ELEVATE

ELEVATE developed a risk assessment tool to engage brands in detecting the risk of unauthorized subcontracting in the apparel supply chain in India. The tool will help international buyers and retailers to increase their visibility over the supply chain and potentially identify the risk of forced labor deeper in their supply chain. The completed tool will be used in conjunction with a remediation plan to bolster brands’ efforts to reduce the risk of unauthorized subcontracting and forced labor violations.

This project deployed the Laborlink mobile survey technology to detect forced labor in informal ready-made garment factories, which are often excluded from traditional government and brand oversight measures. ELEVATE, with its local partners Bangladesh Labour Foundation and Phulki, surveyed over 12,000 workers, including close to 3,000 children, creating a picture of widespread forced and child labor in two industrial production hubs in Bangladesh.

ELEVATE joins “Comprehensive Action towards Forced Labor Eradication (CAFE),” the Fund’s multifaceted effort to eliminate forced labor in the Brazilian coffee industry, to provide workers an avenue to report exploitation. ELEVATE will work with local partners to establish a grievance mechanism meets the specific needs of coffee workers. The grievance mechanism will act as an entry-point to “the Flow”–a new protocol the Brazilian government has developed to coordinate services provided to survivors.

Over the past two years, with FCDO support, ELEVATE, with its consortium partners Winrock and Diginex Solutions, built and piloted SafeStep, a mobile application for Bangladeshi workers migrating to the Gulf countries. In this follow on phase, the consortium will expand SafeStep’s functionality to include a user pathway for employers, including educational content to help employers take action to prevent forced labor and an in-app survey to collect anonymized data on workers’ migration experiences.