Introducing GFEMS COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund

Introducing GFEMS COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund

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The Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS) announces the launch of the Response and Recovery Fund to address emergency humanitarian needs and prepare for long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on populations at risk of falling into modern slavery.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to expose and exacerbate acute vulnerabilities of the populations GFEMS serves: Domestic workers are facing heightened risk of physical and sexual violence. Bonded and migrant laborers are walking hundreds of kilometers to their home villages after losing their jobs. Children around the world are at increased risk of online sexual exploitation.As the economic fallout of the pandemic deepens, the global community should anticipate that millions more may fall into labor and sex trafficking in the aftermath of the crisis.

To escalate its ongoing response to the crisis, GFEMS has launched the Response and Recovery Fund. 

The Response and Recovery Fund will support two activities: 

  1. Emergency response efforts, including provision of food and hygiene kits, financial support for vulnerable families who have lost their income, and other critical services to serve and protect men, women, and children at increased risk of falling into conditions of modern slavery. 
  2. Preparation for medium and long term impacts. GFEMS is preparing for the next wave of modern slavery by conducting rapid assessments of conditions on the ground and leveraging actionable insights to develop strategies for proactive intervention and responsible recovery. 

“While we work to rapidly address urgent humanitarian needs, we must also re-evaluate social protections and supply chains, working alongside our public and private sector partners to recover responsibly and prevent a surge of exploitation and modern slavery.”  –Jean Baderschneider, CEO

GFEMS stands in solidarity with the anti-slavery field and all those on the front lines working to protect victims, survivors, and vulnerable populations and is prepared to coordinate and deploy strategic programs to prevent exploitation and promote responsible recovery.

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The Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS) is a bold international fund catalyzing a coherent global strategy to end human trafficking by making it economically unprofitable. With leadership from government and the private sector around the world, the Fund is escalating resources, designing public-private partnerships, funding new tools and methods for sustainable solutions, and assessing impact to better equip our partners to scale and replicate solutions in new geographies.