First geographies

Our inaugural portfolio of programs focused on Asia and East Africa, geographies where interventions had high potential for impact. Across our programs, we worked side-by-side with government, the private sector, and civil society partners.

Our inaugural geographies included: India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, the Philippines, Kenya, Uganda, Brazil, and Malaysia with complementary activities in other geographies.

With an estimated 3.8 million victims worldwide, domestic work accounts for the largest share of estimated victims of private-sector forced labor. Even compared to other vulnerable populations, domestic workers are particularly vulnerable. Women and girls account for a large percentage of domestic workers and frequently face additional vulnerabilities related to gender.

Apparel, a subset of manufacturing with 75 million workers worldwide, is a large source of forced labor. It is a key engine of economic growth in many developing countries. Hundreds of thousands of these workers are victims of modern slavery. 

Like apparel, construction is a major growth engine in developing countries. Globally, it is a $10 trillion industry. There is mounting pressure to improve worker welfare and labor practices. However, the lack of ground-tested, academically validated, pragmatic solutions limits the adoption of good practices at scale.

An estimated 5 million people globally, including approximately 1 million children, are victims of commercial sexual exploitation. While organizations around the world conduct frequent rescues and provide reintegration services to survivors, operations are unable to reach sufficient scale to sustainably reduce these numbers.  

In today’s global economy, goods and services are consumed far from where they are produced. Global brands procure their products tens of thousands of suppliers, making it difficult to trace a path from raw material to finished product. The overwhelming complexity of global supply chains puts millions of people, including children, at risk of forced labor and exploitation.

The financial sector—from banks to investment funds to financial service providers—is a pillar of the global economy and a platform for all financial movement, including illicit finance tied to trafficking and slavery. Global finance is therefore a powerful lever for building more transparent supply chains and mobilizing private sector actors against trafficking and slavery.

One in four victims of forced labor is a migrant. Although overseas labor migration is critical for the global economy, it is associated with high debts and risk of exploitation. While better onsite treatment of workers by employers is an important part of interventions, it is not enough to prevent modern slavery. Interventions need to reach from communities of origin to destination workplaces and back.