4C Contributes to the Development of the InPACTO Vulnerability Index

Modern slavery is a global issue with 40,3 million people in the world still suffering from it. Meet InPACTO Vulnerability Index – an innovative data-based approach to prevent and combat modern slavery conditions and child labour in Brazil.

The InPACTO Vulnerability Index is designed to take a proactive approach against conditions analogous to slavery and child labour in Brazil. It maps the factors that make a certain municipality or region and its population more vulnerable to human rights violation, in particular, forced labour, debt bondage, debilitating workdays, and degrading working conditions, and identifies the risk level via cross-analysis of socioeconomic and demographic data.

To create its Vulnerability Index, InPACTO analysed over 400 variables from various sources in the national statistical system in Brazil, including the ILO Municipal Decent Work Indicator System and ILO Digital Slave Labor Observatory, as well the “Dirty List”[1], and others. Apart from the direct variables related to conditions analogous to slavery, the index also includes indirect variables, such as the public health situation and housing facilities.

Between September 2019 and March 2020, InPACTO carried out a pilot project to enable a better understanding of the InPACTO Vulnerability Index by the companies. For this fundamentally important test phase, 20 Brazilian and multinational companies with suppliers in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais were invited to learn, evaluate, and contribute to the improvement of the tool.

4C also made its contribution to the index, being one of the companies who participated in the pilot project. The topic is a part of the 4C social requirements under its Code of Conduct, and therefore 4C supports the work of InPACTO in expanding the index to other states and sees a huge potential in this high technology tool to map levels of vulnerability in the whole country of Brazil.

The InPACTO Vulnerability Index will enable companies whose supply chains include sourcing operations in Brazil to estimate their risks and develop action plans for supporting and ensuring a better future for vulnerable regions.

To learn more about the InPACTO Vulnerability Index, please watch the video or visit their website.

[1] “Dirty list” contains the names of individual and legal entities in Brazil known to exploit labour under conditions analogous to slavery. This list is included into the risk assessment tools of 4C. The “dirty list” is available to the public on the website of the Ministry of Labour and Employment of Brazil (www.mte.gov.br).