• Gender Related Data on Agriculture - Eva Laczka
  abstract | Bio
• The Invisible Citizens: Pakistan's Infant Mortality - Mubarka Haq
  abstract | Bio
• A Pilot Study of the Well-Being of Young People in Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon - Faisal Awartani and Mary W. Gray (presenter: Dr. Awartani) abstract | Bio
• Child Labor in Philippine Agriculture: Researching Occupational Safety and Health Indicators of Hazardous Work for Children - Charita L. Castro abstract | Bio
• Comments on the session - John Curry abstract | Bio
• Chair Martha Farrar

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Charita L. Castro

Charita L. Castro is currently the Division Chief for the Program Operations and  Research team in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking
(OCFT).  From 2005-2006, she served as the Division Chief for OCFT’s Asia/Europe/Middle East and North Africa  regional team.  She began work at OCFT in July 2001, and has since contributed to the publication of 10 congressionally-mandated reports, including the Department’s Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor; monitored the implementation of technical assistance projects; and represented USDOL at various international and domestic meetings.  Ms. Castro joined the federal government in July 1999 as a survey statistician in the Labor Force and Transfer Programs Statistics Branch at U.S. Census Bureau through the Presidential Management Fellowship program where she analyzed data and published reports on income-assistance programs and welfare reform. 

With both Ms. Castro’s parents from the Philippines, her academic interests and professional career in domestic and international welfare issues were formed from the exposure to poverty during her many visits to the Philippines as a child. Prior to joining the federal government, Ms. Castro worked with Life Crisis Services, Citizens for Missouri’s Children, and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).  At the CBPP, she was a research assistant to Wendell E. Primus, Director of Income Security, where she co-authored, “A State Strategy for Increasing Child Support Payments from Low-Income Fathers and Improving the Well-Being of Their Children through Economic Incentives.”  

In addition to Ms. Castro’s professional work on international child labor issues, she has been involved with American University’s School of International Service in developing a graduate course on Children and International Development and has guest lectured at Georgetown University’s graduate school in public policy.

Charita L. Castro has received her education along the Mississippi River obtaining her Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 1997 from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana and her Master of Social Work in 1999 from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.  In May 2007, Ms. Castro received her doctoral degree from the George Washington University’s School of Public Policy and Public Administration in Washington, D.C.  The title of her dissertation was “Child Labor in Philippine Agriculture:  Examining Hazardous Work for Children in the Context of International Labor Standards and U.S. Trade Policy.”  During the 2004-2005 academic year, Ms. Castro was a Visiting Researcher to the University of the Philippines, Diliman as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to conduct dissertation research.

Journal Publications on Child Labor:

Charita L. Castro, Sarah Gormly, Amy R. Ritualo (Forthcoming).  The SIMPOC Philippine Survey of Children 2001:  A Data Source for Analyzing Occupational Injuries to Children.  Public Health Reports.

Amy R. Ritualo, Charita L. Castro, & Sarah Gormly (2003).  Measuring Child Labor:  Implications for Policy and Program Design.  Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal 24, 401-434.

John Curry

John Curry is a Social Anthropologist who received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts , Amherst in 1984.

Before joining FAO as Gender Research Officer for the Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division in 2000, he conducted applied social research and provided training and technical support in social research methods for multidisciplinary agricultural development and research institutes in Africa . This research included investigations of household time allocation, budgetary transactions and labour and input use disaggregated by sex and age in farming systems in Niger and Swaziland .

From 1990 to 1993, he was the Social Anthropologist for the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD) and conducted research on g ender, intra-household dynamics and livestock disease control , ethnoveterinary knowledge systems, dietary impacts of livestock disease control and community-based tsetse control in Kenya. From 1995 to 1999, he also provided training and technical support in applied social research and gender mainstreaming to the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute under the DFID component of the Kenya National Agricultural Research Project II. His current research centres on gender and social impacts of Avian Influenza and its control in Southeast Asia and Turkey .

Éva Laczka Ph.D.

I graduated in 1972 at the Department for Geography and History of the Lajos Kossuth University ( Debrecen , Hungary ). The same year I joined the Department for Agriculture of the Central Statistical Office. From 1972 to 1986 I worked in the group of historical statistics of the Section; this job largely contributed to the methodological and practical knowledge of agricultural statistics.

In 1986 the Section of historical statistics of the Department for Agriculture was dissolved, so I joined the Survey Section of the Department. In this position I was responsible for the methodological preparation of surveys.

In 1983 I took my college degree in statistics; in 1989 I took a state examination in English language.

In 1990 I was nominated the head of the Survey Group established as the successor of the Survey Section. The Group was responsible for the preparation and implementation of the agricultural census of year 1991.

In May 1996 I was transferred to the Presidential Department. In my position of the Head of Department I was responsible for the human resource management and development of the Office.

From 1997 to January 1999 I managed the Department for National Accounts. This job deepened my knowledge of macro-statistics; in these years I contributed to the adaptation and operation of the system of agricultural accounts.

Since January 1999 I have been managing the Department for Agricultural and Environmental Statistics. In this period of time the Economic Accounts for Agriculture was established, the agricultural census, vineyard and orchard censuses and farm structure surveys have been implemented. Our Department completed the pre-accession tasks in the field of agricultural statistics; for this purpose the staff of the Department participated in a number of projects sponsored by the EU. By the help of PHARE project funding a unique data processing system has been developed and implemented at the Department.

In 2004 I took a Ph.D. degree at the Saint Steven University ( Gödöllo , Hungary ). The topic of my thesis – Interpretation of the concept of farm in statistical and economic terms - is closely linked with my specialist area.

Since 1998 I have been the General Secretary of the Hungarian Statistical Society; since 2001 I have been the member of the International Statistical Institute.

In 1988 I was awarded the Elek Fényes commemorative; in 2003 I was awarded the Károly Keleti medal.

15 May 2007, Budapest .