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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Mexico Awareness Raising

The Mexico Awareness Raising project aims to support the government of Mexico, including the federal and state-level Secretariat of Labor and Social Welfare, to design, execute, and sustain effective communication strategies that inform workers, unions, and employers of the legal ramifications of the country’s labor law reforms.

$10,000,000 Partners of the Americas 01/01/2023 06/30/2025

Improving Workers’ Occupational Safety and Health in Selected Supply Chains in Mexico – A Vision Zero Fund

This project is intended to help Mexico meet its labor obligations under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The Vision Zero Fund 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.

$5,000,000 International Labor Organization/Vision Zero Fund 01/01/2023 12/31/2024

Strengthening Workers’ Ability to Exercise their Labor Rights in Mexico

To build the capacity of workers, support worker engagement and organizing, and strengthen democratic worker organizations in the aerospace, mining, and call center industries, such that they become protagonists in fulfilling the potential of Mexico’s historic labor reform. The project will offer workers and their organizations expert technical assistance, ongoing skills development, and pro bono advisory and legal services. Additionally, the project will create spaces for analysis, exchange, reflection, and the development of recommendations to improve labor law reform implementation.

$10,000,000 American Center for International Labor Solidarity (Solidarity Center) 12/31/2020 06/30/2025

Advancing Labor Compliance in Colombia’s Port Sector

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.

$5,000,000 Partners of the Americas 12/20/2020 12/20/2024

Eliminating Child Labor in Mica-Producing Communities and Promoting Responsible Mica Sourcing in Madagascar and Globally (MICA)

The goal of the UNDP’s MICA project is to eliminate child labor in four communes in Madagascar and to promote environmentally- and socially-responsible mica mining by bolstering the resiliency of vulnerable households in mica producing communities, building government capacity, and increasing engagement with stakeholders.

$4,500,000 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 12/16/2020 06/09/2025

CACAO: Cooperatives Addressing Child Labor Accountability Outcomes

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

$4,000,000 Save the Children 12/10/2020 06/09/2025

Supply Chains Tracing Project

The Supply Chains Tracing Project by ELEVATE seeks to increase downstream tracing of goods made by child labor and forced labor. The project is designed to address the barriers/challenges in supply chain traceability, and result in the development and sharing of open, accessible and replicable tools that can advance the knowledge base on supply chain tracing and scale the adoption of traceability solutions by various actors in different sectors.

$4,000,000 ELEVATE Limited 12/10/2020 12/09/2024

STREAMS – Supply Chain Tracing and Engagement Methodologies

The STREAMS project seeks to increase downstream tracing of goods made by child labor and forced labor.  The project will develop a comprehensive analytical framework for use by a broad set of stakeholders to categorize supply chains and methods for tracing and validating supply chain connections.  The project will disseminate the supply chain tracing tools and methodologies to enable and promote adoption by diverse actors across sectors.

$4,000,000 Verité 12/10/2020 06/09/2025

MATE MASIE – Making Advances to Eliminate Child Labor in More Areas with Sustainable Integrated Efforts

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

$4,000,000 Winrock International 12/07/2020 12/06/2024

She Thrives: Reducing Child Labor in Ethiopia’s Agricultural Sector using a Gender-Focused Approach

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 structures (including laws, policies and institutions) to be more gender equitable and support efforts to reduce child labor in Ethiopia.

$5,000,000 Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) 12/07/2020 02/06/2025