Why survivor voices should be included in policy-making – and how to approach co-production
Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group offers recommendations for survivor inclusion in research projects, NGOs voice their concern over Thailand’s proposed bill to regulate non-profits, and ASTRA launches a campaign to highlight the importance of civil society groups in anti-trafficking work.
Agents for Change, a new briefing report published last week, shares reflections on the lessons learned and challenges faced by a small team conducting research on long-term outcomes for survivors of slavery in the UK. The team, which was formed in 2020, consisted of three women with lived experience of modern slavery and the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group (a coalition hosted by Anti-Slavery International), and the report explores the ways in which they navigated practical and theoretical challenges while developing co-produced research. It also makes a series of recommendations to help reduce the current barriers around survivor inclusion.
Some of the practical recommendations, which are intended to assist a variety of stakeholders when considering their role and approach to survivor inclusion, include:
- When people are conducting advocacy, or contributing to research, they must be appropriately paid for any work undertaken, and the London Living Wage should be used as a baseline to help calculate salaries and payments. Examples of work might include attending and speaking at events, responding to consultations or improving services for trafficked persons, and the co-production of advocacy, policy and research.
- There should be consideration of other practical support that might be required to enable survivors to participate in research. This could include help with childcare costs and payment for travel and accommodation in advance, instead of expecting individuals to pay for these upfront and later claim payments back as expenses.
- Researchers contributing to or working on projects that require them to engage in situations where traumatic events, narratives and stories might arise should have prior warning and the opportunity to withdraw, as well as access to provisions such as reflective practice or clinical supervision.
- When organizations are co-producing research with survivors, a commitment to ongoing awareness and the consideration of power dynamics across the work is recommended and encouraged.
In addition to these practical recommendations, the report also includes advice on policy and co-produced research. Partners and stakeholders should explore various approaches to co-produced research and should reach out to multiple survivor-led agencies for survivor participants who can help diversify engagement. In addition, more must be done to enable survivors to lead on research from the outset. As part of this, greater understanding is needed on the benefits and challenges of survivors and non-survivors working collaboratively. More consideration should be given to the challenges and realities of training researchers as well as researchers’ own challenges with learning. Significant time is required to understand learning needs and how these can be properly supported when developing projects with survivor researchers.
The authors hope that the learning and reflections contained within the briefing will be useful to a wide range of anti-trafficking stakeholders. The report demonstrates that more needs to be done to make sure that people with lived experience can contribute to the anti-modern-slavery movement as equals, colleagues and experts – not just as recipients of support. Also, as part of the report launch, Anti-Slavery International has released three podcasts reflecting on survivor experiences and the need for survivor voices at the heart of modern slavery policy and advocacy.
Here’s a round-up of other noteworthy news and initiatives:
If you haven’t yet done so, make sure to register for our webinar on supply chain tracing methods this Wednesday at 9am EST / 3pm CET / 8pm ICT. This session is a follow-up to our previous webinar on modern supply chains, and we will once again focus on the fundamentals – what has already been tried and the limitations of tracing methods when it comes to goods made with forced labour.
The Human Trafficking Institute and Liberty Shared have partnered with the Ugandan Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to develop the Trafficking in Persons Mobile App Platform (TIPMAP), Uganda’s first database specifically for human trafficking investigations and prosecutions. The app will allow case data to be shared across the country, so that information on suspected and convicted traffickers and trafficking trends can be utilized by law enforcement and prosecutors in all regions.
Dozens of concerned NGOs are asking the U.S. government to lobby Thailand to drop a draft law they say would effectively place civil society under government control, and deal a blow to the fight against human trafficking.
In a very disappointing decision for activists, the U.S Supreme Court has reversed a lower-court ruling that had allowed six men to sue Nestlé USA and Cargill over claims they were trafficked as child slaves to Ivory Coast farms that supply cocoa to the two giant food companies. This podcast, featuring the International Rights Advocates lawyer who represents the six plaintiffs, provides more on the backstory.
During last week’s 21st OSCE Conference of the Alliance against Trafficking in Persons, at a side event organized by La Strada International on the impact of criminalizing the use of services that exploit trafficked persons and related vulnerable groups, ICRSE (International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe) and partners published a new briefing to present what tackling trafficking under the decriminalization model looks like.
Serbia-based anti-trafficking action group ASTRA has launched a campaign emphasizing the importance and contribution of non-governmental organizations in combating human trafficking. The campaign is part of a project supported by the European Union and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
A new special report by the Council on Foreign Relations, Ending Human Trafficking in the Twenty-First Century, urges the United States to increase investment in anti-trafficking measures as it currently “lacks sufficient authorities and coordination across the federal government to address human trafficking adequately, instead treating this issue as ancillary to broader foreign policy concerns”.
A group of teenage migrant girls housed in a government-run detention centre in Libya have accused guards at the facility, which is funded by the European Union, of sexually assaulting them, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Increasingly more young Bangladeshis are making the illegal and precarious journey to Europe because of limited opportunities at home and shrinking international job markets, according to migration experts. The highest share of Bangladeshi nationals in Europe was registered in Italy.
The International Domestic Workers Federation is currently looking for a Regional Coordinator for the Caribbean. This is part-time position, and the deadline for applications is 5 July 2021.
The Freedom Story is seeking Thai candidates interested in MEL to support its team in monitoring and evaluating programmatic progress to prevent child trafficking and exploitation in Northern Thailand.
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