Part of the broader Vision Zero Fund - which aims to promote worker safety and health in global supply chains – this project aims to improve the occupational safety and health of workers in selected supply chains with a focus on COVID-19, female workers, and workers in vulnerable conditions. This project also helps Mexico meet its labor obligations under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The project aims to improve compliance with national laws related to internationally recognized labor rights in the port sector. These include, but are not limited to, the right to freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining, prohibition against discrimination at work, elimination of forced labor and child labor, and rights to acceptable conditions of work with respect to minimum wages, hours of work, and occupational safety and health.

The CACAO project seeks to strengthen capacity, connections, and accountability across child labor enforcement and monitoring within cocoa cooperatives; build the capacity of cocoa cooperatives to provide support to vulnerable households and access to social protection; and pilot a farm to cooperative cocoa traceability system.

The MATE MASIE project seeks to strengthen capacity, connections, and accountability across child labor enforcement and monitoring within cocoa cooperatives. It is working to build the capacity of cocoa cooperatives to support vulnerable member households directly and by linking their members with other service providers.

The She Thrives project seeks to build agency of vulnerable women and girls in the Ethiopian agricultural sector, change community social norms and traditions that uphold child labor and gender inequality, and transform laws, policies and institutions to be more gender equitable and support efforts to reduce child labor in Ethiopia.

Better Work is a comprehensive program that brings together all levels of the apparel industry to improve working conditions and respect of labor rights for workers, while boosting the competitiveness of apparel businesses. As a result of their participation with Better Work, export apparel factories in Ethiopia have improved compliance with labor law including issues of compensation, contracts, occupational safety and health and working time. By enhancing working conditions, Better Work Ethiopia increases the factories’ productivity and profitability.

This project will promote greater compliance with labor law and increase workers’ access to judicial and non-judicial remedies for labor violations in Armenia, with a focus on the mining and service sectors.

This project aims to promote increased use of forced labor research in policy and programmatic decision-making to help eliminate forced labor around the world. The project will achieve this by increasing knowledge through robust research on forced labor in the textile and garment sector and engaging decision makers and stakeholders to use this knowledge to take actions against forced labor.

The CAPSA project seeks to build the capacity of the Governments of Kenya and Uganda to more effectively combat child labor, forced labor, and violations of acceptable conditions of work. It does this by helping the governments strengthen enforcement of their laws and regulations, improve assistance services for victims, and enhance coordination between law enforcement and social protection entities.

Senderos — works with government, the private sector, and civil society to improve adherence to international standards on child labor, forced labor, occupational safety and health, and other acceptable conditions of work in the agriculture sectors in Jalisco and Nayarit. The project is building government capacity to enforce labor laws in agricultural supply chains, improving private sector awareness and compliance with labor laws, and increasing farmworkers’ knowledge of labor rights and grievances mechanisms.

The ATLAS project builds the capacity of governments to combat child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking by helping them strengthen their laws, regulations, and enforcement efforts and enhance coordination between law enforcement and social protection entities. After completing the implementation and institutionalization of interventions in Argentina, Thailand, and Paraguay in 2022, ATLAS will continue working in Liberia to help develop a new child labor law and advocate for its passage.

The FAIR Fish project helps create a fair global playing field for workers and responsible U.S. businesses by engaging with the private sector to reduce forced labor and human trafficking in the fishing and seafood processing sectors in Thailand.

This project is building the capacity of labor and agriculture stakeholders to more effectively implement the National Action Plan on Child Labor and coordinate efforts to combat child labor. The project is generating knowledge and information on child labor and adolescent work in agriculture; raising awareness of and advocating for a solution to the problem; and helping labor and agriculture stakeholders build their capacity to address child labor by designing local-level models, methodologies, and tools.

This project is raising the visibility and understanding of child labor in agriculture in Argentina and contributing to improved tools and coordination among government entities, the private sector, and civil society to confront the problem. It focuses on the provinces of Tucumán, Misiones, and Buenos Aires. The project is working with the private sector to develop agricultural certifications and mechanisms for addressing child labor in yerba mate, lemon, and blueberry production.

This project works to improve the implementation of social compliance systems that promote acceptable conditions of work and the prevention and reduction of child and forced labor in palm oil supply chains in Colombia and Ecuador. It also disseminates best practices in social compliance systems in these and other palm oil producing countries, particularly Brazil and Peru.

This project enhances governments’ capacity to create, implement, and monitor the application of labor laws by working with ministries of labor, labor judges, and other judicial labor authorities. It seeks to use data collected from labor inspections to identify gaps that facilitate violations and to support legal reforms to address them. The project also uses data analytics to identify and combat labor inspection corruption, waste and inefficiency, and identifies regional inspection units in need of training and capacity building.

The Adwuma Pa project worked to reduce the risk of child, forced, and exploitive labor practices of vulnerable women aged 18+ and adolescent girls aged 15–17 within 80 cocoa-producing communities across four districts in Ghana.

The COTECCO project works to address child labor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) cobalt supply chain, with a focus on artisanal and small-scale mining. It supports key stakeholders to develop and implement strategies to reduce child labor and improve working conditions in artisanal and small-scale mines, as well as in the broader cobalt supply chain.

The Sakriya project (Sakriya means "active" in Nepali) worked to build the capacity of Nepalese civil society to more effectively detect and combat forced child labor and other labor abuses in Nepal's brick, embroidery, and carpet weaving sectors. It leveraged partnerships across Nepal's child protection networks to facilitate access to services for survivors of labor abuses and to reduce the risk that adults and children will be forced into harmful work in these sectors.

Promoting acceptable working conditions in trade partner countries helps the U.S. create a fair playing field for its own workforce and for U.S. companies that play by the rules. This project seeks to ensure that workers in the agricultural export sector in Guatemala, with whom the U.S. has a free trade agreement, receive at least the minimum wage, work within legal hours of work limits, receive due compensation for overtime, and operate in a safe working environment.

Workers and civil society organizations help to supplement and support government labor law enforcement efforts by proactively identifying potential labor violations and filing justiciable complaints with the appropriate authorities.  This project works in U.S. trade partner countries to improve labor law enforcement, as well as compliance with labor-related U.S. trade provisions, by improving the involvement of workers and civil society organizations in this process.

The Research to Action (R2A) Project applies rigorous research methods in an effort to accelerate global action against child labor and forced labor. The project seeks to help policymakers and practitioners access relevant research and evaluation tools, identifies key knowledge gaps, and facilitates the development of a global research agenda to guide new policy-relevant research efforts. To that end, the project also seeks to broaden and diversify the researcher pool, increasing both the number and capacity of researchers working to shed light on these abusive labor practices.

The Child Labor Improvements in Bangladesh (CLIMB) project built the capacity of civil society to more effectively detect and combat forced child labor and other labor abuses in the dried fish sector in Bangladesh. It leveraged partnerships with academic and community-based organizations to build a grassroots movement, empower vulnerable families, connect survivors to services and reduce the risk that children would be forced into this harmful work.

This project is building the capacity of civil society organizations to more effectively detect and combat child labor and other unacceptable working conditions (OUWC) in artisanal and small-scale mines in Colombia. Pilares formed networks of civil society organizations and empowered local communities to build grassroots movements to improve working conditions and reduce the risk that children will be used in this harmful work.  

This project helps businesses establish systems to prevent, detect and eliminate child labor and other forms of labor exploitation from their supply chains. It is assembling a powerful coalition of coffee buyers to collectively incentivize compliance among suppliers. In doing so, the project promotes supply chains that are free of exploitative labor and helps to create a fair playing field for workers in the U.S. and around the world.

Colombia Avanza is building the capacity of civil society to more effectively combat child labor and other labor abuses in Colombia’s coffee sector. By raising awareness and connecting survivors of labor exploitation to services in two of the largest coffee-producing areas of Colombia, the project helps promote supply chains that are free of exploitative labor and that contribute to a fair playing field for workers in the U.S. and around the world.

This project supported the Dominican government’s efforts to combat child labor and strengthen labor law enforcement. Building off the commitment of the Ministry of Labor, the project helped promote supply chains free of exploitative labor and a fair playing field for workers in the U.S. and around the world.

This project supports the Peruvian government and other labor stakeholders to build their capacity to prevent, detect, and eliminate forced labor and labor trafficking from workplaces in Peru. By bringing together the Ministry of Labor, regional and local governments, law enforcement officials, and the judiciary branch, the project aims to encourage better enforcement through consultation and consensus building.

This project builds the capacity of the government and businesses to expand and better coordinate ongoing labor trafficking enforcement efforts in Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, and Benin. 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 Reducing Incidence of Child Labor and Harmful Conditions of Work in Economic Strengthening Initiatives (RICHES) project integrated the issues of child labor alleviation and acceptable conditions of work into women’s economic empowerment initiatives. By putting a new toolkit directly in the hands of policymakers and service providers who work with women entrepreneurs, RICHES helped to ensure women-led enterprises can improve livelihoods responsibly without resorting to child labor or other harmful labor practices.

The SAFE Seas project works to counter forced labor and human trafficking on fishing vessels in Indonesia and the Philippines. The project works to strengthen government enforcement capacity and deepen engagement among fishers, the private sector and civil society. As a result, SAFE Seas helps to promote supply chains free of exploitative labor and a fair playing field for workers in the U.S. and around the world.

The United States is the leading importer of coffee, with Brazil and Colombia as the top suppliers. But before that coffee reaches our cups, tens of millions of workers globally select, pick, and process the beans. Many of those workers are children – toiling in the fields rather than learning in school. This project helps businesses establish systems to prevent, detect, and eliminate child labor and other forms of labor exploitation from their supply chains, and it is assembling a powerful coalition of coffee buyers to collectively incentivize suppliers into compliance.

This project will improve enforcement of minimum wage, hours of work and occupational safety and health laws in the agricultural export sector in Costa Rica. By strengthening legal and administrative mechanisms of enforcement while engaging employers and workers to improve compliance in the workplace, the project will help promote supply chains free of exploitative labor and a fair playing field for workers in the U.S. and around the world.

All economies, whether in the United States or in Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras), need timely, accurate information to fuel efficiencies in their labor markets. These efficiencies, in turn, help ensure social stability and contribute to economic growth – both within countries and beyond. This project will seek to strengthen labor market information systems in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to create useful labor market intelligence -- helping workers to find jobs, employers to fill the skills gap and economies to grow.

This project supports the government of Colombia in meeting its commitments to the U.S. under the Action Plan associated with the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement.

The United States supports the goal of bringing meaningful change to the lives of the 152 million child laborers and the 25 million adults and children in forced labor around the world by eradicating child labor, forced labor and human trafficking.

Campos de Esperanza (Fields of Hope) engages the government, the private sector, and civil society to reduce child labor in migrant agricultural communities, particularly in the coffee and sugarcane sectors in Veracruz and Oaxaca. The project links children and youth to existing educational programs and refers vulnerable households to existing government programs to improve income and reduce the need for child labor.

Project Noemi is helped bridge the skills gap in Argentina by increasing the number and quality of on-the-job training programs, such as internships and apprenticeships, while ensuring these opportunities are accessible to the youth who need them the most. The project supported improvements in the legal and policy framework surrounding youth training, raising awareness about the benefits of work-based training, documenting and disseminating good apprenticeship practices in Argentina, and helping both public and private sector youth training programs to increase their effectiveness.

The EMPOWER project will reduce child labor in Zambia’s eastern province by increasing adolescent girls and vulnerable women’s access to acceptable work and high-quality training opportunities. In addition, the project will increase public awareness on the importance of addressing child labor and strengthen efforts amongst government and the private sector towards gender equality through the promotion of acceptable work for adolescent girls and vulnerable women.

The SAVABE project will aim to reduce child labor in the production of vanilla in the Sava region of Madagascar. The project will assist the vanilla industry to eliminate child labor in Madagascar’s vanilla supply chain and will build the capacity of Madagascar’s law enforcement to enforce child labor laws.

The project is helping bridge the skills gap in Costa Rica by increasing the number and quality of on-the-job training programs, such as internships and apprenticeships, while ensuring these opportunities are accessible to the youth who need them the most.

The Better Utilization of Skills for Youth (BUSY) project works to build the capacity of government, employers, workers’ organizations, and civil society actors to establish and expand workplace-based training programs for vulnerable youth, including by identifying gaps in relevant laws and policies.

The PROTECTE project is working to strengthen Tunisia’s ability to implement their Child Labor National Action Plan, a multi-stakeholder effort involving government, business, and civil society. The project will turn policy and promises into action by facilitating a comprehensive approach to safeguarding every child’s right to attend school and avoid exploitative labor.

The Promoting Apprenticeship as a Path for Youth Employment Project (GAN) worked directly with employers, workers’ organizations, and governments to help increase the number of apprenticeship opportunities for vulnerable youth in Argentina, Costa Rica, and Kenya. The project created and strengthened private sector networks in support of apprenticeship and other types of work-based training, such as internships, in all three countries. It helped employers launch quality work training programs while ensuring these programs were accessible to disadvantaged youth.

The project builds the capacity of workers’ organizations or other civil society organizations to assist foreign migrant workers in Malaysia.

In partnership with the Paraguayan Ministry of Labor, Paraguay Okakuaa is strengthening the enforcement of labor laws in agriculture in the Department of Guairá and providing educational and livelihood opportunities for families vulnerable to child labor, particularly young women. And in response to the government’s political will to address forced labor, the project is now expanding efforts to the Chaco, a significant cattle- and beef-exporting region.

YPCA worked to improve livelihoods for at-risk youth to prevent their engagement in exploitative labor and the worst forms of child labor. The project provided at-risk youth with skills and education directly related to labor market needs in a safe learning environment; helped at-risk youth secure and retain employment; promotes youth employment through business partnerships; and strengthens government and community organizations’ ability to support relevant vocational training and employment opportunities for youth.

Our impact evaluation projects use rigorous quantitative techniques to evaluate the impact of interventions on reducing child labor, forced labor and human trafficking—part of a broader ILAB effort to build rigorous evidence on what works to secure and protect the rights of children and adults. Such evaluations support our partner governments’ evidence-based policymaking efforts, and also help identify proven strategies to inform ILAB’s future investments in global programs to combat child labor and forced labor.

This global, multi-country project sought to improve occupational safety and health issues of young workers, and to promote a culture of prevention of occupational illness and injury.  Programming placed a particular focus on those aged 15-24, who, as they join the workforce, may be positioned to contribute to a sustainable and prevention-focused OSH culture.    

This project built the capacity among national and local stakeholders to advocate for a reduction in child labor and forced labor and to promote fundamental principles and rights at work through the framework of the Decent Work Country Program agreement between the Government of Uzbekistan and the ILO.

Our impact evaluation projects use rigorous quantitative techniques to evaluate the impact of interventions on reducing child labor, forced labor and human trafficking—part of a broader ILAB effort to build rigorous evidence on what works to secure and protect the rights of children and adults. Such evaluations support our partner governments’ evidence-based policymaking efforts, and also help identify proven strategies to inform ILAB’s future investments in global programs to combat child labor and forced labor.

Better Work Jordan strives to accelerate improvements in the working conditions and business competitiveness of Jordan’s garment industry as well as the exporting industrial sector at large. The project strategy is two-tiered: the factory level and the institutional and policy level.

Better Work is a comprehensive program that brings together all levels of the apparel industry to improve working conditions and respect of labor rights for workers, while boosting the competitiveness of apparel businesses. As a result of their participation with Better Work, export apparel factories in Bangladesh have improved compliance with labor laws, including on issues of compensation, contracts, occupational safety and health, and working time. By enhancing working conditions, Better Work Bangladesh increases the factories’ productivity and profitability.

To support efforts to reduce child labor and assist youth of legal working age to secure decent work and provide household members (age 18 and older) with opportunities for improved livelihoods in rural and peri-urban areas of Morocco.

The project will assist Georgia with resolving a General System of Preferences petition by upholding workers’ rights and working conditions in accordance with International Labor Standards.

The goal of the project is to reduce child labor in Burma through the establishment of a comprehensive, inclusive, and efficient multi-stakeholder response.

This project promotes education and vocational training and decent work opportunities for vulnerable youth ages 15 to 17. The project also seeks to enhance livelihoods for youth and their families, support civic engagement of youth, and encourage youth to take on leadership roles within their communities.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) is implementing the MAST capacity building component of the Better Work program to increase labor law compliance in the apparel sector.

The project will use an area-based approach to significantly reduce the incidence of exploitive child labor in the production of tea in Rwanda.

Reduce exploitative child labor in areas with a high prevalence of child labor in agriculture, fishing, and domestic service.

This technical cooperation project aims to strengthen the capacity of workers to file complaints/cases for labor law violations. The Grantee will implement, in partnership with USDOL, a project whose overarching objective is to raise awareness of and improve workers’ ability to protect and claim their labor rights in Colombia.

Better Factories Cambodia is part of the Better Work Program, a comprehensive effort that brings together all levels of the apparel industry to improve working conditions and respect of labor rights for workers, while boosting the competitiveness of apparel businesses. As a result of their participation with Better Work, export apparel factories in Cambodia have improved compliance with labor law including issues of compensation, contracts, occupational safety and health and working time.

Project Objectives: To improve educational outcomes for child and adolescents involved in child labor; and improve family income so that households do not need to rely on the work of children for survival.

The project will support local efforts to reduce child labor in Tanzania through an area-based approach in the regions of Tanga and Kigoma, where there is a prevalence of child labor in agriculture production and domestic service.

The project will reduce the overall number of children engaged in exploitative child labor in artisanal gold mines and cotton fields of Burkina Faso. In the three targeted regions, the project will provide services to promote children’s ability to access educational opportunities and awareness of the long term benefits of schooling. The project will also assist households in meeting their livelihood needs in order to reduce their reliance on child labor.

The Project will use a research and knowledge enhancement strategy to identify and asses the existing gaps in current policies to combat child labor. It will also focus on the social protection programs in the two countries, especially those that relate to indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, migrants and persons with disabilities.

Vulnerable populations in rural and urban areas are victims of forced labor in Brazil and Peru. They endure abusive working conditions, debt bondage, deception, intimidation and threats, and restriction of movement, among other unlawful labor practices. Some victims of forced labor have been rescued from forced-labor conditions within agricultural supply chains or manufacturing businesses with domestic and global reach.

Project Objectives: The overarching objective is to develop regulations for the new labor legislation consistent with International Labor Standards, educate the tripartite partners on the provisions of the laws and regulations, and build their capacity to promote good industrial relations with the new provisions’ application in practice.

This ILO project is the manifestation of the Government of Colombia’s commitment in the Action Plan to seek the cooperation, advice, and technical assistance of the ILO to help in Action Plan implementation. In support of this commitment, USDOL has awarded the ILO $10.32 million to develop a robust presence in Colombia that, specifically, engages in a variety of direct technical assistance activities.

The ABK3 project raised awareness, strengthened advocacy, and built the capacity of community, government, and sugar industry stakeholders to reduce exploitative child labor in 11 sugarcane producing provinces in the Philippines. The project provided educational support to help children succeed and stay in school, and assisted families in increasing agricultural productivity, finding alternative sources of income, and linking to social protection programs in order to alleviate the root causes of child labor.

Equip the government and other stakeholders with tools needed to eliminate all worst forms of child labor in Jordan.

Better Work is a comprehensive program that brings together all levels of the apparel industry to improve working conditions and respect of labor rights for workers, while boosting the competitiveness of apparel businesses. As a result of their participation with Better Work, export apparel factories in Vietnam have improved compliance with labor law including issues of compensation, contracts, occupational safety and health and working time. By enhancing working conditions, Better Work Vietnam increases the factories’ productivity and profitability.

Reduce the number of children who work and at risk of becoming engaged in exploitive child labor in Jordan and enhance family livelihood opportunities to address its root causes

Development Objective: To reduce the number of children working in exploitive conditions in Bolivia by increasing their enrollment in educational activities, reducing their hours of work or removing them from exploitive work, assisting families with increased livelihood opportunities, and promoting economic empowerment among communities. The project will develop its strategies in conjunction with indigenous organizations and work within the framework of indigenous cultural values, organizational structure and language.

The goal of the project was to reduce the overall number of children involved in and at risk of engaging in exploitive child labor.

The project aims to support the Government of Malawi’s efforts to implement the National Action Plan to combat child labor.

To raise awareness and capacity of workers and employers to understand and exercise their rights and obligations in the workplace, increase the effectiveness of the labour administration/inspection systems, promote tripartite dialogue at different levels, and improve the capacity of the judiciary to process claims related to labour relations.

Better Work is a comprehensive program that brings together all levels of the apparel industry to improve working conditions and respect of labor rights for workers, while boosting the competitiveness of apparel businesses. As a result of their participation with Better Work, export apparel factories in Nicaragua have improved compliance with labor law including issues of compensation, contracts, occupational safety and health and working time. By enhancing working conditions, Better Work Nicaragua increases the factories’ productivity and profitability.

Better Work is a comprehensive program that brings together all levels of the apparel industry to improve working conditions and respect of labor rights for workers, while boosting the competitiveness of apparel businesses. As a result of their participation with Better Work, export apparel factories in Haiti have improved compliance with labor law including issues of compensation, contracts, occupational safety and health and working time. By enhancing working conditions, Better Work Haiti increases the factories’ productivity and profitability.

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