Achieving Target 8.7 of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals

As of early 2023, 33 countries have made a commitment to become Pathfinder Countries and 21 have started the process. Pathfinder Countries: 

• identify key stakeholders and existing coordination mechanisms in the country and consider creating new country coordination group if needed;
• initiate a situational mapping on the status of SDG 8.7 in the country with relevant stakeholders;
• organise at least one strategic planning workshop in order to create a Roadmap for accelerated action to achieve target 8.7;
• implement, monitor, and report annually on country Roadmaps.

The Roadmaps bring together, often for the first time in national policy frameworks, strategies to tackle forced labour, human trafficking, modern slavery, and child labour, using a whole-of-government and participatory approach that also engages workers’ and employers’ organizations and civil society.  

Alliance 8.7 and its partners have generated a wealth of new knowledge and understanding of the nature, causes and consequences of forced labour, human trafficking, modern slavery and child labour.

A prominent example of policy-oriented research conducted by Alliance 8.7 is a groundbreaking report, Ending child labour, forced labour and human trafficking in global supply chains. Jointly authored by the ILO, OECD, IOM and UNICEF, the report represents the first ever attempt to measure these human rights abuses and violations on a large scale and includes evidence-based policy recommendations on public and private measures to prevent, identify, mitigate and remediate child labour, forced labour and human trafficking.

Prominent examples of Alliance 8.7 initiatives include an SDG 8.7 Innovation Challenge, which was launched in 2021 to stimulate new ways to tackle forced labour, human trafficking, modern slavery and child labour.  In total, 116 innovative ideas from all over the world were submitted. The challenge focused on Alliance 8.7 pathfinder countries as beneficiaries. Winners received support for the development of digital information systems to harness artificial intelligence and information technologies to increase efficiency, effectiveness and targeting of interventions in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A Skills Innovation Challenge on “Preventing Forced Labour through Skills and Lifelong Learning in Africa” was won by a member of the Youth Entrepreneurship Network of Comoros. The initiative aims to help women and youth who are most exposed to forced labour in Comoros to develop the skills necessary to create their own businesses in the blue and green economies.