Walk Free’s mountaintop — to eradicate modern slavery in all its forms — requires systemic change to entrenched practices and business supply chains, as well as global legislative reform. A strategic, targeted agenda of action has been developed to drive Walk Free, and its partners, towards this ambitious goal.

A strong, multifaceted approach is needed to end modern slavery. For Walk Free, this begins with building a robust evidence base to hold government and business to account. We engage with political, business, religious and community leaders and invest in direct implementation through our civil society partners to drive systems change and dismantle the drivers of modern slavery.

Shifting power to survivors of modern slavery is a critical part of the Walk Free strategy. This year, we’re proud to collaborate with Survivor Alliance to expand our Lived Experience Expert Groups to conduct advocacy based on the findings of the Global Slavery Index. Survivor Alliance, with Walk Free support, will also leverage the momentum from the recent World Congress — the largest global convening of survivors — to develop an action plan for survivors to become leaders of the movement in the next decade.

This year we have harnessed the global power of business, governments, and faith leaders in our work.

With the Stock Exchange of Thailand, Walk Free developed guidance and an online tool for Thai businesses to assess their progress in tackling modern slavery in their operations and those of their suppliers. It created great discussion among regional businesses about the risks of slavery and advocated for greater transparency in supply chains. Walk Free also worked with investment groups, including Investors Against Slavery and Trafficking Asia Pacific, who are increasingly demanding that businesses demonstrate ethical business practices.

Elsewhere, Walk Free partnered with WikiRate to assess the compliance of Australian and UK fashion businesses with modern slavery legislation in their countries. The results showed many failed to comply with the legislation and those who did often treated it as a box-ticking exercise. Given the fashion industry’s reputation for exploiting workers, the report — part of Walk Free’s Beyond Compliance series — proves legislation must be strengthened to include due diligence, remediation, and penalties for non-compliance.

At the recent Australian federal election, Walk Free successfully lobbied the incoming government to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act. Those laws, for which Walk Free advocated in 2018, are up for a three-year review, and founding director Grace Forrest met new Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, to push for changes to the legislation, as well as government policy to fight slavery in Australia — and globally — via international diplomatic efforts.

In New Zealand, modern slavery laws are on the legislative agenda thanks to an advocacy partnership between Walk Free, Trade Aid and World Vision, and more than 100 businesses. Walk Free is also a member of the leadership advisory group to the New Zealand government and looks forward to the legislation being passed by parliament.

Walk Free’s faith-based program, the Global Freedom Network (GFN), launched the Faith For Freedom App, a world-first smartphone app designed to help faith leaders tackle modern slavery. The app was developed in collaboration with faith leaders and has been launched in six countries in Africa (Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa) with plans to expand globally.

GFN also held a series of seminars at a two-day event at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where religious leaders and frontline workers came together in person and online to discuss faith’s role in tackling modern slavery. The event was part of GFN’s work bringing faith leaders together in a coalition against modern slavery and providing a platform to discuss how to tackle modern slavery in their communities and congregations.

Walk Free proudly works alongside the International Labor Organization and the International Organization for Migration to create the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery (GEMS), the world’s most trusted measurement of this human rights abuse. The 2022 GEMS report highlights the impact of climate change, COVID-19 and conflict on vulnerability to modern slavery. The data also underpins Walk Free’s flagship report, the Global Slavery Index, which assesses prevalence, vulnerability, and government responses at a national level. The next edition of the Global Slavery Index will be released in 2023.

Walk Free continues to scale its investment for frontline interventions, informed by its research identifying high-risk locations and understanding of what works. This year, Walk Free confirmed an additional US$13 million to Freedom Fund over the next five years. With this funding, Freedom Fund will expand its hotspot model to Bangladesh, Brazil and West Africa, shift power to survivors, women, and other under-represented groups, and equip the Freedom Fund and its partners for deep systems change, long-term growth, and exponential impact. To date, the Freedom Fund has impacted over 30,767 lives, invested over US$67.9 million, and supported nearly 12,414 community groups.