Office of the Secretary April 26, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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 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 https:// 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 https://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.