ILO to launch project on women's employment

JAKARTA (JP): The International Labor Organization (ILO) is seeking to cooperate with the government and local non- governmental organizations (NGOs) to expand employment opportunities for poverty-stricken women here.

Iftikhar Ahmed, the head of the ILO office in Jakarta, said that the ILO Asia-Pacific Regional office had decided to carry out a pilot project in Indonesia to empower women in rural and urban areas and seek proposals from local NGOs as to how to carry it out.

"We are targeting poor women in urban and rural areas who are in need of technical and financial assistance to improve their skills and help create jobs for them," he said, adding that the same project was also under way in Nepal.

He said that the pilot project would be carried out in the next five years in Jakarta, West Java, East Nusa Tenggara, Central Kalimantan and Bengkulu.

The ILO would provide US$200,000 (Rp 1.8 billion) annually to the project, he said.

Mitsuko Horiuchi, ILO assistant director for the Asia-Pacific region, said in the meeting that with the economic crisis, women continued to be a disadvantaged group in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia.

She said that the project offered to Indonesia was aimed at assisting its efforts to promote the employment of women, alleviate poverty and promote equality.

Based on Ministerial Decree No 51, issued by Minister of Manpower Theo L. Sambuaga last month, the Ministry of Manpower has set up a national steering committee for the project.

The committee, chaired by Yudo Swasono, the head of the ministry's research and development center, has 18 members from several government departments and the ILO office in Jakarta. (rms)