New project on Forced labour

Evidence to Action (EvA): Increasing the impact of research to mobilise efforts against forced labour

The EvA Project aims to produce and disseminate actionable knowledge, as well as to mobilize stakeholders to foster the use of research and evidence in policy and programmatic decision-making to eliminate forced labour around the world.

The EvA Project, awarded from USDOL Federal Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA-ILAB-19-04), responds to the need to develop robust and replicable approaches to collecting and analysing data on forced labour, as the basis for building evidence-based interventions.

Building on the ICLS Guidelines Concerning the Measurement of Forced Labour, the Project:
  • provides significant new information regarding the prevalence, characteristics, and causes of forced labour within the garment sectors of Mauritius and Argentina;
  • builds the capacity of national research institutions, government and civil society organizations to undertake and use research to prevent, identify, and combat forced labour;
  • provides globally relevant examples and assessment of tools for the investigation of forced labour; and
  • catalyzes a broad group of stakeholders to act on the research findings, making the link from data to policy.

Global objectives and outcomes

The EvA Project project aims to increase the use of forced labour research in policy and programmatic decision-making to eliminate forced labour around the world.

The project will aim to achieve the following outcomes:
  1. Increased knowledge of the nature and extent of forced labour where scarce research exists; and
  2. Increased mobilization of decision-makers in the private sector, government, and civil society to act against forced labour.

Countries covered

  • Argentina
  • Mauritius
The research project in each country begins with an initial rapid sector appraisal, completed in conjunction with stakeholder identification and formation of the national committees, development and adaptation of quantitative and qualitative tools based on the ICLS Guidelines, robust sampling techniques, and careful attention to protection of research subjects.

Research in Mauritius is led by NORC, building on its decades of expertise in survey research, and in Argentina by the ILO, in both countries working closely with local experts and institutions. Verité will provide expertise in operationalizing forced labour research approaches in supply chains and will lead the industry mobilization. 

Implementing partners