Combating Forced Labor and Labor Trafficking of Adults and Children in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire (FLIP)
Print
This project builds the capacity of the government and businesses to expand and better coordinate ongoing labor trafficking enforcement efforts in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. By putting the right tools in the hands of labor inspectors, business owners, workers, and service providers, the project will advance greater supply chain transparency and accountability.
The Problem
Despite a relatively strong national anti-trafficking legal framework, forced labor and labor trafficking have been documented in a number of key economic sectors in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Government anti-trafficking efforts are limited by a lack of systematic data collection, monitoring and analysis. Meanwhile, private sector efforts to monitor labor practices have for the most part focused narrowly on the prevention of child labor in both countries’ high-profile cocoa industry. Companies, governments and others face the persistent challenge of identifying the point at which grueling or poorly paid work becomes involuntary (forced labor) – and thus violates international standards and national laws.
Our Strategy
The project will help law enforcement, private sector due diligence monitors, social service and civil society organizations including workers’ unions, and workers themselves to prevent, detect and eliminate forced labor and labor trafficking in supply chains. By adopting an indicator-based framework developed by the ILO, stakeholders will share a common vocabulary and set of indicators to coordinate anti-labor-trafficking efforts.
The project will leverage the programming and monitoring infrastructure already in place to combat child labor in cocoa and expand its reach to other sectors known to be at risk of using forced labor. FLIP contributes to the development of a common framework on forced labor indicators through creating educational resources on forced labor; offering trainings on forced labor; consulting on the integration of forced labor indicators into monitoring systems; and conducting a Training of Trainers for labor inspectors,
Project partners will also collect up-to-date qualitative and quantitative data on indicators of forced labor currently present in the cocoa, palm oil, gold mining sectors of Ghana and in the cocoa and coffee sectors of Côte d’Ivoire. This data will be fed into piloting a streamlined approach to forced labor monitoring. FLIP integrates this approach into existing efforts, encouraging coordination among stakeholders and providing labor inspectors with the tools and training they need. Through this integrated approach, the project will promote a scalable, streamlined model for monitoring and enforcement.
Additionally, the project will ensure that national and regional data collection, prevention and remediation efforts are aligned between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
Results
- To date, the project has trained 85 civil society and trade union members, 47 government representatives, and 40 private sector individuals in Ghana on how to identify and assess instances of forced labor.
- The project provides ongoing training to members of civil society, the private sector, trade unions, and governments on how the ILO forced labor indicators approach can be used to prevent, identify, and address forced labor. Those engaged include:
- The Cocoa Sustainability Team of Olam, Ghana;
- A coalition of civil society organizations in Ghana working to support the realization of Sustainable Development Goal 8;
- Leaders of the Ghanaian General Agricultural Workers Union;
- Staff from the Human Trafficking Secretariat of the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection; and
- Journalists as part of a larger training on child labor convened by the International Cocoa Initiative.
- In May 2020, the project launched a free online learning resource featuring two courses: Forced Labor Frameworks and The ILO Forced Labor Indicators. Government ministries, business owners, workers, and organizations providing social services use these resources to build the capacity of their staff in forced labor and related issues.
- Following a 2019 needs assessment of the labor inspectorate, the project developed an innovative virtual, yet interactive, training of trainers curriculum on forced labor in collaboration with the Ghanaian Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations. The curriculum is designed to train labor inspectors on how to identify, address, and prevent forced labor using the ILO forced labor indicators approach and how to in turn deliver training to colleagues. To date, 10 labor inspector trainers have been trained in Ghana, and the project continues to support them as they implement their own trainings of all 168 current labor inspectors.
- Based on the success of the Ghana model, the project is expanding activities into Côte d’Ivoire. Activities in Côte d’Ivoire will complement the project’s original objective by strengthening a common framework for understanding and addressing forced labor risks in both countries, including in the cocoa supply chain.
Related Learnings
- Grantee:
- Verité
- Implementing Partners:
- International Cocoa Initiative, NORC
- Contact Information:
- globalkids@ilab.dol.gov / Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT)
- Tags:
- Child Labor
Related Project Resources
- Curriculum on Forced Labour for Labour Inspectors in Ghana
- The ILO Forced Labour Indicators
- Forced Labour Frameworks
- Forced Labor Indicators Project (FLIP) - June 2021
- Ghana Forced Labor Indicators Project (FLIP) - September 2020
- Project-FLIP Indicateurs du Travail Forcé - June 2021
- Ghana Forced Labor Indicators Project (FLIP) - June 2020
- Ghana Forced Labor Indicators Project
- Forced Labor Indicators Project (FLIP) - September 2021
- Ghana Forced Labor Indicators Project (FLIP) - December 2020
- Project-FLIP Indicateurs du Travail Forcé - September 2021
- Curriculum on Forced Labor for Labor Inspectors in Ghana
- Curriculum de Formation sur le Travail Forcé (Version adaptée pour les fournisseurs de cacao)
- Curriculum on Forced Labour (Version for Cocoa Suppliers)
- Training of Trainers on Forced Labour - Facilitators' Guide
- Formation des formateurs sur le travail forcé - Guide du facilitateur
- Lesson 1: Forced Labour - Definition and International Standards
- Leçon 1: Travail forcé — Définition et normes internationales
- Lesson 2: Human Trafficking — Definition and International Standards
- Leçon 2 : Traite des êtres humains — définition et normes internationales
- Lesson 3: Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire's Legal and Policy Frameworks Related to Forced Labour and Human Trafficking
- Leçon 3 : Cadres juridiques et politiques de la Côte d'Ivoire relatifs au travail forcé et à la traite des êtres humains
- Lesson 4: Assessing Risk — Understanding What to Look For
- Leçon 4 : Évaluation du risque - Comprendre quoi rechercher
- Lesson 5: Understanding the Root Causes of Forced Labour
- Leçon 5 : Comprendre les causes profondes du travail forcé
- Lesson 6: Practical Guidance for Using the Indicator Approach
- Leçon 6 : Guide pratique de l’approche par indicateur
- Lesson 7: Coordination and Collaboration with Stakeholders
- Leçon 7 : Coordination et collaboration avec les parties prenantes
- Lesson 8: Data-gathering, Record-keeping, and Reporting
- Leçon 8 : Collecte de données, tenue de registres et rapports
- Lesson 9: Interviewing Vulnerable Workers
- Leçon 9 : Entretien avec les travailleurs vulnérables
- Lesson 10: Communicating with the Farmer to Address Issues
- Leçon 10 : Communiquer avec le planteur
- Lesson 11: Prevention of Forced Labour Risk
- Leçon 11 : Prévention du risque de travail forcé
- Ghana Forced Labor Indicators Project (FLIP) - April 2021