VZCZCXYZ0009
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAK #6459/01 3241507
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 201507Z NOV 06
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9999
INFO RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC

UNCLAS ANKARA 006459 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB PHUM PREL PGOV TU
SUBJECT: USDOL-FUNDED CHILD LABOR PROJECT BACK ON TRACK 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: A $6 million U.S. Department of Labor 
(USDOL)-funded "Education Initiative" project aimed at 
removing children from agricultural work in six Turkish 
provinces is back on track.  Negotiations between officials 
from Turkey's Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MOLSS), 
Ministry of National Education (MONE), USDOL's International 
Relations Analyst Mihail Seroka, and Embassy Labor Attache 
successfully reached an agreement in principle to refocus 
part of the project budget on direct incentives to help 
ensure working children enroll in school and at-risk children 
already in school stay there.  The negotiations also led to a 
breakthrough on the text of a protocol agreement between 
USDOL's project grantee, IMPAQ International, and the GOT 
that will govern their relationship and cooperation on the 
project.  As soon as IMPAQ and MOLSS sign the protocol 
agreement and USDOL gives final approval to the revised 
project budget, we hope the final two years of this four-year 
project will achieve the project's primary goal -- to remove 
children from work in the fields and ensure that they are 
placed on a path to greater potential success through 
education.  END SUMMARY 
 
¶2. (U) IMPAQ International established an office in Turkey in 
2004 to carry out a grant agreement it had signed with USDOL. 
 Under the terms of the four-year agreement, IMPAQ's 
objective by 2008 was to reduce the incidence of child labor 
in six provinces in Turkey through: 
 
-- the development and implementation of pilot educational 
interventions directed at migrant children using existing GOT 
educational and social services; 
-- the development of additional institutions responsive to 
the needs of migrant and marginalized children laboring in 
the agricultural sector; 
-- the implementation of an information campaign on health 
and safety practices targeted to address child labor and 
gender issues related to agriculture; and 
-- the creation of a highly-structured monitoring and 
evaluation process to measure program effectiveness and 
provide a basis for policy dialogue and discussions among 
relevant government agencies and other stakeholders. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Unfortunately, IMPAQ ran into difficulties with the 
GOT bureaucracy early on, largely because of expectations of 
the child labor unit in Turkey's MOLSS that it and MONE, 
through a Project Coordination Center (PCC) consisting of 
dedicated employees from both ministries, would be able to be 
involved in making decisions at the micro level for the 
project.  Never having worked previously on a child labor 
project with IMPAQ nor cooperated with USDOL on child labor 
projects outside those funded through the International Labor 
Organization's International Program on the Elimination of 
Child Labor (ILO-IPEC), Turkey's child labor experts at MOLSS 
and MONE became frustrated with their inability directly to 
control aspects of the IMPAQ project's budgeting and 
direction. 
 
¶4. (SBU) As a result, IMPAQ and the GOT had never reached 
agreement on a protocol agreement that would govern the 
relationship between the government entities and IMPAQ, as 
well as lay out the responsibilities of IMPAQ and the 
government's Project Coordination Center.  Lacking such an 
agreement, GOT officials became increasingly frustrated with 
their inability to communicate their desires for the project 
to IMPAQ as well as with what they perceived as inaction on 
IMPAQ's part, and began to withdraw field support for the 
project in the provinces.  MOLSS officials also complained 
about IMPAQ's Ankara-based project director not having the 
authority to make decisions without first referring either to 
IMPAQ Washington, USDOL, or both. 
 
¶5. (SBU) After two years and little to show for the time and 
money expended on the project, an exchange of letters between 
USDOL's Deputy Under Secretary for International Labor 
Affairs James Carter and Directors General at both MOLSS and 
MONE led to the October 28-November 9 visit of USDL's 
International Relations Analyst Mihail Seroka to Turkey.  Mr. 
Seroka's meetings with MOLSS and MONE officials established 
the foundation for a government-to-government relationship at 
the working level and provided GOT officials a level of 
confidence in the USG commitment to cooperating with the GOT 
on this project. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Working against a November 2 deadline, at which time 
Turkey's National Steering Committee on child labor issues 
was expected to call for the end of the IMPAQ-led project in 
Turkey, Mr. Seroka and Laboff endeavored to convince GOT 
officials to continue working with IMPAQ on the project.  In 
response to the GOT's expressed desire to expend most of the 
remaining funding on direct incentives to children to ensure 
their initial registration or continued enrollment in school, 
we injected a dose of reality into the budget discussions and 
identified a funding level for incentives that was feasible 
in light of the amount of remaining funds.  Given goodwill 
established and progress made during the negotiations, MOLSS 
convinced the National Steering Committee to postpone making 
a decision concerning the IMPAQ project at its November 2 
meeting.  Subsequently, working directly with MOLSS and IMPAQ 
officials, we facilitated agreement on the text of the 
project protocol agreement.  Following final negotiations on 
November 8, MOLSS officials expressed satisfaction with both 
the protocol text and the budget outline agreed upon.  They 
also agreed to engage with IMPAQ representatives in the near 
future to develop a cooperative workplan to ensure that 
henceforth the project maintains this newly attained 
momentum. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Pending signature of the protocol text by MOLSS and 
IMPAQ officials and approval of the revised project budget by 
USDOL, the path has been cleared of obstacles.  We hope the 
10,000 children the project aims to help by 2008, as well as 
bilateral cooperation, will now benefit as originally 
foreseen. 
 
Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ 
 
WILSON