Between a global pandemic and fierce industry competition, engineering and construction businesses are facing critical challenges that threaten their futures. A new research study from The Ethical Recruitment Agency (TERA), funded by GFEMS, offers solutions. By embracing disruptive technologies, building strong relationships with prime contractors, and adopting modern labor policies, companies can win new business and strengthen their workforce.

Accompanying the report, TERA has also launched it’s “Be Compliant” package. It includes:

• A pull-out that review the practical steps companies can take, such as ethical recruitment services and innovative management techniques
• An online calculator that models corporate investments and gains from adopting ethical business practices.

The report is available in English and in Arabic.

The TERA project, part of the Fund’s ethical recruitment portfolio, launched in summer 2020. It aims to provide safe work opportunities abroad to vulnerable communities in Uttar Pradesh, India. TERA India will operationalize systems for monitoring worker welfare, test the viability of an ethical recruitment agency in UP, and provide targeted support to low-skilled workers across multiple industries, including domestic workers, cleaners, and construction workers. In addition, TERA India will engage with the broader community of people vulnerable to modern slavery, including aspiring migrants who are unskilled, poor, and new to the migration process, to enhance understanding of and access to ethical recruitment opportunities.

Learn more about the Fund’s support for TERA and why we invest in ethical recruitment.

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In collaboration with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), GFEMS has partnered with Nomi Network to reduce the prevalence of commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) and strengthen long-term economic opportunities for survivors of and women vulnerable to CSE in West Bengal, India.

Nomi Network is a US-based organization that, in partnership with both local organizations in source communities and an extensive network of private sector job placement partners, provides job training and employment opportunities for women vulnerable to CSE in India and Cambodia.  In India, Nomi Network currently operates a unique Workforce Development Program (WPD) in collaboration with its field partners in seven locations. With GFEMS funding, Nomi Network will redouble support to two of these local partners in West Bengal, supporting hundreds of new and existing trainees in the WPD and, in the process, establish nearly 500 job placements.

In West Bengal, a lack of stable job opportunities forces many women, especially those in vulnerable communities, to leave school seeking income to support their families. This financial instability leaves many women at high risk of falling into forced labor or CSE. West Bengal is also home to India’s second-largest population of individuals in the Scheduled Castes, who are subject to socio-economic discrimination and, therefore, heightened vulnerability, as well as a sizable population of Nepalese-Indians who are similarly discriminated against.

Nomi Network’s Workforce Development Program addresses these drivers by training women in a combination of life and technical skills training, culminating in job placements and one year of high-touch follow up. The program equips women with skills to meet market demand, places them in jobs that generate long-term income stability, and provides individualized support to reduce risk of re-trafficking or exploitation. Nomi Network’s approach tailors skills training to the market needs in each community to ensure participants are trained in jobs that fill a tangible gap. High-achieving graduates are hired to teach new cohorts of trainees, serving as local role models and deepening community involvement. The program is also trauma-informed, supporting the recovery process for survivors of CSE and helping build their self-advocacy and leadership skills. 

By ensuring that WDP participants have a safe and secure economic future, Nomi Network works to permanently reduce vulnerability to CSE and further develop a successful model that is both scalable and replicable.

GFEMS looks forward to sharing the successes and lessons learned from our work with Nomi Network. Learn more about the Norad partnership and the GFEMS portfolio.

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Today, World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, GFEMS is sharing insights from global anti-trafficking leaders with our global community. We asked a series of leaders to answer one of the following three questions:

1. What does the World Day Against TIP mean to you? What do you hope to see accomplished?
2. 2020 has been a year unlike any other. Why is this year’s day against TIP especially important?
3. How should people at home recognize the World Day Against TIP? What are some appropriate and effective actions to support the cause?

Here’s what they had to say:

NEELAM CHHIBER, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, INDUSTREE CRAFTS FOUNDATION

“In a year of acute financial distress with regards to incomes in rural India, the Day against TIP takes on additional importance, as it’s a call for action to support endeavours that can mitigate these risks and save futures for the most vulnerable. “

SHAWN HOLTZCLAW, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE KNOBLE

“The Knoble is a growing network of fraud, cyber, fintech, and financial crime professionals with a passion for protecting vulnerable populations, particularly those at risk for human trafficking.  We proudly partner with and support the organizations and individuals who act as first responders. We join them in envisioning a world where no one can profit off the suffering of other human beings, and we seek to create system-wide networks to disrupt the illicit flow of money through the world’s financial systems.”

ZOE TRODD, DIRECTOR OF RIGHTS LAB, UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM

“The pandemic that began in 2020 will have short, medium and long term impacts on the problem of human trafficking and modern slavery. This year’s World Day Against Trafficking in Persons is an opportunity to highlight the resilience and efforts of the anti-trafficking community as it works to mitigate the new and increased risks for victims, survivors and vulnerable populations created by COVID-19. The community’s many new ways of working during this pandemic will lead to policy and practice innovations that, longer-term, will mean great leaps forward in our shared goal of ending trafficking and slavery.” 

SUSAN OPLE, FOUNDER, BLAS F. OPLE POLICY CENTER AND TRAINING INSTITUTE

“I hope to see a continuation, if not an escalation, in global conversations about modern slavery amid and beyond this pandemic. I wish to see a stronger push towards technology-driven tools to combat slavery similar to the newly-launched Integrated Case Management System that we have in the Philippines. And, finally, I hope that States will ensure the safety, rights, and protection of migrants around the world especially of foreign domestic workers.”

NICK GRONO, CEO, THE FREEDOM FUND

“As lockdowns were imposed around the world, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has placed an enormous strain on already highly vulnerable communities. The resulting economic fallout has placed people who are at high risk of exploitation even more at risk. Families will be forced to take ever more desperate decisions, high-interest loans and risky job offers. There is no question that the pandemic and the economic crisis it has caused will lead to an increase in trafficking. This year it will be critical for all organisations that work to combat slavery and trafficking to adjust their longer-term programs to this new reality.”

ABHA THORAT-SHAH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BRITISH ASIAN TRUST

“There are increasing concerns that the economic cost imposed on the world due to COVID and the lockdowns could exacerbate vulnerabilities in the most marginalized sections of society. And this can have outsized consequences on the safety and security of children – they might become easier targets for traffickers preying on the economic desperation of families who have lost their livelihoods or taken loans they can’t pay back. This is why in 2020, TIP is more critical than ever, to remind us that there are invisible victims of this pandemic that go beyond the obvious, and our focus on them needs to be redoubled.”

DANIEL NEALE, SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION LEAD, WORLD BENCHMARKING ALLIANCE

“Discuss the issue at home and recognise the scale of the problem, with tens of millions of people suffering in forced labour. Secondly, look out for and report suspicious activity that might be linked to modern slavery and trafficking. Thirdly, dig into your favourite brands and see how they do regarding forced labour and mapping their supply chains. If a company scores badly – consider using the huge power of your wallet to support companies who are doing more to deal with this issue.”

AMY RAHE, INTERIM DIRECTOR NORTH AMERICA, THE FREEDOM FUND

“For me, the World Day Against TIP is a reminder that we have a lot more work ahead of us to accomplish our goals of eradicating modern slavery.  I hope that this day becomes an annual day of remembrance for those lost to modern slavery and for the atrocities of the past. We have to end all forms of modern slavery. Until we do, I hope the day is one of many motivations for us, as a global community, to work tirelessly towards every individual’s access to freedom.”

ASHIF SHAIKH, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, JAN SAHAS SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY

“COVID-19 has exacerbated the risk of debt-induced trafficking for the economically vulnerable and marginalised populations across the globe. This year’s World Day Against TIP highlights the much-required collaboration between society, governments, private sector, NGOs, philanthropies, and media to ensure that every individual lives a dignified life that is free of trafficking and exploitation. It is essential that empathy and equity be the guiding values so that a brighter future can be envisaged in the new normal.”

JAMES COCKAYNE, HEAD OF SECRETARIAT, FINANCE AGAINST TRAFFICKING AND SLAVERY

“Traffickers make $150 billion each year from the forced labour of their victims. That forced labour makes things for the supply chains of companies we invest in through stock markets and pension funds, and the profits go into the banking system. So ask yourself, your bank, your broker or your retirement asset manager: Are we unwittingly funding human trafficking?”

RUTH FREEDOM POJMAN, GLOBAL ANTI-TRAFFICKING EXPERT

“It is fitting to see that in 2020 the UN will focus on ‘first responders to human trafficking’ to recognize the frontline folks who counsel, provide support, help victims to access remedy, and help survivors to heal, to re-gain confidence and to re-integrate sustainably over the long term. It is amazing to witness the dedication of those assisting victims during this time of COVID-19 to overcome challenging restrictions. While it is tragic that almost 17 million have been directly and millions more indirectly affected by COVID, it is heartening during these dark times to see how people do their part against the odds.”

MATHIEU LUCIANO, HEAD OF ASSISTANCE TO VULNERABLE MIGRANTS, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION ON MIGRATION

“World Day always reminds me how much more needs to be done to protect everyone, everywhere, from human trafficking. This year, many migrants have been hit hard by COVID-19, and many more will become vulnerable to exploitation as the economic consequences of the pandemic unfold. While most migrants will continue to show extraordinary resilience, we must redouble our efforts to ensure that nobody is left behind.”

JEAN BADERSCHNEIDER, CEO AND CHAIR OF THE BOARD, GLOBAL FUND TO END MODERN SLAVERY

“This is a day to renew our commitment to global coordination and to rededicate ourselves to creating a coherent global strategy that includes governments, businesses, the financial sector, NGOs, and civil society in a way that brings the full force of the world down on traffickers to end this crime once and for all. Let’s forge partnerships, collaborate openly, share results freely, and knit together a real anti-slavery movement. We at the Fund are in this fight with you!”

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Before the onset of COVID-19, GFEMS and its partners at The Knoble and SAS Institute were scheduled to host a Cross Industry Data View workshop, building on the work of the Liechtenstein Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAST) Initiative. The workshop, acting as a platform to explore opportunities accelerating progress in financial sector mobilization, was intended to be the starting point for building a roadmap to a cross-industry data view of financial transactions. Such a data view could enable financial institutions to better identify and track illicit financial flows. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the workshop was taken online in the form of a webinar, and interest in the project has gained momentum. Since the Initiative launched in May, more than 130 participants from over 60 organizations across government, financial institutions, fintech, and NGOs are working together virtually to identify actionable steps to facilitate better data gathering and sharing and paths for collaboration between public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Contributing their expertise to the Initiative across five working groups, Data, Law Enforcement and Regulations, Role of the NGOs, Scams and Abuse, and Ideation, CIDI participants have dedicated over 1200 hours to the project. 

Shawn Holtzclaw, Acting Executive Director of The Knoble and leader of the Ideation working group, said, “We are facing a challenge that requires collaboration, ingenuity and determination. Through CIDI I am confident we’ll begin to create systemic impact.” 

The CIDI initiative was created to address the need for improved partnership in data sharing by financial institutions to improve visibility into illicit financial flows. Financial institutions have different views of transactional and account activity, resulting in only partial or fragmented understandings of potentially illicit financial flows. There is an opportunity to create a more holistic picture of account activity through improved collaboration and communication between financial institutions and by developing a cross-industry data view that utilizes pre-existing infrastructures and capabilities within the financial sector. Ultimately, this improved data view has the potential to accelerate efforts to identify and disrupt illicit financial flows to traffickers.

The CIDI working groups will continue to meet throughout this quarter, each working on specific proposals and identifying needs and opportunities to advance the goals of the Initiative. GFEMS looks forward to continuing this work and sharing our results and findings into the future. 

To learn more about the CIDI initiative or the Fund’s partnership with The Knoble, please visit our website, follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our newsletter.

In collaboration with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), GFEMS has partnered with Justice and Care to address commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) of Bangladeshi women trafficked into India. 

The project operates in the Khulna and Dhaka Divisions of Bangladesh, where women and families are extremely vulnerable to trafficking. Many are trafficked across the border into India, but receive intermittent or disjointed access to services while going through the repatriation process due to their foreign nationality. Justice and Care, which was established to focus on CSE and has worked extensively in India and Bangladesh, will provide expertise on navigating the Indian migration and justice systems in repatriating Bangladeshi victims.

Working collaboratively, the GFEMS-Justice and Care project is addressing these issues through four primary activities: 

• Mapping the bureaucratic process of repatriation of victims from India to Bangladesh, working to improve efficiencies in the process and reduce overall time to bring survivors home. 
• Working with NGO providers in India to ensure coordinated trauma-informed services for survivors, minimizing disruptions to the care plan and providing support throughout the repatriation process. Upon return to Bangladesh, Justice and Care will continue providing wraparound rehabilitation and reintegration services, supporting survivors on their path to self-sufficiency. 
• Training service providers in the local Bangladesh community to support survivors after repatriation using trauma-informed systems and care. 
• Working with extremely vulnerable families in the Khulna and Dhaka Divisions to prevent re-trafficking and provide alternatives for women considering risky migration. 

The activities within this project align closely with the Fund’s approach to ending modern slavery. On the supply side, the project works with vulnerable families to reduce risk of trafficking due to financial shocks and provide adequate rehabilitation so that victims are not re-trafficked. To address the enabling environment, GFEMS is working with communities to accept survivors of trafficking and to combat the social stigma that can lead to victims being cast out of their communities, forcing a return to CSE due to lack of other options and support. 

Along with other projects under the Norad partnership, GFEMS aims to gain significant learnings from this project, including the effectiveness of various rehabilitation techniques and services, an understanding of repatriation from India to Bangladesh, effectiveness of reintegration services, and more details on CSE rehabilitation in the Bangladeshi context. 

GFEMS looks forward to sharing the successes and lessons learned from our work with Justice and Care. Learn more about the Norad partnership and the GFEMS portfolio.

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In collaboration with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), GFEMS is working with Seefar to expand LIFT: Transformational Livelihoods for Survivors in India. LIFT, which uses a trauma-informed livelihoods model, will provide support to survivors of commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) in both Kolkata, one of the largest source areas for CSE victims. and Mumbai, one of the largest destination areas for sex trafficking.

Seefar, a social enterprise with a vision for a world where vulnerable people have more opportunities to advance themselves, will contribute its valuable experience as implementer with comprehensive contextual knowledge of forced labor, modern slavery, and sex trafficking to the delivery of this project.

To date, many livelihood opportunities for CSE or trafficking survivors have failed to meet a market need and therefore lacked sustainability. To address this gap, Seefar leverages the global freelance economy to provide opportunities to create sustainable income. The model aims to create sustainable income options for survivors and prevent further exploitation. 

LIFT uses adaptive counseling to provide a foundation for stabilizing CSE survivors before embarking on employment opportunities. LIFT supports CSE survivors through adaptive counseling and employment language training, and skills training tailored to market demands. By fostering long term career preparation and growth opportunities for survivors, this project decreases risk of re-trafficking and sustainably reduces the long-term prevalence of CSE survivors. Finally, Seefar builds intervention sustainability by training other anti-trafficking organizations in the LIFT approach. 

In addition, the LIFT project includes a rigorous learning phase in which GFEMS and Seefar will gather data to better understand key factors on which training environments and resources are most effective to support these populations. 

With this project, GFEMS and Seefar aim to reduce the risk of re-trafficking, breaking the cycle of exploitation to reduce the prevalence of CSE among survivors. LIFT’s holistic trauma-informed approach supports employment opportunities with sustainable incomes for CSE survivors.

GFEMS looks forward to sharing the successes and lessons learned from the LIFT project and working successfully with our partners at Seefar towards our mission of ending modern slavery by making it economically unprofitable. Learn more about the Norad partnership and the GFEMS portfolio.

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In partnership with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), GFEMS is working with Association for Stimulating Know-how (ASK) to build a safe labor migration ecosystem in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar, India. The migration ecosystem involves all aspects along a migrant’s journey abroad: from awareness of risks, to support provided by their family, community, and employers, to access to the means and resources to work abroad, to access to systems helping resolve issues. Focusing on major source communities for migrant labor, the project aims to reduce the prevalence of forced labor among migrant workers extremely vulnerable to slavery by creating an ecosystem that addresses specific source-side vulnerabilities. 

ASK has been working for the past 27 years to build knowledge and skills for vulnerable populations and to bring about sustainable and measurable change in the lives of the people they work with. ASK’s core expertise includes planning and management of large-scale projects in the field of safe migration, sustainability, livelihoods, and health and education, with an approach to reducing community vulnerabilities grounded in economic empowerment and support services. Aligned with the Fund’s efforts to reduce the supply of vulnerable workers, ASK works closely with migrant workers to improve their economic well being and ensure stakeholder adherence to labor and human rights.

The Fund’s scoping research showed that UP and Bihar are key migrant sending states for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Accordingly, the project provides interventions for aspiring overseas migrant workers originating from UP and Bihar. Specific vulnerabilities to be addressed by this project include: reliance on unsafe migration channels, lack of migrant preparedness in the recruitment process, lack of family and community awareness about the recruitment process, lack of support services (or use of them) for migrants and their families, economic vulnerabilities of migrants and their families, and debt bondage. 

To help build a safe migration ecosystem, ASK will establish Migrant Resource Centers (MRCs) within two Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). The MRCs will deliver migrants services that reduce source-side drivers of vulnerability to forced labor. Services include pre-decision and pre-deployment training, basic paralegal and reintegration support (primarily through referrals), and assistance registering for entitlements for aspiring, in-service, and returning migrants and their families.

In parallel, ASK will build the capability and capacity of the CSOs to own and operate the MRCs beyond the project implementation period. These MRCs are a key example of the Fund’s focus on interventions that can be sustained beyond GFEMS funding, ensuring programs have continuing and long-term impact. 

The dual lack of financial knowledge and access to quality financial services is a key problem for migrants and their families. Without financial literacy and access to financial services, migrants are vulnerable to economic shocks. In response, this project, with support from Mitrata Inclusive Financial Services, will test financial health innovations to determine if migrant-focused financial products or services work and if there is a market for them.

In the long term, this project will reduce migrant vulnerability to unsafe practices in the recruitment and labor migration process that often lead to forced labor. Specifically, it will ensure survivor recovery and reintegration and reduce the number of workers who pursue risky migration and who fall into debt bondage, reducing the vulnerabilities that lead to modern slavery by. 

GFEMS looks forward to sharing learnings from this project in reducing source side vulnerability in India. Learn more about the Norad partnership and the GFEMS portfolio.

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With support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), GFEMS is partnering with the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) in a new project providing recovery and reintegration services to survivors of forced labor, returned migrants, and additional vulnerable populations in Bangladesh. 

CAFOD is a leading, UK-based agency with over thirty years of experience working collaboratively in Bangladesh with local partners. Together with Caritas Bangladesh (CB) and Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program (OKUP), CAFOD will provide immediate and long-term support to vulnerable and returned migrants and survivors of abuse and exploitation. The project will focus on reintegration support efforts in some of the highest labor-sending districts of Bangladesh.

GFEMS invests in projects that disrupt the supply of vulnerable populations and works with stakeholders to combat exploitation. To further this objective, the project will:

• Work closely with the Government of Bangladesh to strengthen survivor reintegration services and referral pathways. 
• Address the social and economic challenges that vulnerable migrants and survivors experience. Through community engagement activities, the project will cultivate systemic advancements in reintegration support and survivor services, resulting in improvements to the current reintegration, recovery, and referral system in Bangladesh.
• Provide trauma-informed psychosocial and physical care to returnee migrants immediately upon returning to Bangladesh. CAFOD, Caritas Bangladesh, and OKUP will work together to refer victims and their families to support services and tools for recovery and reintegration. Further supporting returnees and vulnerable migrants in livelihood placement, CB will conduct skills assessments and develop plans for use of these skills to secure employment. With this approach to distributing resources and care, the consortium will provide holistic, needs-based support to survivors and vulnerable migrants. 
• Support and advance the current referral system by improving cross-government coordination, delivery of and access to Government-provided services through engagement activities, such as reintegration, recovery, and restitution services. 

GFEMS is excited to support the development of an improved system of survivor care for returned migrants in Bangladesh. By taking a needs-based approach to service delivery of healthcare, counseling, shelter, and legal support, this project ensures that survivors receive services that directly meet their needs.

GFEMS looks forward to sharing learnings from the progress of this project, and from working with CAFOD and its consortia partners, in enhancing reintegration support in Bangladesh. Learn more about the Norad partnership and the GFEMS portfolio.

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GFEMS is proud to launch a new portfolio of interventions and innovations with funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Corporation (Norad). The portfolio represents a 5.7M USD investment in programming, with additional programming to be added later this year, and will support recovery, reintegration, and rehabilitation of survivors, as well as build safer migration systems for migrants seeking work abroad, their families, and their communities in India and Bangladesh. GFEMS is funding six projects across these focus areas, in partnership with five local, regional, and international organizations. Projects in the Norad portfolio represent an investment in evidence-based, inclusive, and sustainable interventions.

This portfolio marks a new round of in-region projects for GFEMS, following the inaugural portfolio launch in late 2018. The portfolio projects have high potential to reduce vulnerability to trafficking and re-trafficking, informed by an extensive scoping and design phase that included research into structural drivers of modern slavery, vulnerability analyses of target populations, and industry analysis in priority sectors and geographies.

GFEMS and its partners designed the portfolio to address the Fund’s strategic priorities in Commercial Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and Ethical Recruitment. Specifically, the projects test new models of ethical recruitment and support growth of existing promising models for survivor care.

GFEMS views modern slavery through an economic lens as a systemic problem driven by traffickers’ exploitation of people for profit: a consistent supply of vulnerable individuals and demand for cheap goods and services. For example, within ethical recruitment, the Fund is lowering the supply of vulnerable workers by providing support to aspiring migrant laborers and making tools for the recruitment journey more accessible, and decreasing the demand for slavery by creating incentives for ethical labor over exploitive recruitment practices. Similarly, within CSE, the Fund is working to reduce the supply of vulnerable individuals through provision of trauma informed care, economic empowerment, and reintegration services. h The Fund ensures that all stakeholders, including the private sector, work together to address modern slavery and the systems on which it relies.

Sustainability is a key priority across the projects and across the Fund’s wider portfolio. GFEMS identifies projects that leverage national priorities and meet market demands, both indicators of high potential for replication and scale. Projects provide vulnerable populations and survivors with the skills and resources they need to live safe and full lives. Within the Norad partnership, GFEMS specifically seeks to support sustainable change in the recruitment industry and provide sustainable livelihoods for survivors of modern slavery. 

In the coming weeks, GFEMS is excited to share more information about the projects and partners in this portfolio. The Fund looks forward to sharing the successes and lessons learned as the projects move forward.

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