About us

Background

The latest ILO global child labour estimates indicate that, despite important progress, there were still 160 million children in labour worldwide in 2020. The ILO global estimates of forced labour for the same year show a total of 25 million persons in situations of forced labour. Given the hidden nature of human trafficking, there are no prevalence estimates to capture the full scope and scale of the issue.

Through the ILO and IOM’s Research to Action (RTA) project, 16 junior researchers have been awarded fellowships and seed grants to address knowledge gaps and produce high-impact studies, while four projects have received awards from IPA’s Human Trafficking Research Initiative (HTRI) Competitive Research Fund to carry out exploratory research and evaluate the effectiveness of counter-trafficking interventions. These grants enable new talent, including underrepresented researchers from the global south, women, and first-generation college graduates, to join the growing network of specialists and interdisciplinary collaborators conducting research on child labour, forced labour and human trafficking that support policy responses.

Awards at a Glance

The RTA project launched a global competition to elicit proposals from junior researchers to address knowledge gaps in the field of child labour, forced labour, and human trafficking in March 2020. Proposals were evaluated by a scientific committee including 12 researchers from different disciplines of social science and humanities. Through the awards, the project supports 16 junior researchers to conduct independent research projects with their affiliated universities.

HTRI launched its first call for applications for seed funding in March 2021 and full and partial research project funding in September 2021. Four organizations were awarded seed grant funding and an additional four organizations were provided partial and
full research funding for experimental and quasi-experimental research. These eight awards are for early-stage research and randomized control trials examining the effectiveness of counter-trafficking programs in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.

RTA Scientific Committee

RTA Scientific Committee

Jessie Brunner

Director of Human Trafficking Research, Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Stanford University
RTA Scientific Committee

Sarah Craggs

Research Fellow, Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Stanford University and Human Rights Centre, University of California, Berkeley. Senior Programme Officer, International Organization for Migration.
RTA Scientific Committee

Michaelle de Cock

Head, Research and Evaluation Unit, Fundamentals Principles and Rights at Work Branch, International Labour Organization.
RTA Scientific Committee

Cecile Fanton d’Andon

Senior Program Officer, CPC Learning Network, Columbia University.
RTA Scientific Committee

Eric Edmonds

Professor, Department of Economics, Dartmouth College.
RTA Scientific Committee

Kelly Gleason

Data Science Officer (RTA Team), Research and Evaluation Unit, Fundamentals Principles and Rights at Work Branch, International Labour Organization.
RTA Scientific Committee

Samentha Goethals

Assistant Professor in Business and Society, Centre on Sustainability, SKEMA Business School.
RTA Scientific Committee

Lorenzo Guarcello

Policy Research and Statistics Officer (RTA Project Director), Research and Evaluation Unit, Fundamentals Principles and Rights at Work Branch, International Labour Organization.
RTA Scientific Committee

Phineas Jasi

Data Management and Research Specialist, Protection Division, International Organization for Migration.
RTA Scientific Committee

Nicola Pocock

Head of Data & Research, Lumos Foundation. Honorary Assistant Professor, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
RTA Scientific Committee

André Portela Souza

Professor, São Paulo School of Economics, Fundação Getúlio Vargas. Director, FGV EESP CLEAR Center Regional Center for Learning in Evaluation and Results for Brazil and Lusophone Africa. Coordinator, Center for Applied Microeconomics (C-Micro).
RTA Scientific Committee

Lorraine Man Wing Wong

Research Officer (RTA team), Research and Evaluation Unit, Fundamentals Principles and Rights at Work Branch, International Labour Organization. Research Officer, Protection Division, International Organization for Migration.

HTRI Scientific Advisors

HTRI Scientific Advisors

Guy Grossman

Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
HTRI Scientific Advisors

Cecilia Hyunjung Mo

Judith E. Gruber Associate Professor of Political Science at University of California, Berkeley and Associate Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy