At a conference in London, government representatives made the case that governments should use their buying power to combat slave labor. To date, most efforts to prevent “supply chain slavery” have come from large companies. However, at the conference representatives argued that states have a responsibility to be involved in ending slavery, too. Speakers noted that governments are consumers and have the ability to tackle supply chain labor abuse by consuming ethical goods.
See "Show don't tell - governments urged to lead way on tackling slavery", Kieran Guilbert, Reuters, March 27, 2019