Vision, mission and strategy

Background

Anti-Slavery International has a long and distinguished history of tackling slavery in the UK and internationally. The political and fundraising challenges that the anti-slavery movement and sector are faced with are greater than ever.

The number of people living in modern slavery is estimated at 50 million worldwide, with over a hundred thousand in the U.K. This growth reflects multiple evolving circumstances. Global cuts to international development funding, and the harmful linking of human trafficking to populist anti-migration agendas have impacted on laws and services for people at risk, and the organisations working to support them. Political pressure to encourage economic growth has increased support across the EU, UK and USA for deregulation, reducing the appetite for mandatory reporting and due diligence requirements. Alongside these factors, the world has not succeeded in eradicating longstanding practices of enslavement.

With evolving global challenges and trends and an increasing number of people experiencing modern slavery, our mission remains as vital as ever. But it requires reconsideration of what our role most usefully is as decolonisation agendas rightly call into question the role of “Northern” international NGOs.

Our strategy seeks to guide the direction and priorities within this context.

Vision

Our vision of freedom from slavery for everyone, everywhere, always, remains the same, but as the landscape we work within shifts and adapts, so must we.

For the next strategic period, Anti-Slavery International aims to drive systemic change towards eliminating all forms of slavery by working where UK or international value chains or other international forces contribute to exploitation, and where UK, EU or international leverage can contribute to structural change.  

We aim to achieve this by:

• Making ending slavery everyone’s concern;
• Acting as an ally to survivors and people at risk of slavery, elevating their voice and experience to create radical change; and
• With others, challenging and changing law, policy and practice so everyone, everywhere can be free from slavery.

Specifically, Anti-Slavery International will:

• Use evidence to influence legislation, policy and practice that drive systemic change to prevent slavery and/or support survivors.
• Concentrate where there are international value chains involving forced labour. Behind global supply chains are workers, families and communities whose lives are shaped by poverty and exploitation, whose lived experience should inform the solutions designed to address these harms.
• Through partnerships and informed by movements across the world, work where international forces, such as climate change, migration, trafficking, conflict, investment or technology, are drivers of local vulnerability or exploitation.
• Where we have existing partnerships, we will be open to continue to work where our international advocacy linkages can meaningfully contribute to change within the countries where our partners work.
• Through joint programmes, we will work in partnership with organisations better placed to prevent slavery and provide immediate services to support survivors to maximise shared impact and use the learning to impact on wider systems.

Through the end of 2026, we will seek to clarify our focus in more practical ways, including how we organise, fund ourselves and work effectively to deliver this work through clearly defined programmes in selected areas.