Starting in Brazil, the project will enlist government, employers, and workers’ organizations in sector-specific pacts (“pactos”) to address the challenges of child labor and forced labor and to improve working conditions in supply chains. The project will work to enhance collaboration among the pactos members, build their capacity, and enhance engagement with local worker- and community-serving organizations and individuals, bringing them into dialogue and decision-making processes and increasing worker voice throughout select supply chains. Once activities begin in Brazil, the project will then explore expanding to additional countries in Latin America and the Caribbean upon approval.

The Strengthening Civil Society to Protect and Advocate for Migrant Workers project will provide civil society with the tools and training to protect migrant workers, particularly Mexican nationals participating in U.S. Temporary Foreign Worker programs, by supporting fair recruitment initiatives, building awareness of labor rights, and increasing the use of formal mechanisms for workers to exercise those rights.

The AgroJusto Project, implemented by Partners of the Americas, aims to improve compliance with international labor standards in the cut flower sector in Cotopaxi and the banana sector in El Oro. The project will use an area-based approach, reinforcing local ownership and building the capacity of local private, community, and government stakeholders. It will empower worker organizations, producer associations community and indigenous groups, and local entities to address labor violations.

The project will build capacity among municipal stakeholders, such as government officials, workers, worker organizations, labor unions, civil society organizations, community groups, and private-sector stakeholders, to work together to design and implement locally led actions to address child and forced labor in targeted municipalities in Chiapas and San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

The OBSERVAR project will support workplace democratic processes in Mexico through the impartial observation of workplace votes and the capacity building of key stakeholders on the issues of freedom of association and collective bargaining.

The Towards Effective Courts and Coordinated Labor Justice (TECLAB) project aims to support independent state labor courts created by Mexico’s 2019 Labor Law Reform to administer labor justice in an effective, efficient, and consistent manner.

The goal of this project was to research, identify, and develop indicators of progress being made in high-risk countries to eliminate child labor and forced labor in the cocoa sector; to research best practices utilized by the governments and the cocoa and chocolate industry, and to research the participation of worker organizations in addressing child labor and forced labor in the cocoa sector.

The Project to Increase Worker Voice and Address Forced Labor, Child Labor, and Other Labor Violations in Cattle Raising Areas of Brazil and Paraguay will help to increase collective action by workers organizations (WOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) to address forced labor, child labor, and other labor violations in cattle raising areas of Brazil and Paraguay, specifically in the Brazilian State of Mato Grosso do Sul and in the Paraguayan Department of Boquerón in the Chaco region.