Rethink Supply Chains is an initiative to keep labor trafficking out of supply chains. It is a collaborative effort between Humanity United and the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, State, and Labor…
Established as a competition, it has encouraged companies and individuals to develop technology solutions that focused on these areas…
- Workers’ Voices: Tools that help workers to share information and foster community, access resources, and report labor violations to businesses, governments, NGOs, or each other in the most safe and secure way possible.
- Recruitment: Tools to improve the transparency and accountability of the labor recruitment process, encourage responsible practices for employers and recruiters, and empower workers to more safely navigate the recruitment process.
- Traceability: Technologies that enable businesses, workers, governments, and NGOs to track, map, and/or share information on commodities, products, and labor conditions in supply chains at high risk of forced labor.
Five finalists have been selected for Rethink Supply Chains and each received $20,000. The winner has not yet been named but will be awarded an extra $250,000. The runner-up gets an additional $50,000. A couple of the ideas: Tracing software that tracks labor conditions and modules that map forced labor sources as they are discovered by workers and leaders.
This competition could be incredibly influential in disrupting the business of human trafficking at all levels, from recruitment to the final stage perpetrator. Finalist proposals highlight the need for transparency and accountability throughout global supply chains to increase the risks for perpetrators. Businesses play a central role in the fight against modern slavery. It’s critical to incentivize industries to put policies and practices in place to avoid labor trafficking throughout supply chains. For instance, a mapping and communication module could help companies remediate instances of exploitative working conditions and help eliminate forced labor by increasing worker and corporate leader communication.
Such tools would give migrant workers what they need to increase transparency in the recruitment process…exposing recruitment fees and fraudulent contracts. It is important for businesses to engage and cooperated together in the fight against labor trafficking.
To read the entire article about Rethink Supply Chains, click on the link below.
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