This project will improve enforcement of minimum wage, hours of work and occupational safety and health laws in the agricultural export sector in Costa Rica. By strengthening legal and administrative mechanisms of enforcement while engaging employers and workers to improve compliance in the workplace, the project will help promote supply chains free of exploitative labor and a fair playing field for workers in the U.S. and around the world.

The United States supports the goal of bringing meaningful change to the lives of the 152 million child laborers and the 25 million adults and children in forced labor around the world by eradicating child labor, forced labor and human trafficking. USDOL’s MAP 16 project supports this goal through efforts to (1) improve the knowledge base on child labor, forced labor and human trafficking; (2) improve awareness of these issues through the use of data-driven techniques; (3) strengthen policies and improve the capacity of governments and other stakeholders to combat child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking through national, regional, and global initiatives; and (4) strengthen partnerships to accelerate progress in combatting child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking.

The project is helping bridge the skills gap in Costa Rica by increasing the number and quality of on-the-job training programs, such as internships and apprenticeships, while ensuring these opportunities are accessible to the youth who need them the most. The project is supporting improvements in the legal and policy framework surrounding youth training, raising awareness about the benefits of work-based training, documenting and disseminating good apprenticeship practices in Costa Rica, and helping both public and private sectors youth training programs to increase their effectiveness.

The Promoting Apprenticeship as a Path for Youth Employment Project (GAN) worked directly with employers, workers’ organizations, and governments to help increase the number of apprenticeship opportunities for vulnerable youth in Argentina, Costa Rica, and Kenya. The project created and strengthened private sector networks in support of apprenticeship and other types of work-based training, such as internships, in all three countries. It helped employers launch quality work training programs while ensuring these programs were accessible to disadvantaged youth.

Our impact evaluation projects use rigorous quantitative techniques to evaluate the impact of interventions on reducing child labor, forced labor and human trafficking—part of a broader ILAB effort to build rigorous evidence on what works to secure and protect the rights of children and adults. Such evaluations support our partner governments’ evidence-based policymaking efforts, and also help identify proven strategies to inform ILAB’s future investments in global programs to combat child labor and forced labor.