Walk Free Foundation
The Walk Free Foundation is an organization attempting to end contemporary slavery and human trafficking. The organization was founded by Andrew Forrest and Nicola Forrest. Its CEO is Nick Grono.[1] It is known for its Global Slavery Index.
In 2013, the Walk Free Foundation became a founder of the Freedom Fund, an anti-slavery non-profit organization.[2]
Global Slavery Index
The Global Slavery Index[3] presents an annual ranking of 167 countries based on the percentage of a country’s population that is estimated to be in modern slavery.
The index provides rankings across three dimensions:
- Size of the problem: What is the estimated prevalence of modern slavery country by country in terms of percentage of population and absolute figures
- Government response: How are governments tackling modern slavery
- Vulnerability: What factors explain or predict the prevalence of modern slavery [4]
The Global Slavery Index is a tool that provides greater understanding of the issue for citizens, non-governmental organisations, businesses, and public officials so that they can build sound policies that will end modern slavery.[5] All data involved in producing the Global Slavery Index are also available for public download and interrogation from the website.[6]
The index is controversial. According to researchers Andrew Guth, Robyn Anderson, Kasey Kinnard, and Hang Tran, an analysis of the index's methods reveals significant and critical weaknesses and raises questions about its replicability and validity. Moreover, the publicity given to the index is leading to the use of its poor data not only by popular culture and reputable magazines and news outlets but also by academic journals and top policy makers.[7]
The Walk Free Foundation has stated that it "welcomes constructive criticism".[8]
See also
References
- ↑ "Home page". walkfreefoundation.org. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
- ↑ Savchuk, Katia (19 November 2014). "EBay Billionaire Omidyar And Wife To Add $50 Million To Anti-Slavery Efforts". Forbes. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
- ↑ Walk Free Foundation, "Global Slavery Index", last modified March 11th, 2015: http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/
- ↑ Walk Free Foundation (2014), "Global Slavery Index", p. 9, http://d3mj66ag90b5fy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Global_Slavery_Index_2014_final_lowres.pdf
- ↑ 3 Walk Free Foundation (2013), "Global Slavery Index", p. 11, http://www.ungift.org/doc/knowledgehub/resource-centre/2013/GlobalSlaveryIndex_2013_Download_WEB1.pdf
- ↑ See www.globalslaveryindex.org
- ↑ Andrew Guth, Robyn Anderson, Kasey Kinnard and Hang Tran, Proper Methodology and Methods of Collecting and Analyzing Slavery Data: An Examination of the Global Slavery Index, in Social Inclusion (open access journal), Vol. 2, No 4 (2014), pp. 14-22, article posted on the Cogitatio website on 17 November 2014: "The Global Slavery Index aims to, among other objectives, recognize the forms, size, and scope of slavery worldwide as well as the strengths and weaknesses of individual countries. An analysis of the Index's methods exposes significant and critical weaknesses and raises questions into its replicability and validity" (summary of the article) - "The formation and implementation of sound policy is not possible without sound data. The methodology and methods used in the Index are currently inadequate and therefore the Index cannot be validated or replicated. Furthermore, the publicity given to the Index is leading to the use of this poor data not only by popular culture and reputable magazines and news organizations [...], but also by academic journals and high level policy makers [...], which can lead to inaccurate policy formulation and a compounding of harm [...]" (p. 19).
- ↑ David, F., ‘Global Slavery Index researchers welcome constructive criticism’, The Guardian, January 16th, 2014 http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/jan/15/letters-slavery-index-welcomes-criticism