Joint ILO – World Bank BBL Series on Human Trafficking and Forced Labor
                                            June 2024
                         Jose Cuesta, World Bank; Gady Saiovici, ILO


CONTEXT
ILO most recent report on modern slavery estimates that almost 50 million people were living in
modern slavery in 2021, of which 28 million were in forced labor and 22 million in forced
marriage. Of those, more than 6 million are forcefully exploited in commercial sex activities,
women and girls disproportionally represented in that group (5 million). All these practices
constitute a flagrant violation of human rights with devastating personal and social consequences
on those affected and deep economic and political ramifications in involved countries. ILO and
the Bank are joining forces to combat this scourge globally.

THE BBL SERIES
This series has several objectives, chief among them:
    o First, increasing the knowledge and awareness of these issues across both institutions.
    o Second, disseminating evidence and evidence gaps, and discussing possible ways to fill
        some of those gaps.
    o Third, targeted teams, experts and audience will engage in brainstorms about ways in
        which this scourge can be addressed and/or being incorporated in our operations.

ILO and the World Bank will jointly host 5 seminars in the next following 18 months, that is, for
the period October 2023-June 2025.

The targeted audience is mixed, and changes based on the topic featured in the seminar. It
comprises, within the Bank, interested operational teams in social sectors, as well as colleagues
working on ESF, and economists working on issues of exclusion, poverty and forced displacement;
within the ILO, colleagues working on statistics, research, migration, and fundamental principles
and rights at work.

The seminars are conceived to cover different angles, exploring links with human rights, applying
an economic and social lens, focusing on very specific policy choices, and looking inwards at what
institutions like ILO and World Bank do and opportunities to combat these complex issues.

These seminars will be hybrid, hosted both in DC and Geneva (and any other regional location
that wants to chair a session). They will last 1 hour and will have different, flexible and agile
formats. It will typically include a presenter or two, followed by a discussant, and then substantive
time for Q&A. Some other discussions may take the form of a roundtable, for example, discussing
data gaps and technical ways to address them systematically, or lightening presentations, for
example, presenting several success interventions across regions and contexts. The proposed series
seeks and encourages this flexible and agile approach.
SESSIONS (suggested, for discussion)

Session 1: February 2024: Setting the scene: Quantitative data collection on forced labor and
human trafficking: standards, experience, and challenges? Presenters: ILO colleagues presenting
current evidence, methods, and policy advisory. Chair: Nik Myint (WB), Discussant: Jose Cuesta
(WB)

Session 2: May 2024 Research gaps on human trafficking and learning through the PEMS
program. Casey Risko and Abigail Long, US Department of State. 22 May 2024* Chair: ILO;
Discussant: World Bank.

Session 3: June 2024. Impact evaluation and the state-of-the-art data and analytics on human
trafficking. Prof Guy Grossman (U Penn). Chair: Jose Cuesta, World Bank; Discussant:
Lorenzo Guarcello (ILO).

Session 4: October 2024. Stanford Human Trafficking Data Lab. Prof Grant Miller. Chair:
Lorraine Wong (ILO); Discussant: World Bank.

Session 5: February 2025. Global Report on Trafficking in Persons. UNODC. Report basically
compiles administrative records by country on prevalence,. Fabrizio Sarrica (UNODC) Chair:
Jose Cuesta, World Bank, Discussant: Alix Nasri (ILO, TBC).

Session 7: (early) November 2024. Improving evidence on prevalence of child labour and forced
labour in global value chains. Francesca Francavilla (Senior Economist, ILO) * Chair: Federico
Blanco (ILO), Discussant: Jacob de Hoop (World Bank)

Session 8: December 2024. Towards a global research agenda on forced labour and trafficking
interventions (ILO and IPA. Lorenzo Guarcello (Project Manager, RTA project) and Jeni
Sorensen (Director, Human Trafficking Research Initiative, IPA) Chair: SSI GP Director, World
Bank, Discussant: ILO