South-East Asia's fishing industry is teaching its partners how to protect workers—not just catch fish. The International Labour Organization has launched a new institutional capacity-building curriculum designed to strengthen the systems and leadership of organizations working across the fish and seafood supply chain, a region where migrant workers often face unsafe conditions, exploitation, and limited access to decent work.
This matters because South-East Asia's blue economy depends on migrant labour, yet these workers—many far from home and vulnerable—frequently operate outside formal protections. The curriculum, funded by the European Union under the Ship to Shore Rights South-East Asia programme, targets a specific gap: the organizations trying to help—trade unions, employers' organizations, civil society groups, NGOs, and migrant worker organizations—often lack the institutional systems and skills to deliver sustainable, ethical support at scale. By strengthening these partners, the programme aims to create lasting change across the entire seafood supply chain.
The curriculum combines modular training across seven core areas: donor compliance and reporting, communications, monitoring and evaluation, organizational resilience, worker engagement and organizing, and peer learning and mentorship. Rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all approach, it provides a practical, adaptable framework that organizations can customize to their contexts. This flexibility matters in a region as diverse as South-East Asia, where labour conditions, migration patterns, and enforcement capacity vary widely by country and community.
What sets this curriculum apart is its grounding in three key principles: rights-based approaches that centre worker dignity, gender-responsiveness that acknowledges how women and men experience migration differently, and inclusive development that ensures marginalized voices shape solutions. Trade unions, for instance, receive training not just in compliance but in organizing strategies—helping them build membership and power among migrant workers. Civil society organizations learn to evaluate their own impact honestly, using data to improve programming rather than simply report to donors. Employer organizations get tools to understand why safe labour practices benefit their business case, not just their ethics.
The modular approach means that a small NGO in Cambodia can focus on worker engagement while a larger regional organization develops its monitoring and evaluation capacity. Practical tools—templates, guides, checklists—translate curriculum content into action. Peer exchange sessions let organizations learn directly from each other, building solidarity and knowledge-sharing networks that outlast any single programme.
This kind of institutional strengthening is less visible than a direct service or a law passed, but it's foundational. The curriculum recognizes that migrant workers' safety depends not on heroic individuals but on strong organizations with stable funding, trained staff, clear systems, and accountability to the communities they serve. By investing in partner capacity, the Ship to Shore Rights programme is building infrastructure for change—creating institutions that can continue advocating for safe migration and decent work long after external funding ends.
South-East Asia's seafood industry will continue relying on migrant workers. The question is whether those workers will have organizations strong enough to advocate for their rights, equipped with skills to navigate complex systems, and connected to peers solving similar problems. This curriculum is betting that they will.