ILO to launch project on women's employment

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)