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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Strengthening Labor Law Enforcement

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.

$28,750,000 IMPAQ International 01/01/2019 12/31/2026

Improving the Capacity of Labor and Agriculture Stakeholders to Address Child Labor in Agricultural Areas of Argentina Project

This project works to build 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. It utilizes existing structures at the national, provincial, and municipal levels to expand coordination to reduce the risk that children will be harmed by performing hazardous work in agriculture.

$2,500,000 International Labor Organization (ILO) 01/01/2019 08/31/2022

Palma Futuro: Preventing and Reducing Child Labor and Forced Labor in Palm Oil Supply Chains

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 will also disseminate best practices in social compliance systems in these and other palm oil producing countries, particularly Brazil and Peru.

$6,000,000 Partners of the Americas 01/01/2019 12/31/2022

Adwuma Pa

The Adwuma Pa project works to reduce the risk of child and forced labor, and other exploitative labor practices by improving the economic participation and empowerment of women and girls within cocoa-producing communities in Ghana.

$5,000,000 Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) 11/16/2018 11/15/2022

Combatting Child Labor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Cobalt Industry (COTECCO)

The Cobalt 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.

$3,500,000 International Labor Organization (ILO) 10/01/2018 09/15/2022

Improving Working Conditions in the Mexican Automotive Supply Chain

The Improving Working Conditions in the Mexican Automotive Supply Chain project is working to improve the quality of inspections and inspection follow-ups conducted by labor inspectors; strengthen government administration and coordination of the labor inspectorate and other institutions involved in labor law enforcement; and  strengthen the ability of labor courts and other institutions to effectively conciliate and adjudicate labor cases, including administration and coordination of union representation challenges.

$5,659,872 IMPAQ International 10/01/2018 03/31/2023

Improving Labor Law Enforcement in Guatemala

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.

$2,500,000 International Labor Organization (ILO) 10/01/2018 03/01/2022

Sakriya

The Sakriya project (Sakriya means “active”) works 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 leverages 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.

$2,850,000 World Education 10/01/2018 02/28/2022

Engaging Workers and Civil Society to Strengthen Labor Law Enforcement

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.

$6,850,000 American Center for International Labor Solidarity (Solidarity Center) 10/01/2018 03/31/2023

BuildCA2P: Building Capacity, Awareness, Advocacy and Programs Project

The BuildCA2P Project works to build the capacity of Filipino civil society to more effectively detect and combat child labor and other labor abuses in the crop agricultural sector in Mindanao, Philippines. It leverages partnerships with academic and advocacy organizations to build a grassroots movement, empower vulnerable families, connect survivors to grievance mechanisms and services, and reduce the risk that children will be harmed by performing hazardous work in agriculture.

$2,600,000 ChildFund International 10/01/2018 09/30/2022