Depletion of ocean resources and labour issues within the seafood supply chain are related issues of increasing prominence. In 2020, Humanity United (the philanthropic arm of ebay founder Pierre Omidyar) contracted RCG to undertake a ”Regional Landscape Analysis of the Asian Seafood Supply Chain” in order to explore the incidence of forced labour/human trafficking in seafood supply chains. This complex study, undertaken across ten countries and requiring a team of more than ten researchers, involved multiple strands:
To evaluate the incidence of forced labour and human trafficking in seafood supply chains in the countries of interest to determine needs, and if new country-based strategies could be catalytic and effective;
To consider the current status and capacity of regional coordinating mechanisms in order to assess their effectiveness, and the feasibility of them being engaged to promote cooperation and create minimum basic standards across the region in relation to labour practices within the seafood sector and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing; and
To conduct an assessment of the current country context and geopolitics of Thailand, in order to identify lessons learned from the extensive support and scrutiny that Thailand has received over the past five years, and provide insights in terms of what enables and inhibits change across the value chain.
Taking more than a year to complete, the two-phase study resulted in a compendium of information and analysis on the current status of seafood supply chains in Asia that will help guide Humanity United programming into the future. Upon completion, Ame Sagiv, Humanity United’s Director for Forced Labor and Human Trafficking commented,
“RCG provided us with a wealth of information, overlaid with evidenced critical analysis and backed by years of learning and experience within the contexts we were assessing. This gave the project’s reports and outputs a level of nuance and complexity that we believe we would not have received from other consultants… They produced compelling and informative deliverables that were intuitively easy to follow, and have proven incredibly useful in the development and implementation of a much larger strategy. We are eternally grateful for their partnership.”
