Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking: The Podcast

Episode 6: Development Finance

Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking: The Podcast

Show Notes

In Episode 6 of Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking: The Podcast, we examine the role that development finance can play in the fight against modern slavery and human trafficking. We begin by discussing how restrictions on economic agency create the conditions that make people vulnerable to exploitation. The episode then looks at how development finance practitioners understand modern slavery risks and what they're doing to restore people's economic agency. The episode concludes with a discussion about the connections between climate change vulnerabilities, human trafficking and development, and what that means for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) later this year. This episode is hosted by Professor James Cockayne, Senior Fellow at FAST. Guests include Sophie Otiende, Regional Operations Manager at Liberty Shared; Sara Pantuliano, Chief Executive at ODI; Sarah Mendelson, Distinguished Service Professor of Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and Head of Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College; Mark Eckstein, Director of ESG Impact at CDC Group; Gabriel Azevedo, Division Chief of Social, Environmental, and Governance at the Inter-American Development Bank; and Fran Witt, Climate Change and Modern Slavery Advisor at Antislavery International.

More from Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking: The Podcast

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In this latest FAST podcast episode, FAST’s government and multilateral organizations lead, Andy Shen sat down with Caleb Thole from Global Hope Mobilization, a Malawi-based civil society organization, Martina Vandenberg from the Human Trafficking Legal Center, a US-based civil society organization, Sheri Levine-Shea from Barclays, Hennie Verbeek from the Netherlands Financial Intelligence Unit, and Brian Hoxie from the Forced Labour Division of US Customs and Border Protection, to discuss issues of asset recovery and compensation for victims and survivors. In this episode we will hear insights on, the significance of compensation to victims, what can be done to increase this compensation, inter-agency cooperation in support of cooperation; a case example of exploited workers receiving restitution; and FAST’s recommendation that States should criminalize financially benefiting from forced labour, if they have not already done so, and make it a predicate offense to money laundering.

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