From learning from survivors to improving data collection, our panel of experts offers advice on ending all forms of slavery
Ariel Siegel, programme manager, Somaly Mam Foundation, New York, US. @arielsiegel
Ethical businesses can play a double role in combating slavery: By following ethical labour practices especially in developing countries, businesses can create more jobs that pay living wages, which in turn reduces poverty rates. Businesses in these situations can play a great role in economic development in some of these regions where slavery is rife.
Rehabilitation efforts must be co-ordinated, and governed by a central body: Countries need national action plans and referral mechanisms to support survivors of slavery and help them move through the proper channels to receive assistance. Service providers need to focus on vocational training and work closely with communities to ensure successful rehabilitation when a survivor is ready.
Learn from survivors: Survivors have first hand experience of the tactics used by slave traders and what it takes to escape slavery. Using their experience and wisdom, anti-slavery groups can improve their services across disciplines, from rescue tactics and rehabilitation to identifying root causes of vulnerability and situations where risk for abuse increases.
Resources:
The UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking's Commit project is a great way of uniting anti-slavery organisations in Cambodia.
A good example of the anti-slavery community uniting on an issue was when groups campaigned against Backpage.com, a website hosted by Village Voice Media that sold minors into the sex trade in America. There's also a piece of legislation to establish an advisory council on human trafficking in America, made up of male and female survivors of both labour and sex trafficking. Learn more about the bill here.
Annick Febrey, legislative affairs manager, International Justice Mission, Washington DC, United States. @ijm
Don't force collaboration if your priorities don't overlap: It's crucial for anti-slavery groups to focus on common priorities and support each other in addressing them. The alliance to end slavery and trafficking has goals that it comes to as a group, but has a separate support system for organisations with priorities that aren't complimentary.
Sandhya Lakshmi Chellapilla, senior manager, ActionAid India, New Delhi, India. @ActionAidIndia
Tackle the complex causes of slavery at their roots: Bonded labour can be reduced by addressing structural problems, like a lack of education and employment opportunities, and responding quickly to environmental disasters, such as drought.
Keep track of those you rescue to avoid them falling back into slavery: For effective action it is essential to understand the changing dynamics of bonded labour. It would be extremely helpful if organisations created information databases to trace back bonded labourers well after their rescue and followed up on their wellbeing. This is something we are trying to do in India, as many fall back into slavery once rescued.
Nick Grono, CEO, Walk Free, Perth, Australia. @nickgrono
New NGOs should bring unique approaches: The anti-slavery sector has a lot of highly experienced, but relatively small NGOs active in the field. There is therefore room for innovative new efforts that bring different, not duplicate approaches and dimensions to the response.
Ruici Tio, head of strategic partnerships, MTV Exit, Bangkok, Thailand. @rtio
Regardless of your sector, improve your data collection: Arguably, all agencies, whether private corporations, governments, NGOs or international organisations, need to have better sustained systems of data collection and management in place. Ultimately, this will better ensure that there is regular, reliable information about what trafficking trends actually look like and therefore inform strategic, targeted interventions.
Groups should learn more from each other's projects: Various forms of evidence can inform programme design and implementation. Something that all organisations can learn from, especially those on the frontlines, is experiential evidence. Implementers would benefit from interviewing each other at various stages of programme delivery. This ties back to partnerships: while many organisations are not equipped with the capacity to do primary research on the incidence of trafficking in particular locations, they are able to collect and share evidence based on their own interventions.
Resources:
Knowledge sharing between organisations is crucial to keeping tabs on often unpredictable traffickers. In Thailand, the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking and organisations like the Anti-Trafficking Co-ordination Unit of Northern Thailand may assist in providing forums to promote this type of knowledge sharing. MTV Exit has hosted stakeholder meetings to facilitate this. Feel free to contact our head of development, Tara Dermott for more information.
Rasha Hammad, senior manager – advocacy and communications, End Human Trafficking Now, Geneva, Switzerland. @EHTN_org
Share your data to avoid replication: Information-sharing avoids unnecessary replication where organisations can join forces to fight against a common cause. This in turn increases the credibility of associations who need the attention and resources to fight slavery and trafficking.
Resources:
End Human Trafficking Now provides corporations with tools to address human trafficking in their supply chains.
Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International, London, UK. @the_mcquade
Anti-slavery organisations cannot achieve much without engaging with other sectors: Slavery will only be tackled through collaborations between governments, business, and civil society, including trade unions and development agencies. All the anti-slavery organisations in the world could be working together in perfect harmony (and many of us do), but its impact would be limited without that broader engagement.
Engaging corporations is key, so long as they address their faults: Before the necessary collaboration with the corporate sector can occur, firms will have to confront any exploitation that occurs in their supply chains.
Resources:
The Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group is an excellent example of a group of disparate agencies coming together to monitor the UK's trafficking policy.
Patricia Toquica, Americas region communications manager, ChildFund International, Panama City, Panama. @PatriciaToquica
Media platforms are powerful tools, but outputs must be well-balanced: Social media has a key role to play in combating slavery, especially when resources and funding for other types of campaigns are scarce. However, communications on slavery issues must be balanced. Corporations often publicise their corporate social responsibility efforts, but human interest angles must be covered and victims and survivors must be portrayed with dignity and respect.
Rola Abimourched, programme co-ordinator, Kafa (enough) Violence & Exploitation, Beirut, Lebanon. @KAFA_Lebanon
Identify common ground by forming working groups: Before the anti-trafficking law was passed in Lebanon, we formed an NGO working group to review the proposed draft law, provide comments, suggest revisions and lobby for their uptake. This resulted in a better anti-trafficking law, and should be replicated in other countries.
Werawan Mosby, director, Hug Project, Chiang Mai, Thailand. @BoomBean1
Resources:
In Chiang Mai government bodies and NGO sectors are working very closely together under 'the Multidisciplinary Team approach' to victim protection.
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