When it comes to preventing modern slavery and other forms of exploitation, we don't need to start from scratch. This report explores approaches and frameworks for prevention, examples of promising practice, the role of lived experience, and how prevention can be better monitored, evaluated and learned from.
The research report was written by Dr Wendy Asquith, Dr Tesfalem Yemane, and Professor Alex Balch from the University of Liverpool. It draws on a rapid desk-based review of the most prominent strategic approaches to modern slavery prevention programming funded by international donors. It also draws on consultations with UK government policymakers, as well as a range of international organisations delivering prevention programming.
Background
Preventing modern slavery and exploitation is complex: exploitation is shaped by interconnected systems, power imbalances and inequalities. This means that effective prevention needs to look beyond individual risks and consider the wider conditions that enable exploitation.
Relevant knowledge and expertise already exist across a range of fields, including international development, human rights, labour rights and migration. However, this knowledge is not always connected in ways that inform modern slavery prevention practice.
This research report brings together different approaches to prevention, examples from current programming and learning from monitoring and evaluation to help inform future practice. It isn't about replacing existing prevention work or prescribing a single approach. Instead, it offers an opportunity to connect the dots and learn from current practice, strengthening how prevention is designed and evaluated.
By building on what we already know and learning across sectors, we can support more informed approaches to preventing modern slavery and other forms of exploitation.
Who is the report for?
The report is relevant to anyone involved in shaping, funding, designing, delivering or evaluating modern slavery prevention, including:
- Policymakers and funders setting priorities and commissioning programmes.
- Practitioners and organisations designing and delivering prevention initiatives.
- Researchers and evaluators working to strengthen the evidence base and improve learning.
- Organisations and professionals in related fields, including international development, human rights, labour rights and migration.
What does the report cover?
The report explores five connected areas:
1. Approaches and frameworks for prevention
The report examines four approaches that can inform modern slavery prevention strategies: the public health approach, the socio-ecological model, the human rights-based approach and the community-based approach.
2. Promising practice in prevention programming
Four programme examples illustrate how prevention approaches are being put into practice in different contexts: Project Tesfa (Hope for Justice), the Multifunctional Community Centre Model (Terre des Hommes Albania), Call Me Priya (Freedom Fund) and IOM UK's CREATE Project, which uses the Climate Chains model.
3. Collaboration and lived experience
The report considers opportunities to build a modern slavery prevention community of practice, alongside how people with lived experience can be meaningfully involved in prevention programming.
4. Evaluating prevention: evidence, methods and emerging practice
The report reviews the state of the evidence base and lessons from related policy areas, reflects on what qualifies as rigorous evidence, and explores different approaches to evaluation, including realist evaluation.
5. Recommendations for better design, monitoring and evaluation
The report maps current monitoring and evaluation practice, considering the strengths and limitations of external, internal and hybrid evaluations, as well as quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods. It concludes with recommendations for improving the design, monitoring and evaluation of modern slavery and human trafficking prevention programming.
