Working with the Private Sector to Combat Human Trafficking in Asia

Challenge

Human trafficking is a global crime that involves the movement of persons through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of exploitation. Trafficking is a modern form of slavery, depriving victims of their humanity and basic freedom. Many victims are channeled into forced labor – involuntary work done under threat of penalty. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates more than 11 million people are victims of forced labor in Asia alone. Forced labor in supply chains affects companies of all sizes, from leading global brands to small community farms, and across all industries. High-risk business sectors in Asia include agriculture, construction, seafood, hospitality, and domestic work. Today’s global supply chains are ever more sprawling and complex – featuring many places and players. In this context, it is extremely challenging to increase transparency, demand accountability, and take meaningful action to stop modern slavery.

Solution

USAID Asia Counter Trafficking in Persons (USAID Asia CTIP) is a $21 million, five-year initiative to combat the root causes and incentives that drive human trafficking in Asia. USAID Asia CTIP combats human trafficking by:

• Building a strong regional network for information exchange to bolster enforcement efforts and support survivors
• Identifying and disseminating successful, evidence-based best practices to inform human trafficking interventions and research
• Enhancing cooperation between source, transit, and destination countries
• Increasing opportunities for private sector leadership.

USAID Asia CTIP focuses on the agriculture/seafood, construction, and domestic work sectors.

As a partner to Winrock International on USAID Asia CTIP, Resonance leads private sector engagement (PSE) and development of strategic, shared value partnerships that help counter forced labor and worker exploitation in supply chains across Asia. Our work on USAID Asia CTIP includes:

• Partnership development and implementation. Resonance helps to identify, design, and develop opportunities for shared value partnerships that bring companies, civil society, and USAID together to reduce risk to forced labor and worker exploitation in supply chains.
• Support to bilateral CTIP projects. In addition to the regional USAID Asia CTIP project, there are six different country-specific – or bilateral – CTIP projects in Asia. Resonance provides training and mentorship to project staff on these bilateral CTIP projects to improve their capacity to identify, develop, and implement shared value partnerships with the private sector. We also help facilitate partnership design and development with bilateral CTIP project teams.
• Thought leadership and sharing learnings. Resonance develops and publicizes Learning Action Briefs, webinars, and other knowledge products focused on PSE and partnership development to combat human trafficking.
• Responsible recruitment. Resonance brings a PSE angle to USAID Asia CTIP’s work to promote responsible recruitment in supply chains. We identify strategic partnership opportunities and bring the private sector to the table to discuss means of ensuring responsible recruitment.
• Convening multi-stakeholder actors. Resonance brings companies, government, NGOs, and other actors together to explore collaboration to address pre-competitive common objectives; gauge challenges and potential solutions facing industry; test ideas; and share knowledge to counter human trafficking and forced labor.