While the problem of modern slavery is a persistent and hidden crime, those working to end it are crippled by three significant challenges: prevailing gaps in collecting and sharing data, limited resources to address slavery, and a challenging policy environment.

The freedom ecosystem comprises a dynamic and diverse network of actors, with the shared goal of removing the conditions that allow slavery to persist and empowering slavery’s victims and survivors to own their personal path to freedom. Anti-slavery allies from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors converge to advance freedom in the face of predators and accomplices who engage in the illicit networks that allow slavery to persist.

It will likely take the entire freedom ecosystem—businesses, governments, NGOs, academia, multilateral organizations, private investors, civil-society groups, and consumers—working together to abolish practices that challenge the best intentions to promote a freer world.