"Building an Effective Data Ecosystem to Address Forced Labor in Global Supply Chains: Key Principles"

Modern slavery is on the rise with over 27 million people in situations of forced labor on any given day, with 86% estimated to be occurring in the private economy. This means forced labor is entrenched in global supply chains and, in part due to increased regulatory pressure from the US and Europe, has led to the development of a “supply chain data ecosystem” in which data flows between governments, policymakers, businesses and civil society organizations to meet demand for specific evidence of forced labor risks.

Despite an increasing amount of collected data about forced labor risks, the value and impact of that data is not being fully realized as the field continues to lack effective actions to prevent, mitigate and remediate actual cases of forced labor. This is in part because data is not being effectively shared between different actors in the supply chain data ecosystem. [...]

[T]his report identifies 7 areas for action by all actors involved. These are structured around three key principles to enable data sharing at scale for a more effective data ecosystem: the right data, the right resources, and the right behaviors.

Tech Against Trafficking, through its BSR Secretariat, will be pursuing three areas for further action around data standardization, designing a scalable model for a federated data ecosystem and policy engagement to promote effective public databases. If you are interested in getting involved, feel free to get in touch at [email protected].