GoodWeave can provide training and capacity building for internal corporate teams as well as key stakeholders up and down the supply chain to:

• Improve understanding of suppliers’ management on standards, codes of conduct, management systems, and due diligence requirements
• Addressing the gaps and risks identified during the assessments in participating facilities
• Improve management systems and monitoring procedures, and address the structural gaps behind identified risks
• Strengthen company policies, including the establishment of effective and trusted grievance mechanisms and securing buy-in from the management
• Build capacity of relevant internal teams and stakeholders on integrating effective remediation approaches, particularly around identified child labor
• Assess the capacity of worker representative committees where they exist. Where they don’t, we can support their establishment and capacity building
• Establish worker-manager teams to identify future training and capacity building needs

For instance, in India, we have conducted capacity building training sessions for sub-contractors of major international brands on child and forced labor. Trainings have focused on effective management systems in production units to ensure they do not employ child labor, awareness of risks and legal requirements for recruitment of young workers.

GoodWeave conducts desk- and field-based data collection, complemented by secondary data where relevant, to provide a thorough assessment of child and forced labor risk in supply chains, risks for vulnerable populations (e.g., migrant workers, women, and girls) as well as related issues like occupational health and safety.

Unlike a standard risk assessment, GoodWeave’s Worker Informed Forced Labor Risk Assessment uses information collected from people with lived experiences about what risks they face at work to evaluate the likelihood of forced labor indicators in the workplace and their potential impacts on workers.

We can use this holistic risk assessment data to support brands in:

• Understanding country-level human rights risks that they need to consider when making decisions about the long-term sustainability of their business operations in a country
• Identifying the risks most likely to trigger legal exposure: forced labor findings that can stop goods at the border, breach due diligence obligations, or surface in NGO and media investigations
• Receiving summary reports that combine quantitative and qualitative findings, rated by risk and gravity, with practical recommendations and guidance to address these issues

Wage data is where due diligence usually breaks down. Brands can see payroll at a registered factory; they cannot see what an informal worker deep in the supply chain beyond these payrolls earns. Every major living wage initiative – ACT, IDH’s Roadmap, the Anker benchmark- begins with wage data. That data doesn’t exist for home-based and piece-rate workers. GoodWeave collects it.

GoodWeave’s wage data collection tool determines whether minimum wages are actually paid at every level of a supply chain, including home-based worksites, and can help close compliance gaps with regard to wages:

• It converts piece rates and unit rates into minimum wage equivalents, evaluates whether wage requirements are met, and identifies gaps against minimum and living wage benchmarks
• Data from the tool also feeds directly into forced labor risk assessment of wages and working hours, and every assessment closes with clear, achievable recommendations
• GoodWeave sponsored and facilitated the Anker methodology living wage benchmark for Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh, the first Global Living Wage Coalition study in carpets and in rural India. Anker benchmarks are the reference point for the major multi-stakeholder wage initiatives, including ACT and IDH’s WageMap.
• The tool was piloted from October–December 2024 across all GoodWeave supply chains: 4,000 workers in India and Nepal during routine audits rather than a standalone survey

GoodWeave can convene multistakeholder consultations bringing together industry and civil society to inform government policymaking and strengthen enforcement of existing laws. Addressing the root cause of risks will bring a long-term change rather than auditing the consequences of weak enforcement repeatedly.

For instance, GoodWeave and its partners have led bilateral and multilateral engagements in Bangladeshto socialize our report recommendations on modern slavery and child labor in the garment sector and jointly advocate for reforms to the labor policy. GoodWeave was able to get the support of the Chair of the Labour Reform Commission and also worked jointly with the Bangladesh Labour Foundation (BLF) to organize awareness raising and road mapping workshops with trade unions, the Labour Inspectorate and local media. The report recommendations were also presented to the National Child Labour Working Committee – in charge of drafting the National Plan of Action on Child Labour 2026-30).

Brand partners can support or participate in engagement on:

• Extending labor law coverage to all work environments including export processing zones, subcontracted units, and informal production sites
• Building government inspection capacity to identify and address exploitation
• Strengthening worker protections: fair compensation, gender wage equity, and grievance mechanisms that function
• Enforcing child labor prohibitions alongside facilitating improved access to education, vocational training, social protection, and remediation for children found doing labor

Risk is identified earliest and prevented best where children live, not where products are made. GoodWeave works directly in producer communities which is a clear strength. GoodWeave works to prevent child labor, spot at-risk children early, and address it effectively with families, schools and local authorities when child labor is found. Some of our community-based programs include:

• Early identification. Community-level systems and trained local actors surface risks before they reach a worksite inspection
• Education and rights awareness. Bridge education and community awareness keep children in school and help families understand their rights and entitlements
• Support after identification. Every child found in labor enters a remediation pathway consisting of education, family support, and follow-up

GoodWeave supported Child Friendly Communities bring children who have fallen behind up to the level formal schools require; provide early childhood centers near worksites keep infants safe and older siblings in school; ensure that local teachers are trained to recognize the signs of child labor, trafficking, and child marriage; and work with school authorities to ensure at risk children are staying in school and not entering labor. When an inspection does find a child in labor, GoodWeave’s remediation approach ensures they are removed from labor, provided psycho-social support, and re-entry into school to restore their childhood.