Seafood Social Risk Tool. Seafood Social Risk Tool profiles identify areas within seafood supply chains that are at higher risk of containing forced labor, human trafficking, and hazardous child labor and provide due diligence questions for businesses who are sourcing from these supply chains.

Global Improvement Fund (In progress). MBA and its partners are in the initial stages of establishing the Global Improvement Fund which aims to support community improvements and incentivize sustainable production. 

Research. MBA is leading and/or collaborating on a number of research projects related to social responsibility in seafood:

• Socio-Economic Baseline Studies (In progress). Baseline research to investigate the social and economic situation of shrimp farmers in India and Vietnam to identify potential solutions that support improvement needs. The research will be used to inform the development of small-holder social indicators. 

• Impact of Intermediaries Studies. Two studies on the impact of intermediaries on environmental and social outcomes and worker vulnerability in small-scale fishing and aquaculture. The first study focused on Indonesia and Vietnam was published in 2021. The second study is in progress and will include India and the Philippines.

• Socioeconomic Impact of Changes in Shrimp Aquaculture Production (In progress). Research study exploring the socioeconomic impact of the decrease in tiger prawn and increase in whiteleg shrimp aquaculture. 

• Equitable Supply Chain Research (In progress). Developing methodology to understand and measure equity in supply chains.

• Mangrove Function (In progress). Research into the role of mangroves in carbon reduction and social well-being in shrimp farming.

• Antimicrobial Assessment on Global Aquaculture Production. Workshops convening aquaculture researchers to example the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of antimicrobial use in aquaculture. 

• Prevent and Control Infections on Small-Scale Farms (in progress). Workshops to share experiences in controlling bacterial diseases, starting in India and Vietnam.

Seafood Social Advisory Group. Eighteen advisors from 14 countries support the development of MBA’s social sustainability program by sharing knowledge and providing feedback on approaches, methodologies and products. 

Aquaculture Governance Indicators. The indicators provide a framework for assessing the effectiveness of various types of social/governance mechanisms to manage ecological impacts.

Partnership Assurance Model. The PAM brings together local and national governments, farmers in a specific production region, and committed end buyers (national and international) to co-design, implement, and verify environmental improvements throughout the production process.

Improvement Verification Platform. MBA has created an innovative app – the Improvement Verification Platform (IVP) – that  offers an alternative to ratings and certification programs and could open the global sustainable seafood market to thousands of small-scale shrimp farmers throughout the world. Using dynamic, evidence-based sampling strategies, the IVP allows the user to verify environmental performance at the group level without requiring assessments of all the individual farms within that group. This fit-for-purpose approach can be scaled to verify thousands of farms throughout a region and offer a strong level of assurance of performance – communicated through MBA’s green, yellow, or red ratings.