry of Labor and Employment Promotion 
to develop training activities and facilitate labor market access for 
older youth. The IDB provided a new loan in May 2005 to the Ministry of 
Economy and Finance that aims to provide support to social sector 
reforms in education, labor and other areas. The Ministry is also 
working with USAID to develop models of educational decentralization 
and strengthen local educational capacity.
    iii. Scope of Work. The primary focus of proposed strategies should 
be to develop educational programs for children aged 11 to 15, which 
will enable them to successfully progress as appropriate towards the 
completion of secondary school, vocational certification, or other 
course of study/training that substantially improve their basic 
literacy, numeracy, entrepreneurial, technical, or vocational skills. 
Applicants should focus on the urban informal sector and identify urban 
centers in Peru where they will undertake this work, such as the ones 
that have been attracting most of the internal migration and informal 
sector development in the past decades (e.g., Lima, Callao, Piura, 
Chiclayo, Trujillo, Arequipa, Juliaca, Cuzco and Iquitos). For the 
purposes of this Solicitation for Grant Applications (SGA), the urban 
informal sector is used to refer to areas of economic activity in large 
metropolitan areas that are largely unregulated. Labor relations in 
this sector are largely based on casual employment, kinship, or 
personal and social relations rather than on formal contractual 
arrangements. Examples of such urban informal sector activities include 
selling goods on the street or in markets or involvement in small scale 
businesses or industries. Applicants may also identify other child 
labor sectors/areas of intervention, but must provide convincing 
reasons why the targeted sector/focus merits funding. The Government of 
Peru has identified Cajamarca, Lima and Puno as priority

[[Page 30183]]

regions/cities. These regions should be considered in as much as they 
fit within the context of this SGA.
    The application must also take into account cross-cutting themes 
that could affect project results in Peru, and meaningfully incorporate 
them into the proposed strategy, either to increase opportunities or 
reduce threats to successful implementation. In Peru these include:
    (1) Governmental and non-governmental efforts to implement the 
National Plan for the Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor.
    (2) Knowledge of the major trends in thought and practice regarding 
the informal sector in Peru and its regulation, and how this knowledge 
might be used to monitor and regulate in a productive manner the worst 
forms of child labor, and compliance with compulsory education laws.
    (3) Organizational and coordination capacity of governmental and 
non-governmental agencies that might contribute to the project's 
implementation.
    (4) The strength and innovation of many civil society and private 
sector initiatives to address social and education issues in Peru, and 
how these might be harnessed to the benefit of the project.
    (5) Changes in the political environment, including those resulting 
from the presidential election, and the corresponding changes that may 
occur in policy and personnel in cooperating governmental agencies.
    (6) The socio-economic environment in which the project will 
operate and the demographic and social characteristics of the 
beneficiaries, and how programs to increase income of families in 
marginalized urban areas might complement the efforts of the project.
C. Combating Child Labor Through Education in Tanzania
    i. Background. An estimated 35.4 percent of children ages 5 to 14 
worked in Tanzania in 2000-2001. The majority of working children are 
found in the agricultural sector (77.4 percent) and service sectors 
(22.4 percent). However, children are also found to be working in the 
manufacturing sector (0.1 percent) and other sectors (0.2 percent). 
Children work on commercial tea, coffee, sugar cane, sisal, cloves, and 
tobacco farms, and in the production of wheat, corn, green algae, 
pyrethrum and rubber. Children also work in underground mines and near 
mines in bars and restaurants. In the informal sector, children are 
engaged in scavenging, fishing, fish processing, and quarrying. Other 
children work as street vendors, cart pushers, and in garages. Children 
also work as paid domestic servants in third-party homes.
    Tanzania is reported to be a country of origin, transit and 
destination for women and children trafficked for sexual exploitation 
and forced labor. Within Tanzania, children are trafficked to work in 
mines, on farms and in domestic service. It is reported that girls are 
trafficked from Tanzania to South Africa, Saudi Arabia, the United 
Kingdom, and Europe for domestic labor. Children are also reportedly 
trafficked to North Africa and the Middle East.
    Girls as young as 7 years, and increasingly boys, are reportedly 
exploited in prostitution and other forms of commercial sexual 
exploitation. Children are trafficked, often under false pretenses, 
from rural to urban areas for exploitation in the commercial sex 
sector. Such children are often lured with false promises of work as 
house girls, barmaids, and in hair salons. There are reports of sex 
tourism involving children under the age of 18 years on the island of 
Zanzibar. Children from Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda are also exploited in 
prostitution in Tanzania. In addition, there are reports of children 
exploited in the production of pornographic films. HIV/AIDS is a 
significant factor contributing to the incidence of exploitative labor, 
including the worst forms of child labor in Tanzania. According to 
UNICEF, an estimated 2 million children have been orphaned in Tanzania, 
primarily due to HIV/AIDS.
    Education in Tanzania is compulsory for 7 years, until age 15. 
Primary school fees were eliminated in Tanzania in 2002, and this has 
led to primary schools becoming overwhelmed by the massive increase in 
children seeking to take advantage of free primary education. It has 
also resulted in a lack of resources for additional teachers, 
classrooms, and books. Moreover, families must pay for books, uniforms, 
and for enrollment fees for children beyond form 2 (the equivalent of 
the second year of high school). There are also reports of children not 
attending school because of poorly paid teachers demanding money from 
them in order to be enrolled.
    ii. Relevant Policies, Programs and Projects. In Tanzania, the 
Ministry of Labor, Youth Development, and Sports has primary 
responsibility for enforcing the country's child labor laws. The 
Ministry's Child Labor Unit works with other government ministries and 
networks with other stakeholders; gathers, analyzes, and disseminates 
child labor-related data; and trains and sensitizes labor inspectors on 
child labor issues. At the community level, child labor committees have 
been established to identify children who are not attending school and 
take measures to prevent or withdraw these children from child labor.
    The Government of Tanzania is working with ILO's International 
Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) to implement a 
Timebound Program (TBP), with the goal of eliminating the worst forms 
of child labor in the country by 2010, including exploitative child 
labor in commercial agriculture, domestic service, mining, fishing, and 
prostitution. Under the TBP, the Ministry of Labor's Child Labor Unit 
is working with ILO-IPEC to provide training for child labor 
coordinators and other officials in 11 districts to increase their 
capacity to combat the worst forms of child labor and is developing a 
community-based monitoring system to collect information and track 
trends in the incidence of child labor. The Child Labor Unit also acts 
as the secretariat for the TBP's National Child Labor Elimination 
Steering Committee (NCLESC), which is responsible for defining 
objectives and priorities for child labor interventions, approving and 
overseeing implementation of child labor action projects, and advising 
the government on various child labor issues.
    The Government of Tanzania's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper 
(PRSP) includes the elimination of child labor as an objective and 
established the Poverty Monitoring Master Plan (PMMP), which 
incorporates the percentage of children in the labor force as a poverty 
monitoring indicator and calls for an Education Fund to support 
children from poor families. In February 2005, the PRSP II document--
otherwise known as the National Strategies for Growth and Poverty 
Reduction--was finalized and approved by the Cabinet. The National 
Strategies for Growth and Poverty Reduction includes specific 
references to elimination of the worst forms of child labor and the 
provision of skills training and educational alternatives for children 
and their families.
    The Government of Tanzania supports a number of basic education 
initiatives, including the Ministry of Education's Complementary Basic 
Education in Tanzania (COBET) Program and its Vocational Education 
Training Authority (VETA). As part of the ILO-IPEC Project of Support 
to the Tanzania TBP, the COBET and CETA programs have provided basic 
education and

[[Page 30184]]

vocational training to children withdrawn or prevented from involvement 
in the worst forms of child labor in 11 target districts.
    In addition, from 2002 to 2006, a USDOL-funded, EI project 
implemented by the NGO, the Education Development Center (EDC), has 
helped further expand the coverage of informal education services in 
Tanzania by developing a radio-based curriculum for Standards 1 through 
4; establishing 288 Mambo Elimu learning centers in ten districts; and 
training community mentors to work at each center. With the project 
nearing completion, the Ministry of Education has stated its intention 
to support the continued operation of these centers, and Radio Tanzania 
has agreed to maintain broadcasting of the radio-based curriculum. An 
effort funded by the Government of Japan, through UNICEF, is also 
supporting a basic education project targeting out-of-school children 
in Tanzania by providing textbooks, reading materials on HIV/AIDS, and 
community workshops on HIV/AIDS with support from COBET.
    The government's Basic Education Master Plan aims to achieve 
universal access to basic education for children over the age of 7 and 
ensure that at least 80 percent of children complete primary education 
and are able to read and write by age 15. The government is 
implementing a 5-year Primary Education Development Plan (PEDP), begun 
in 2002, which aims to expand enrollment, improve the quality of 
teaching, and build capacity within the country's educational system. 
Under the PEDP, the government has committed up to 25 percent of its 
overall recurrent expenditures on the education sector, 62 percent of 
which is allocated to primary education. The government has received a 
USD 150 million credit from the World Bank to support this program. 
Tanzania's Development Vision 2025 and its Poverty Eradication Strategy 
2015 both identify education as a strategy for combating poverty, and 
the country's poverty eradication agenda includes ensuring all children 
the right to basic quality education. The Government of Tanzania 
receives funding from the World Bank and other donors under the 
Education for All Fast Track Initiative, which aims to provide all 
children with a primary school education by the year 2015.
    iii. Scope of Work. The primary focus of the proposed strategy 
should be to develop educational programs for children under the age of 
18 that will enable them to successfully progress towards the 
completion of secondary school or its equivalent or the transition to 
non-exploitative labor in line with Tanzania's national labor laws. The 
projects developed by the applicant can include catc