The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs is offering a grant to strengthen worker engagement, empowerment, and trust in the Dominican sugar sector.

The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL, or the Department), announces the availability of approximately $3 million total costs (subject to the availability of Federal funds) for 1 cooperative agreement to fund 1 technical assistance project with the overarching objective to increase field workers and their families’ use of formal and informal mechanisms to improve working and living conditions in the Dominican sugar sector. 

The duration of the project will be a maximum of 54 months from the effective date of the award. 

The project will increase access to these mechanisms by building connections between civil society organizations and sugarcane field workers, while helping unions in the sugar sector, government ministries, and sugar companies to more effectively involve field workers in improving their working and living conditions. In particular, this project will address underdeveloped support networks, knowledge gaps and communication barriers, and other constraints that prevent Dominican sugar sector workers and their families from realizing their labor rights, including through use of various services, dialogue and outreach, and remediation approaches to resolve concerns about working and living conditions. The project must be designed to achieve two or more outcomes that are considered both necessary and sufficient to achieve the project objective, and substantially contribute to the desired long-term impact(s).

1. Strengthened networks among workers, their communities, and civil society advocates that facilitate trust and participation in mechanisms to improve working and living conditions.

2. Increased availability of local resources and capacity to use mechanisms for improving working and living conditions in the Dominican sugar sector.