Valentina Gurney

Cotton Program MANAGEr, 2011-2013

Currently I serve as a Programme Officer at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Migration Agency. I support implementation and management of IOM Thailand-led regional and national labour migration projects with the private sector in the framework of IOM’s CREST(Corporate Responsibility in Eliminating Slavery and Trafficking) and lead CREST Fashion - a regional initiative that focuses on strengthening apparel and footwear industry's commitment and capacity to maximize impact in eliminating egregious human rights violations and promotion of ethical recruitment in supply chains across Thailand, India and Bangladesh. In this capacity I also lead unit’s research on labor migration, implementation of ethical recruitment practices and the role of businesses in tackling labour exploitation of migrant workers.

Prior to joining IOM, I served as Associate Program Director at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility in New York City, my hometown. ICCR promotes shareholder advocacy to press companies on environmental, social, and governance issues, and represents a coalition of over 300 global institutional investors with more than USD 400 billion in managed assets. My focus at ICCR was on engaging companies to adopt and implement fair recruitment policies to confront slavery and trafficking in global supply chains, in particular in palm oil and seafood industries. My research, analysis, and program evaluation were geared towards developing a set of tools for companies and investors to move business community towards more expansive traceability, risk assessment and remediation throughout supply chains.

While at As You Sow's Responsible Sourcing Network I managed the award winning Cotton Program against Child Labor and Forced Adult Labor in the Uzbek Cotton Industry and led engagement with the US and European apparel industry on the issues of human rights, responsible sourcing of raw materials and cotton traceability to producer.

After all these years I still work with the garment sector, engaging apparel brands, only this time I focus more on the policy implementation side and working more directly with business’s supply chains in the countries of production.