Secretary of Labor Highlights U.S. HIV/AIDS, Child Labor Programs at Conference
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, speaking at the 91st session of the International Labour Conference, highlighted President Bush's efforts to fight HIV/AIDS, U.S. programs to help child laborers in other countries and the Labor Department's HIV/AIDS prevention education projects. Chao said, "I am proud that the United States under the leadership of President George W. Bush has launched an unprecedented emergency relief effort to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic." Chao concluded that both the HIV/AIDS and child labor initiatives "can make a real difference for the world's children and for the world's workers" and called on ILO members to "join us in supporting these worthy goals" (Department of Labor release, 6/11).
UNICEF Head Urges African Leaders To Focus on Children
UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy on Wednesday speaking at the Africa Economic Summit in Durban, South Africa, said that African nations must focus their resources on the education, health and protection of children in order to make overall progress, U.N./AllAfrica.com reports. While Africa accounts for only 12% of the world's population, it represents 43% of the world's child deaths, 50% of maternal deaths, 70% of the people living with HIV/AIDS and 90% of AIDS orphans, according to U.N./AllAfrica.com. She said, "No continent with such unfavorable indicators of child well-being can achieve real development or stability. Only by improving the immediate prospects of children can we break out of poverty toward true progress for Africa." She added that "no single measure of development predicts the future as reliably as the well-being of a nation's youngest citizens," according to U.N./AllAfrica.com. At the summit, Bellamy submitted to the attendees a 50-page proposal, titled "The Young Face of NEPAD," in reference to the New Partnership for Africa's Development, which was founded last year by African leaders in an attempt to rebuild the continent (U.N./AllAfrica.com, 6/11).