The Responsible Business Alliance Foundation is a Section 501(c)(3) supporting organization of the Responsible Business Alliance, a Section 501(c)(6) organization. The RBA Foundation is organized, administered and operated exclusively for charitable, scientific and educational purposes, within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, including to improve the public's ability to make informed decisions about the social, environmental, and economic responsibility in the supply chain of the products they purchase and to engage in other charitable, scientific and educational activity.
Programs
Migrant workers face many challenges in supply chains around the world. Watch the RBA Foundation's Journey of a Worker video below and read further down to learn how the Responsible Workplace and Recruitment Programs are making a difference.
In 2018, the RBA Foundation and its implementing partner, ELEVATE, embarked on a program to transform the market for ethical business practices through a generous grant from the Walmart Foundation. They worked together over a 24-month period to implement a solutions-oriented program, including publicly available education and information, focusing downstream to detect and address forced labor. The project included additional upstream work, done in tandem, to develop the maturity of labor agents to meet ethical recruitment standards and better educate workers and factory management directly. Key to these efforts were the Responsible Workplace and Recruitment Programs.
Building on the success of our Workplace of Choice pilot, the Responsible Workplace Program focused on improving workers’ awareness of their labor rights, developing worker-management communication and amplifying workers’ voices to improve working conditions and mitigate issues that contribute to forced labor. Program elements included:
- Worker Surveys
- Worker-Management Communications
- Worker Education
- Worker Helpline
The Responsible Recruitment Program provided a development path, with public recognition for progress, to labor providers to meet ethical recruitment standards of today’s leading industry customers. Program elements included:
- Three-Step System
- Ethical Recruiter Training & Verified Self-Assessments
- Forced Labor Assessments
- Certification Equivalency
Both the Responsible Workplace and Recruitment Programs under this grant concluded in March 2021. Learn more about the outcome of these programs in this public report: Transforming Recruitment of Migrant Workers Practices in Malaysia.
Since then, the RBA Foundation continues to build on efforts promoting safe worker migration in Malaysia through the transformation of recruitment practices in supply chains through another Walmart Foundation grant, received in 2020. Under this second grant, the RBA Foundation and its implementing program partner, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), aim to accelerate the transformation of recruitment markets and reduce the risk of forced labor by:
- Conducting additional research and data collection to help ensure the best chances of success
- Piloting economic incentive models for ethical recruitment
- Increasing engagement with stakeholders such as workers, civil society organizations and governments
- Increasing worker voice through the expansion of the RBA Helpline
- Partnering with local civil society organizations in the countries of origin to conduct the pilot pre-employment orientation training for jobseekers and worker engagement at the community levels
- Harmonizing responsible recruitment and employment practices across multiple stakeholders in sending and receiving countries
- Developing additional public education and resources on forced labor and ethical sourcing
For more information about this current program, download our brochure and contact RRP@RBAFoundation.org
For more information on the RBA Foundation, contact info@RBAFoundation.org
