USAID announces Global Labor Initiative (GLI)

Deadline: 4 June 2020

Through this Addendum to the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Locally Led Development Innovation, USAID is interested in identifying opportunities for co-creation, codesign, co-investment and collaboration on development interventions to address challenges with respect to supporting labor rights and strengthening democratic trade unions worldwide.

The nature of employment throughout the world is changing rapidly, and is increasingly fragmented, precarious, and conditional. The rights to freedom of association, collective bargaining, and other worker protections are under threat in many parts of the world. At the same time, the destandardization of employment has resulted in new forms of workers’ rights violations. These negative trends affect the labor sector and workers globally, including youth employed in the gig economy, exploited migrant workers, outsourced industrial workers, and disguised employment in agriculture and the informal economy. USAID therefore seeks strategic and innovative approaches to reach low-wage and vulnerable workers, including those who have been excluded from formal union membership, such as domestic workers and agricultural workers, and across the informal labor sector.

Employment relationships are increasingly embedded in regional and transnational investment. For example, a garment factory manager negotiating with workers in Cambodia or Haiti may be affected by complex relationships with multiple buyers in the United States and Europe. Additionally, the emerging “platform economy” is further fragmenting and dispersing work across geographic and national boundaries, creating a global workforce of “virtual migrants.” Transnational approaches to workers’ rights campaigns are necessary to identify and strategically link workers in related sectors and occupations. USAID programming in this arena needs to account for changes in production and supply chains in order to assist in global organizing efforts and international sectoral campaigns, and to engage strategically with private sector stakeholders.

Since 1997, USAID has maintained a global Leader with Associates (LWA) cooperative agreement award to support labor programming managed by the DRG Center. The current award, entitled the Global Labor Program (GLP), is implemented by Solidarity Center. GLP supports activities in 10 countries (Colombia, Mexico, Morocco, Liberia, Lesotho, South Africa, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Ukraine and Georgia), as well as regional and sub-regional activities in Latin America, Middle East/North Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Southern Africa that work in 31 countries. GLP also supports thematic research and advocacy on gender, social inclusion, labor migration, and trafficking in persons. The award has rapid response capacity that enables GLP to respond quickly to urgent and unforeseen developments related to workers’ rights throughout the world.

For the new Global Labor Initiative (GLI), the DRG Center intends to take a more innovative and inclusive design approach to increase the number and diversify the types of organizations involved in the planning and implementation of the program. In addition to broadening USAID’s partner base by including new and underutilized partners, this approach will increase the program’s focus on developing the capacity, sustainability, and impact of local actors engaging on workers’ rights.

Solutions Sought

• Increase Protection of Workers’ Rights
  • Building on its previous investments and programming, USAID seeks innovative concepts that are designed to increase protection of workers’ rights in a rapidly evolving environment for labor and the world of work. USAID seeks solutions that respond to major trends, including but not limited to opportunities and challenges related to the emerging platform digital economy, gig economy, artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and evolving trends in migrant labor. Illustrative interventions could include, but are not limited to:
    • increasing the capacity of labor movements to represent and advocate for their members,
    • increasing access to justice for workers,
    • increasing and improving access to information for workers,
    • improving labor relations governance systems,
    • advancing the effective worldwide application of labor rights including to prevent susceptibility to trafficking in persons,
    • improving the welfare and livelihood opportunities of those vulnerable to labor exploitation and forced labor and their families and communities,
    • working with national and local governments (where possible) to develop and implement regulations and laws to prevent trafficking in persons and to protect and advance labor rights,
    • developing partnerships with national, sectoral and local worker organizations to strengthen the sustainability of labor rights advancements,
    • developing the capacity and improving the skills of labor organizations and other advocacy groups who support workers’ rights,
    • other innovative approaches to strengthen the policy or operational environment for workers’ rights, and
    • improving responses to labor exploitation and forced labor, including in seasonal/temporary work and in environments where workers are isolated.
• Intersection of Emerging Trends in Labor and Inclusive Development
  • In recognition of the changing world of work and consistent with USAID priorities, this BAA Addendum seeks solutions that explore the intersection of emerging trends and inclusive development. Women, youth, LGBTI people, people with disabilities, indigenous people, ethnic and religious minorities, and other marginalized groups are particularly vulnerable in labor landscapes with weak protections for workers’ rights, including informal and gig economy arrangements. USAID’s future GLI will emphasize the inclusion of marginalized groups and their interests in project activities. Responses to this addendum should take major trends in these areas into account. For example, there is new evidence that describes the changing roles of women in the workforce, the disruptions caused by “leapfrogging” to the digital economy in many developing countries, and the growing role of the private sector in co-governance in many industries. New and more flexible approaches and tools may be needed to address the increasing numbers of economic migrants and the accompanying potential for their exploitation; new trends in crowdsourcing; potential uses and abuses of digital platforms; trafficking of women, children, and vulnerable populations for labor purposes; and other challenges. A co-creation process will serve to further define the problem, goals, and potential approaches of the program.
• Civic Space and Labor Rights
  • USAID also aims to explore the role of and responses to increasing restrictions on civic space by state and non-state actors, as well as the role of transnational authoritarian actors. In response to anti-democratic currents present in many countries, USAID is interested in approaches to labor rights and building worker organization capacity that increase the space for inclusive and democratic participation by civil society. Growing wealth and income inequality have detrimental impacts on democratic governance, particularly where the rule of law is weak, by concentrating political power within a small group of wealthy actors. USAID welcomes practical and innovative approaches to strengthen coalitions and networks to provide information and improve workers’ access to information, including on labor rights and the ability to organize and bargain collectively. USAID seeks to build coalitions that bring together labor movements, social movements, and grassroots and civil society organizations to build upon successful efforts to develop joint civic education campaigns on economic policy and its connection to civic space challenges.
• Increasing Local Ownership
  • Increasing local ownership is another key priority for USAID’s future GLI. USAID is interested in engaging local organizations with deep contextual knowledge and expertise. USAID expects program implementers to work closely in partnership with national, sectoral and local worker organizations in a given country, as well as labor organizations and other advocacy groups who support workers’ rights, and to describe how activities may be sustainably advanced by local partners beyond the life of the program. Proposed activities should also engage other key stakeholders within society, including employer associations, who may enjoy legitimacy within their communities and have the ability to facilitate a public discourse on labor rights. This is consistent with USAID’s objective to promote sustainable development through high-impact partnerships and local solutions. The new program’s approach to more proactively engage and support the longer-term sustainability and effectiveness of local actors is not yet known. The approach will be developed during the co-creation process.

The above are broad descriptions of USAID’s primary objectives. However, applicants are welcome to propose other innovative research and development interventions to address challenges with respect to supporting labor rights and strengthening democratic trade unions worldwide.

Eligibility Criteria

All U.S. and Non-U.S. organizations, businesses, institutions, individuals and groups.

Guidance for Concepts

Proposed concepts may be submitted at any of the following stages of development per the guidelines outlined in the Broad Agency Announcement for Locally Led Development Innovation BAA-OAA-LLDI-2019 and before expiration of the Open Period designated above:

• Proof of concept – introduction of a solution in a specific country context to gain an early, real-world assessment of technical, organization, distribution, and financial viability of the solution.
• Testing impact and delivery – testing a proven concept toward improved outcomes and/or viability, as well as operational refinement to build paths to sustainability and scale.
• Scaling-up – adaptation of a rigorously evaluated innovation to new contexts and geographies and engagement of additional partners who will help scale the project beyond USAID support, but for whom more evidence of success and a track record are needed.

For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=326534