Liberia Archives

2019: A Year of Impact, Achievement, and Optimism

Africa, Agriculture, Apparel, Asia, Central America, Child Labor, Civil Society, Compensation and Hours, Corporate Social Responsibility, Financial Sector, Food and Beverage, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking, Human Rights, Labor Supply Chains, Latin America, Living Wages, Manufacturing, Middle East, Migrant Workers, Modern Slavery, Partnership, raw materials, Recruitment, Seafood, South America, Southeast Asia, Technology, Verité, Worker Empowerment

While we are humbled by the great deal more we need to accomplish, we are proud of what we have been able to achieve this past year. Please join us in a review of selected notable projects from 2019.

Improving the Enforcement of Child Labor Laws in Five Countries

Africa, Asia, Child Labor, South America

The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that 152 million children worldwide are engaged in child labor. For the past four years, Verité partnered with Winrock International and Lawyers Without Borders to address this problem by providing technical assistance to governments in five countries: Burkina Faso, Liberia, Nepal, Belize, and Panama. The project had three goals: to improve governments’ response to child labor, decrease the number of children exploited, and increase awareness of child labor in the private sector.

Eliminating Child Labor by 2025

Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking, Health and Safety, Latin America, Partnership, South Asia, Sub Saharan Africa

Target 8.7 of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development requires that child labor be eliminated by 2015, yet according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), 152 million children around the world are in situations of child labor. Verité is currently working with Winrock and Lawyers without Borders to implement CLEAR II, a project to reduce the prevalence of child labor in eight countries. Lisa Cox is spearheading Verité’s role in this partnership, improving the capabilities of public inspectorates and private companies to identify and address child labor.

Verité Influences Major New Federal Policy on Human Trafficking; Announces Release of Research Series on Commodities and Forced Labor

Agriculture, Asia, Extractives, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking, Latin America, North America, Seafood, South Asia, Southeast Asia

At a special session today of the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, President Obama announced several new Administration policies to fight human trafficking. One of these, an Executive Order Strengthening Protections in Federal Contracts, ensures that goods purchased by the U.S. Government—the largest single purchaser of goods and services in the world—are not tainted by trafficking via exploitative labor recruitment practices at any point in the production and supply chain. The Executive Order will apply to all federal contractors and subcontractors—both in the US and worldwide—and provides federal agencies with additional tools to foster compliance.