Private giving for anti-trafficking hides government inaction

Unfortunately, the breadth of my exposure does not mean that I have a clever and ready answer to the question posed by this debate: ‘has large-scale, private philanthropy helped or hurt the anti-trafficking movement?’. The first obstacle is inbuilt bias. If one has climbed aboard the private philanthropy train, then it follows that the benefits will be both more apparent and more persuasive. But those of us on the outside have our own frailties: “wealth draws envy and philanthropy draws suspicion”. We don’t like it when interlopers muscle in on our turf. It is painful to watch those who so patently lack expertise and insight gain easy and rewarding access to decision-makers. It’s even worse when we are forced to stand by while their vain and foolish pronouncements go unchallenged because money and the promise of money messes with all but the most stalwart of moral compasses.

Such grievances may be real, but they can just as easily obscure our vision – a point that underscores the importance of considering one’s counter-position. In this case that means acknowledging that private giving has likely brought real (if difficult to quantify) benefits.

Large-scale philanthropy is now so deeply embedded in the anti-trafficking or ‘modern slavery’ movement that it is difficult to imagine what is different, and what might have been. But, as Nick Grono and others close to the major philanthropists have written, a massive injection of money, energy and influence has clearly transformed the movement in important ways. For example, it has made possible the kind of resource-intensive, sector-specific research that improves our understanding of how exploitation actually happens; who is involved, and what the possible entry points might be for those seeking to eradicate it. From fisheries in the Pacific to cotton production in Uzbekistan, private funding has helped to expose secret corners of the global economy where exploitation flourishes unchecked. Philanthropy has also highlighted the role played by frontline migrant and worker-led organisations in exposing exploitation and rallying support for systemic change. Significantly, initial investments by the big-name philanthropists have helped to pave the way for more diversified private support to a broader range of civil society actors.

And, while a careful examination of philanthropist-led data collection efforts yields an embarrassment of critical riches, these are at least partly offset by genuine breakthroughs in reporting and analysis. Many of us have come to rely on the media organisation openDemocracy, which counts Pierre Omidyar and George Soros among its backers, for independent and challenging analysis of a wide range of social and political issues. Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, a part of openDemocracy, has become a fertile ground for interrogating the sector and challenging some of its most precious founding myths. A recent, 20th anniversary series on the Trafficking Protocol was a particular highlight for me: bringing together a dazzling kaleidoscope of colliding ideas that deserve to be heard. The Guardian’s partnership with Humanity United produced ‘Modern Slavery in Focus’, a series that helped expose new forms of exploitation and generate public advocacy in support of legal and policy reform.

But private philanthropy – especially of the ‘big man / big gesture’ variety that has marked the modern slavery sector – has a dark side that is yet to be openly and honestly explored. The failure of the anti-trafficking movement to interrogate this aspect is itself troubling and indicative of a deeper malaise that deserves our attention. My lonely experience taking on the initially risible Global Slavery Index, produced with the money of the man who widely declared his intention to end slavery by 2020 (public reference of which seems to have all but disappeared), is instructive in that regard.

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