Projects

Our international grants support projects to combat some of the most abusive labor practices, including the use of child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking in global supply chains. ILAB-funded projects also promote trade partners’ compliance with the labor requirements of U.S. trade agreements and preference programs – helping to ensure a fair global playing field for workers in the United States and around the world.

 

Building Governments’ Capacity

ILAB works with governments to make them more effective in combating labor abuses, through efforts in areas such as data collection, monitoring, and enforcement. As a direct result of ILAB initiatives:

  • More than 80 countries have strengthened their monitoring and enforcement of laws, regulations, policies, and programs to combat child labor, forced labor and human trafficking;
  • More than 60,000 labor inspectors and law enforcement officials have been trained to more effectively enforce child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking laws and regulations; and
  • Governments have adopted best practices to assist victims of child labor and forced labor. For example, ILAB worked in partnership with the Government of Paraguay to develop and pilot an electronic system that registers adolescent workers to ensure they are protected under the law and assist with enforcement of labor laws.

 

Assistance for Vulnerable Children and Families

ILAB projects adopt a holistic approach to promote sustainable efforts that address child labor’s underlying causes, including poverty and lack of access to education. Project strategies include linking vulnerable groups to existing government social programs, providing children with quality education or afterschool services, helping families improve their livelihoods to meet basic needs without relying on child labor, and raising awareness about risks of trafficking so that adults don’t end up in situations of forced labor.

 

ILAB at the Forefront of Rigorous Evaluation Research

ILAB continues to invest in impact evaluations of innovative interventions to broaden the global knowledge base on effective strategies for combating child labor and forced labor. ILAB’s randomized controlled trials, the gold standard for impact evaluations, allow governments and policymakers to make evidence-informed decisions about programs that affect child laborers and their families.

Find out what ILAB projects are doing in response to COVID-19.

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Cooperation On Fair, Free, Equitable Employment (COFFEE) Project

The United States is the leading importer of coffee, accounting for over 18% of total coffee imports in the world, 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 workers are children – toiling in the fields rather than learning in school.

$2,200,000 Verité 12/01/2017 06/30/2023

SAFE Seas

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

$5,000,000 Plan International USA 12/01/2017 11/30/2023

Leveraging Data to Build an Efficient Labor Market in the Northern Triangle

All economies, whether in the United States or in Central America’s Northern Triangle (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 the Northern Triangle to create useful labor market intelligence -- helping workers to find jobs, employers to fill the skills gap and economies to grow.

$4,345,000 IMPAQ International 10/01/2017 09/30/2022

Worker Rights Centers for the Greater Protection of Labor Rights in Colombia

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.

$5,747,766 Escuela Nacional Sindical (ENS) 12/26/2016 09/30/2023

Measurement, Awareness-Raising, and Policy Engagement (MAP 16) Project on Child Labor and Forced Labor

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.

$22,400,000 International Labor Organization (ILO) 12/09/2016 09/30/2022

Campos de Esperanza (Fields of Hope)

Campos de Esperanza (Fields of Hope) is a project in Mexico that involves multiple stakeholders in government, the private sector and civil society working together to reduce child labor in migrant agricultural communities, particularly in the coffee and sugarcane sectors in Veracruz and Oaxaca. The project will link children and youth to existing educational programs and refer vulnerable households to existing government programs to improve income and reduce the need for child labor.

$11,000,000 World Vision 11/11/2016 09/30/2023

Project to Promote Workplace-Based Training for Vulnerable Youth in Argentina

The project is helping 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 is supporting 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.

$3,000,000 Desarrollo y Autogestión (DYA) 11/09/2016 07/31/2023

EMPOWER: Increasing Economic and Social Empowerment for Adolescent Girls and Vulnerable Women in Zambia

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.

$5,000,000 Winrock International 11/01/2016 10/31/2020

Supporting Sustainable and Child Labor Free Vanilla-Growing Communities in SAVA (SAVABE)

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.

$4,000,000 International Labor Organization (ILO) 11/01/2016 08/31/2020

Improving Labor Laws and Labor Administration within the New Industrial Relations Framework (NIRF)

$4,000,000 International Labor Organization (ILO) 10/01/2016 03/30/2020