Lessons from The Mekong Club’s supplier training programme across five Asian countries.

Modern slavery and forced labour risks are not always easy to recognise. They can be hidden within everyday business practices, from recruitment fees and withheld wages to excessive overtime and restrictions on workers’ freedom of movement.

For suppliers, understanding these risks is an important first step. But awareness alone is not enough. The real challenge lies in recognising warning signs, understanding how they relate to daily operations, and knowing what action to take when risks are identified.

So how can businesses help their suppliers move from awareness to meaningful action?

Building knowledge where it matters

At The Mekong Club, we believe that practical, accessible training plays an important role in strengthening responsible business practices across supply chains.

As part of our efforts to support companies and their suppliers, we recently delivered a series of training sessions across Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, reaching 176 participants across seven sessions, with participation linked to 17 brands.

Delivered in local languages, the sessions focused on helping suppliers recognise modern slavery and forced labour risks in their own operations and identify practical steps to address them.

Rather than focusing solely on legal requirements and definitions, the training used real-world examples, case studies and discussions to connect key concepts to situations suppliers may encounter in their daily work.

Turning knowledge into practical action

One of the most encouraging outcomes was the improvement in participants’ understanding of forced labour risks.

Before the training, 58.4% of respondents rated their familiarity with the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Forced Labour Indicators as high. Following the sessions, this increased to 90.3%.

Understanding of responsible recruitment also improved. By the end of the training, 98.2% of respondents correctly understood that employers should bear the full cost of recruitment, compared with 84% beforehand.

These results are encouraging, but the most important question is what happens next.

Throughout the sessions, participants identified practical actions they could take within their organisations, including reviewing recruitment agency contracts, strengthening internal policies, engaging directly with workers and improving grievance mechanisms.

This is where supplier training can make a difference: helping businesses translate knowledge into concrete steps that strengthen their approach to preventing forced labour.

Why practical learning matters

One important lesson from the programme was that recognising forced labour indicators in real-life situations remains challenging.

Forced labour does not always involve obvious physical restrictions. It can take more subtle forms, such as debt linked to recruitment fees, threats of dismissal, withheld wages or pressure on migrant workers who depend on their employer for their legal status.

Understanding the definition of forced labour is therefore different from being able to identify it in practice.

While participants demonstrated stronger knowledge following the training, their ability to recognise indicators in practical scenarios did not improve consistently across all sessions.

This highlights the importance of moving beyond theoretical learning. Case studies, realistic scenarios and opportunities for discussion can help suppliers better understand how risks emerge and what appropriate responses might look like.

Participant feedback reinforced this need, with many highlighting the value of practical examples and expressing interest in additional tools, templates and guidance.

Moving beyond training

Training is an important starting point, but addressing modern slavery requires ongoing effort.

For businesses, this means supporting suppliers not only in understanding risks, but also in developing the policies, processes and capabilities needed to manage them effectively.

This could include strengthening recruitment practices, improving communication with workers, establishing accessible grievance channels and ensuring clear procedures are in place to address identified issues.

It also means recognising that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Risks vary depending on the country, industry, workforce and recruitment practices involved. Training and follow-up support should reflect these differences to remain relevant and useful.

Our experience across the five countries reinforced the value of adapting training to local contexts, delivering it in participants’ own languages and focusing on the challenges suppliers face in practice.

Ultimately, the goal is not simply to increase awareness, but to help suppliers build the confidence and capabilities to take meaningful action.

Supporting your supplier network

At The Mekong Club, we work with businesses to strengthen responsible labour practices throughout their supply chains. Our supplier training programmes can be tailored to different geographic, industry and workforce contexts, helping companies address the specific risks and challenges within their supplier networks.

If you would like to explore how our supplier training could support your suppliers and human rights due diligence priorities, get in touch with our team.

Author: Yige Hu, Programme Officer at The Mekong Club