THE ISSARA MODEL
Issara team @ origin: Myanmar
Issara team @ destination: Thailand
Issara team @ destination: Malaysia
worker voice
We are on the ground, operating as a network, speaking the many languages and dialects of job seekers and workers in Asia. Being on the ground, trusted, and connected to both workers and business allows us to receive, cross-check, and action emerging issues. As frontline service providers we also safeguard workers reporting issues.
partnership
Partnerships with global brands, retailers, and progressive suppliers and industry leaders open up opportunities to engage with their upstream suppliers, the recruiters working with those suppliers, and the workers within these workplaces. Strong partnerships with all these stakeholders across the supply chain create space for worker voice to be heard and responded to in a safe, timely, and effective manner.
innovation
So many workers nowadays have smartphones and are savvy. Issara develops technologies to help to educate and empower job seekers and workers, and integrate safeguarded worker voice into business systems and data. We build these apps ourselves, in-house, to ensure worker-centered design and ethical handling of sensitive data.
INCLUSIVE LABOR MONITORING (ILM) ACTION NETWORK
Inclusive Labor Monitoring (ILM) is a worker voice-centered tech system and multi-stakeholder collaboration platform equipping global brands, retailers, suppliers, recruitment agencies, and government with the tools to drive more ethical supply chains and engage meaningfully with workers and civil society.
On the tech side, ILM is a secure, cloud-based case management system for the real-time monitoring of worker-validated labor recruitment and working conditions, spanning origin and destination countries.
On the human side, ILM brings together NGOs, trade unions, recruitment agencies, suppliers, brands and retailers, workers, and even the public in a groundbreaking and systematic way to work toward a common objective of identifying and reducing human trafficking and forced labor in global supply chains.
HOW WE COLLABORATE
Efforts to improve supply chains and empower workers move from transactional to transformational when values-aligned stakeholders unite around shared goals and great data to promote better business practices. Our Collaboration Framework details how we work with the Inclusive Labor Monitoring (ILM) Action Network of global buyers, suppliers, recruitment agencies, civil society organizations (CSOs), and workers themselves to make ethical supply chains a sustainable reality.
UNDERSTANDING WORKER VOICE
Worker engagement is not necessarily worker voice; even worker feedback is not necessarily worker voice. Worker polls, whether high-tech or low, are not necessarily worker voice, and can sometimes even supplant or crowd out true worker voice, with adverse consequences for workers.
So what IS worker voice and why is it so important for global supply chains? To find out, please read on!
the 1-pager infographic
the 4-pager with guidelines
the academic comparative analysis
ISSARA THEORY OF CHANGE
Issara Institute's impact since its inception in 2014 can best be understood within its behavior change and systems change-focused theory of change. It recognizes that there are only 3 key actors directly involved in the act and process of labour exploitation and human trafficking within global supply chains, and it seeks to directly intervene and disrupt harmful behaviors and systems while empowering positive behaviors and systems. The 3 actors are:
-
The people being exploited (job seekers and workers);
-
The people doing the exploiting (recruiters and employers); and,
-
The people mandated to stop the exploitation - that is, the duty bearers (government and global brands and retailers).
Issara Institute's goal is to eliminate labor exploitation, including forced labor and human trafficking, within global supply chains, starting with those connected to Asia. The Institute's objectives in the theory of change relate to the actors listed above:
-
Objective 1. Empowering workers and communities. Job seekers and workers actively identify and avoid exploitation.
-
Objective 2. Transforming supply chains. Recruiters and employers stop exploiting job seekers and workers.
-
Objective 3. Transforming ecosystems. Global brands and retailers, and government, actively stop exploitation and human trafficking.
Our programs all work toward these 3 objectives in an inter-related manner, engaging with all of these key stakeholder groups in a direct and meaningful way, and - importantly - bringing them together as well, including workers, to drive transparency and more effective action to address the real situations, challenges, and opportunities that exist in Asian supply chains.
Read more about the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration here.
