US government grant to combat child labour

The US Labour Department this month provided grants of over US $1 million to countries, including Uganda, to help take children out of exploitative jobs and put them in school or training. "Through experience in projects to end child labour we know it is not enough to take the children out of the jobs. They must have education and their families must have other means of income. The projects we fund do these things," US Secretary for Labour Alexis Herman said in a statement. In Uganda, the project which will be administered by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), will provide assistance to the government to develop a national policy and plan of action to combat exploitative child labour. It will take specific measures to harmonise the country's child labour legislation with international standards and develop Uganda's institutional capacity to investigate and monitor the problem. The project also includes pilot programmes to withdraw some 3,000 children from work and to enrol and retain them in primary schools.