Freedom Fund

Last updated

Freedom Fund
Formation26 September 2013 (2013-09-26)
Founders Humanity United
Legatum
Walk Free Foundation
TypeUnited States 501(c)(3) public charity
Registration no.United States 30-0805768, United Kingdom 1158838
HeadquartersLighterman House
26-36 Wharfdale Road
London, N19RY, UK
Staff
12
Website freedomfund.org

The Freedom Fund is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to identifying and investing in the most effective frontline efforts to end slavery. [1] [2] In 2017, the International Labour Organization reported that on any given day in 2016, there were 40 million people living in modern slavery worldwide across a wide range of industries. [3]

Contents

The Freedom Fund was founded in September 2013, by three leading anti-slavery donors, Humanity United, the Legatum Foundation and the Walk Free Foundation [4] and officially announced by President Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative on September 26, 2013 where he declared "this is a huge deal and we should all support this." [5]

Mission and values

The Freedom Fund has set a target of raising USD $100million by 2020 and investing it to bring about much needed strategic focus to the fight against modern slavery. [6] To achieve this, The Freedom Fund has focused its activities on three main areas: [7]

Hotspot projects – The Freedom Fund partners with frontline organisations to directly combat slavery in defined regions with a high concentration of slavery. [8] They do this by setting up "hotspot" projects - clusters of the most effective community-based organisations in these regions. Partnering with these organisations in some of the world's poorest and most marginalised communities is difficult, demanding and time intensive, but it is also one of the most effective ways to achieve large scale and sustainable change. The Freedom Fund's northern India hotspot has been in place since 2014, and as of December 2017, had liberated over 11,000 people from modern slavery. [9] The Freedom Fund's hotspots are located in central Nepal, Ethiopia, northern India, south-eastern Nepal, southern India and Thailand. [10]
Global initiatives - The Freedom Fund tackles underlying systems that allow slavery to persist. They do this in their hotspots, engaging the government, private sector, media, social movements, and other key drivers of change. They also do it by catalysing action on selected global issues and industries that have a direct link to their hotspots. This allows the Freedom Fund to tackle systemic issues like slavery in fishing, migration, or to help develop new technological tools or legal initiatives. [11] In March 2015, the Freedom Fund and C&A Foundation announced a partnership to tackle forced labour in the textile industry. [12]
Movement building initiatives - The Freedom Fund helps to build and empower a global anti-slavery movement, providing the platforms, tools and knowledge for organisations to connect and work together more effectively. [13] [14]

Leadership

The Freedom Fund's inaugural CEO, Nick Grono, has written articles on modern slavery for the Huffington Post , [15] Newsweek , [16] The Guardian , [17] as well as the Freedom Fund blog. [18] Grono previously served as Deputy President and COO of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group [19] and as CEO of the Walk Free Foundation, an international anti-slavery organisation. During his tenure, the Walk Free Foundation built a global anti-slavery movement with over five million supporters and launched the first ever Global Slavery Index. [20] Grono joined Freedom Fund in December 2013. [21] [22]

Impact

Freedom Fund operates as a meta-charity which disburses grants to local partners who directly implement anti-slavery initiatives. [23] Freedom Fund requires funding recipients to evaluate their performance using a common set of metrics, answering questions including "How many people are being reached directly?" and "[What's the] cost per person to each project?".

As of June 2020 the Freedom Fund reported to have: [24]

COVID-19 emergency fund: In response to the 2019–2020 coronavirus pandemic, The Freedom Fund set up a COVID-19 emergency fund which offered immediate, small scale support to frontline responders in disadvantaged communities in Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Thailand. Monetary assistance was used for food, shelter, protective equipment for medical professionals, sanitation, and other immediate virus-related needs. [25]

Reports

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Slavery International</span> Human rights organisation

Anti-Slavery International, founded as the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1839, is an international non-governmental organisation, registered charity and advocacy group, based in the United Kingdom. It is the world's oldest international human rights organisation, and works exclusively against slavery and related abuses.

Anthony David Steen CBE is a former British Conservative Party politician and barrister. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 2010, and the Chairman of the Human Trafficking Foundation. Having represented Totnes in Devon since 1997, he was previously MP for South Hams from 1983, and had also been the MP for Liverpool Wavertree between February 1974 and 1983. From 1992 to 1994, he was Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Peter Brooke MP as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking</span> Trade of sexual slaves

Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the crime are called sex traffickers or pimps—people who manipulate victims to engage in various forms of commercial sex with paying customers. Sex traffickers use force, fraud, and coercion as they recruit, transport, and provide their victims as prostitutes. Sometimes victims are brought into a situation of dependency on their trafficker(s), financially or emotionally. Every aspect of sex trafficking is considered a crime, from acquisition to transportation and exploitation of victims. This includes any sexual exploitation of adults or minors, including child sex tourism (CST) and domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Bales</span>

Kevin Brian Bales is Professor of Contemporary Slavery at the University of Nottingham, co-author of the Global Slavery Index, and was a co-founder and previously president of Free the Slaves, the US sister organization of Anti-Slavery International.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coalition of Immokalee Workers</span> Other organization in Immokalee, United States

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is a worker-based human rights organization focusing on social responsibility in corporate supply chains, human trafficking, gender-based violence at work and occupational health and safety.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Justice Mission</span> Non-profit organisation in the US

International Justice Mission is an international, non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization focused on human rights, law and law enforcement. Founded in 1997 by lawyer Gary Haugen of the United States, it is based in Washington, D.C. All IJM employees are required to be practicing Christians; 94% are nationals of the countries they work in.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kailash Satyarthi</span> Indian Social Campaigner

Kailash Satyarthi is an Indian social reformer who campaigned against child labor in India and advocated the universal right to education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legatum</span> Private investment firm headquartered in Dubai

Legatum Limited, also known as Legatum, is a private investment firm, headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Legatum is a partnership that uses its own funds to invest globally. The firm also invests in activities to promote entrepreneurship and free enterprise as well as anti-slavery, health and education initiatives.

STOP THE TRAFFIK was founded in 2006 by Steve Chalke MBE as a campaign coalition which aims to bring an end to human trafficking worldwide. Initially STOP THE TRAFFIK was set up as a two-year campaign to coincide with the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807. The campaign intended to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in the 21st century</span> Contemporary slavery, also known as modern slavery or neo-slavery

Contemporary slavery, also sometimes known as modern slavery or neo-slavery, refers to institutional slavery that continues to occur in present-day society. Estimates of the number of enslaved people today range from around 38 million to 49.6 million, depending on the method used to form the estimate and the definition of slavery being used. The estimated number of enslaved people is debated, as there is no universally agreed definition of modern slavery; those in slavery are often difficult to identify, and adequate statistics are often not available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking</span> Trade of humans for exploitation

Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation.

Walk Free is an international human rights organisation based in Perth, Western Australia. Its main goal is ending modern slavery in all its forms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hope for Justice</span> Non-profit organisation

Hope for Justice is a global non-profit organisation which aims to end human trafficking and modern slavery. It is active in the United Kingdom, United States, Cambodia, Norway, Australia, Ethiopia and Uganda and has its headquarters in Manchester, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Grono</span> Australian human rights activist (born 1966)

Nick Grono is an Australian human rights campaigner who heads the Freedom Fund, a global fund with the sole aim of helping end modern slavery. He serves on the advisory councils of Global Witness and the McCain Institute. He was previously the Chair of the Jo Cox Foundation and a board member of Girls Not Brides, the Global Partnership to End Child Marriage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Hyland</span>

Kevin Hyland, OBE was the United Kingdom’s first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, leading efforts to tackle slavery and human trafficking. He left the post in May 2018 and was succeeded by Dame Sara Thornton. He is the Chair of IHRB's Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment, collaboration between leading companies and expert organisations to drive positive change in the way that migrant workers are recruited. He was formerly head of the London Metropolitan Police Service’s Human Trafficking Unit.

Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation (WOTCLEF) is an anti-human trafficking organization that attempts to stop human trafficking and child labour in Nigeria. WOTCLEF's areas of focus are: human trafficking, child labour, abuse of the rights of women and children and HIV/AIDS. The organization played a role in establishing the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons (NAPTIP) and the Network of Civil Society Organization Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labour (NACTAL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unseen (organization)</span>

Unseen is a UK-based anti-slavery charity, founded in 2008, working towards a world without slavery. Unseen provides safehouses and support in the community for survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery. The charity also runs the Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline and works with individuals, communities, business, governments, statutory agencies and other charities across various sectors in the fight to end slavery for good. Unseen was founded by Kate Garbers and its current CEO Andrew Wallis.

Sex trafficking in the Philippines is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Republic of the Philippines. The Philippines is a country of origin and, to a lesser extent, a destination and transit for sexually trafficked persons.

References

  1. ↑ "Everywhere in (supply) chains". The Economist. 14 March 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  2. ↑ Savchuk, Katia (19 November 2014). "EBay Billionaire Omidyar And Wife To Add $50 Million To Anti-Slavery Efforts". Forbes . Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  3. ↑ FFunction. "2017 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery and Child Labour". 2017 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery and Child Labour. Archived from the original on 1 September 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  4. ↑ "$100 Million Freedom Fund to Combat Modern-Day Slavery". Market Watch . Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  5. ↑ CASPANI, MARIA (9 October 2014). "Campaigners launch first anti-slavery organizations database". Reuters . Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  6. ↑ Ucnikova, Martina (22 September 2014). "OECD and Modern Slavery: How much aid money is spent to tackle the issue?". Anti-Trafficking Review. 3 (3). doi: 10.14197/atr.20121437 . ISSN   2286-7511.
  7. ↑ "The Freedom Fund". Devex . Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  8. ↑ "International Human Rights Funders Group: Founder Directory". Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  9. ↑ "One brick at a time". The Economist. 14 March 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  10. ↑ "Suburbia's secret slaves". The Telegraph. 19 September 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  11. ↑ Grono, Nick (24 February 2015). "Using the law to defeat modern slavery". Thomson Reuters Foundation. Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  12. ↑ "C&A Foundation Launches New Partnership Strategy to Address Fight Bonded Labour in Apparel Industry". 10 March 2015. Archived from the original on 15 August 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  13. ↑ Newcomb, Randy (22 September 2014). "Debate: Lessons Learnt from 10 Years and USD 50 million of Grant Making to End Human Trafficking". Anti-Trafficking Review. 3 (3). doi: 10.14197/atr.20121438 . ISSN   2286-7511.
  14. ↑ "Freedom Fund". End Slavery Now. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  15. ↑ Grono, Nick (19 June 2014). "Slavery at Sea". The Huffington Post.
  16. ↑ Grono, Nick (25 November 2014). "India: Time to Put an End to Slavery". Newsweek . Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  17. ↑ Grono, Nick (15 August 2013). "The economic case for ending slavery". The Guardian .
  18. ↑ "Freedom Fund Blog" . Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  19. ↑ "Nick Grono Appointed as Inaugural CEO of the $100 Million Freedom Fund". Legatum. 9 December 2013. Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  20. ↑ Bales, Kevin (17 October 2013). "The methodology behind the Global Slavery Index". The Guardian . Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  21. ↑ "Nick Grono, Vice-President of the International Crisis Group". The Program in Law and Public Affairs, Princeton University. Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  22. ↑ "Nicholas Grono". Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  23. ↑ "Monitoring & Evaluation".
  24. ↑ "Global Metrics | Our Impac". The Freedom Fund.
  25. ↑ "Freedom Fund NPO spotlight". PhilanthropyNewsDigest.com. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  26. ↑ Putting justice freedomfund.org 24 April 2015
  27. ↑ Addressing mental health needs in survivors of modern slavery: A critical review and research agenda freedomfund.org
  28. ↑ "Ending Impunity, Securing Justice: Using Strategic Litigation to Combat Modern-Day Slavery and Human Trafficking". Freedom Fund. 15 December 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
  29. ↑ "Fighting slavery: What role for International Criminal Justice?". Freedom Fund. 2 December 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
  30. ↑ "Why we need a global partnership to end modern slavery". Freedom Fund. 2 December 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
  31. ↑ Corruption Briefing paper freedomfund.org
  32. ↑ Corruption analysis freedomfund.org
  33. ↑ Safer immigration freedomfund.org
  34. ↑ Kennedy, Kate (1 April 2016). "Funding the fight against modern slavery". Freedom Fund. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
  35. ↑ Lebanon report freedomfund.org
  36. ↑ Thai seafood reforms freedomfund.org
  37. ↑ Fighting im punity, funding justice freedomfund.org
  38. ↑ UN trafficking in conflict freedomfund.org
  39. ↑ "Her freedom, her voice: Insights from the Freedom Fund's work with women and girls - Freedom Fund". Freedom Fund. 17 January 2018. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  40. ↑ "Leaning in: Advancing the role of finance against modern slavery - Freedom Fund".
  41. ↑ "The longer, the riskier: Forced labour along the supply chain - Freedom Fund".
  42. ↑ "Pathways to justice: How grassroots organisations are harnessing the law to tackle modern slavery - Freedom Fund".
  43. ↑ "Methodologies for measuring the prevalence of modern slavery - Freedom Fund".
  44. ↑ "Unlocking what works: How community-based interventions are ending bonded labour in India - Freedom Fund".
  45. ↑ "Lessons from humanitarian crises - Freedom Fund".
  46. ↑ ""Our departure" - Responsible recruitment scoping study - Freedom Fund".
  47. ↑ "Global pandemic, local devastation - Freedom Fund".
  48. ↑ "Survivors of trafficking need economic security and decent work to sustain liberation - Freedom Fund".
  49. ↑ "Lessons from the COVID frontlines - Freedom Fund".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.