In 2017, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched the Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative (CTDC), the world’s first multi-stakeholder public data portal on human trafficking. CTDC is a complex, innovative project leveraging technology to bring sensitive data into the public domain for the first time. It has been developed successfully with buy-in and support from leading anti-trafficking actors. IOM is scaling up the project to expand the number of contributors and data available, transform the data into evidence and ensure its use to improve policy and programming.

Data sources on human trafficking are disconnected, inaccessible and limited in scope, leading to fragmented knowledge. Most information that does exist originates from identified cases of trafficking, particularly testimony from victims, who are the fallout from any trafficking process. On-the-ground agencies working directly with victims are in a unique position to collect vital information; however, many of these organizations lack the capacity needed to successfully collect meaningful data on their assistance activities or complete the technical process of contributing such essential information to CTDC. Consequently, valuable data that could contribute to building the evidence-base for more effective policies and programmes to combat human trafficking and modern slavery is rarely drawn upon.

CTDC works to overcome these barriers by intervening at different stages in the data life-cycle. The initiative contributes to several Sustainable Development Goals and Targets, most notably: SDG Target 5.2; SDG Target 8.7 and SDG Target 16.2.

Producing and making accessible new data: CTDC allows researchers to carry out their own analysis on the anonymized and publicly accessible data available on the platform. IOM is diversifying the human trafficking data sources contributing to CTDC by working closely with different organizations to build the technical infrastructure and expertise needed to facilitate their contribution to CTDC. IOM is also now including different types of datasets in the site to be analyzed alongside data pertaining to individual victims. This includes data on perpetrators, trafficking routes/journeys, and government counter-trafficking response, data on recruitment fees paid by victims of trafficking, etc.

Transforming data into evidence and ensuring knowledge uptake: IOM is supporting the use of new technologies and more sophisticated data management techniques to increase the utility of the information and lead to more profound and accurate insight. Future iterations of the CTDC platform will deploy de-identification technologies designed to expose more nuanced data while still ensuring data protection. Additionally, IOM seeks to provide researchers with new analytical tools through the platform particularly on the geo-spatial level.

Establishing international standards on the definition, collection, management, and safe use of human trafficking data: As the first platform of this type, CTDC is in a unique position to guide and inform relevant institutions, governments, and other actors on the development of data collection, data protection and data sharing standards specifically on human trafficking. The current standards developed and used by the project are published on CTDC, with the data dictionary and codebook available for download so that further agencies can map to the standard and contribute their data to CTDC and other global data initiatives. IOM is promoting the use of these standards with further partners and is continuing to engage agencies in consultation to further develop and refine them over time; as at the Code 8.7 event within the framework of Alliance 8.7, for example. As counter-trafficking agencies’ capacity to collect data improves, the standards will also become more fine-grained and ambitious, guiding the counter-trafficking community produce data of even higher quality.

CTDC was initially developed by IOM in partnership with Polaris and Liberty Shared. Together IOM, Polaris and Liberty Shared hold the three largest human trafficking case datasets in the world. Following the successful pilot, IOM is now working with several other partners, including governmental and non-governmental actors, to include their data in the site. IOM is also developing partnerships with academia, the private sector, UN agencies (e.g. ILO, UNICEF and UNODC), NGOs, and government to put the data to use for research and other purposes aimed at eliminating trafficking in persons, such as mapping risk in global supply chains.

IOM developed the first iteration of CTDC, following extensive consultation with the counter-trafficking community. The project team spent a considerable amount of time researching the design of CTDC and the data anonymization protocols/standards and different technological solutions. This was done in conversation with the private sector and academia, referring to best practices and lessons learnt from different sectors. The data anonymization, in particular, required bringing technical expertise from a range of fields: counter-trafficking, statistics, data science, law and academia. IOM continues to steward discussions with different organizations and aims to ensure that their efforts remain complementary to the CTDC programme of work and vice versa.

The use of CTDC is monitored regularly and in real time using Google Analytics. As the project advances, IOM also plans to use Meltwater to monitor mentions of project activities and CTDC in the media and to use Google Scholar to monitor citations of CTDC data and related research in academic articles.

As of today, CTDC combines the three largest victim of human trafficking case datasets in the world, resulting in one centralized repository with data on over 91,000 cases, with 169 nationalities exploited in 172 countries. It facilitates an unparalleled level of access for researchers, policymakers, and
practitioners, who can visualize the data or carry out their own analysis on the anonymized and downloadable data on the website.

The CTDC website has been live for less than a year but is already in its second iteration and attracts over 4,000 users per month, with the number of users increasing by 10% every month. 50% of users are academics or students. Other users include public sector, private sector, international organizations, NGOs, and the media.

While the initiative is still very new, concrete and impactful evidence outputs are being developed using identified victim case data. For example, in 2017, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, in partnership with IOM, published the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage. The research revealed the extent of forced labour and forced marriage today, with some 40 million people around the world having been victims of modern slavery in 2016. IOM case data on victims of trafficking was used to contribute to the estimates of both sexual exploitation and child victims of forced labour, data sets for which it was difficult to collect information through household surveys. The research is an example of how IOM data are being put to valuable use developing the evidence base for work towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The project is sustainable and cost effective. It enables organizations to make better use of data that they need and already collect during the course of their counter-trafficking operations. The data collected contributes to the global evidence base to develop more effect policies and programmes to address counter-trafficking. Building on CTDC best practice, the project is also establishing new international standards on the definition, collection, management, safe use, and sharing of human trafficking data to improve the quality and use of trafficking data worldwide.

This two-pronged approach is changing the way that organizations operate over the long-term and is providing them with the infrastructure to usefully combine their respective datasets and ultimately work better together. In the future, the project will also create concrete, practical examples of how such data can be put to use to combat the crime through partnerships with key stakeholders, including academia, the private sector, and law enforcement.

IOM is scaling up the initiative to new governmental and non-governmental partners, providing them with a mechanism to regularly use their data to develop the evidence base as part of the life cycle of their data and operations.

Before the project, the baseline for the availability of primary data on human trafficking data was effectively zero and the acute need for actionable evidence and even the most basic information was constantly being reiterated by policy-makers, practitioners, and other stakeholders. As of today, CTDC combines the three largest victim of human trafficking case datasets in the world, resulting in one centralized repository with data on over 91,000 cases, with 169 nationalities exploited in 172 countries. CTDC is now expanding the number of data contributing partner agencies. It presents a proven mechanism to regularly make available and leverage such data to combat trafficking.

The website has been live for less than a year but is already in its second iteration and attracts over 4,000 users per month, with the number of users increasing by 10% every month. 50% of users are academics or students. Other users include public sector, private sector, international organizations, NGOs, and the media. Users come access the site from all across the globe.

The process of doing this work for the first time has been one of iterative development, with multiple lessons learnt and best practice developed along the way. For example, the project has explored, identified, and implemented a range of different techniques and technologies to safely and securely expose extremely sensitive data to a public audience for the first time. With these newly available data, the project is now breaking new ground putting those data to use in innovative ways with new partners to combat the crime.

https://www.ctdatacollaborative.org/