© Richard Horsey

Richard Horsey is a former International Labor Organization (ILO) representative to Burma, where he helped develop and implement the organization's strategy of engaging with the government while applying pressure to curb abuses. The ILO’s efforts eventually compelled the Burmese regime to take significant steps to outlaw, deter, and prosecute forced labor crimes.

As an Open Society Fellow, he wrote the first comprehensive account of ILO efforts to address forced labor in Burma, Ending Forced Labor in Myanmar: Engaging a Pariah Regime (Routledge, 2011). He also co-authored an input paper for the World Bank's 2011 World Development Report, which applies lessons learned during the fellowship to Zimbabwe and North Korea.

After leaving the ILO in 2007, Horsey advised the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on the international response to Cyclone Nargis. Today, he serves as an advisor to the International Crisis Group and recently completed a major research project in Zimbabwe as part of a multi-country study looking at community coping mechanisms in different kinds of crisis (Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Sudan).