Voice and participation

The Learning Journey on Voice and Participation is a joint initiative between GAATW and eight partner organisations from eight countries in Asia and Europe, with support from Porticus. This initiative, which started in June 2022, will focus on meaningful participation. The need for this initiative stems from barriers experienced in achieving and realising a participatory approach with people on the move or vulnerabilities related to the anti-trafficking and migrant workers’ sector. 

For many years, GAATW has been raising the question of accountability in the anti-trafficking field: not only the accountability of duty-bearers to protect the rights of people on the move but also the accountability of NGOs towards trafficked persons and other groups considered vulnerable to trafficking, such as low-wage migrant workers. The lack of such accountability is exacerbated in the neoliberal context where donors place disproportionate emphasis on measurements, activities, outputs, and ‘innovative’ solutions at the expense of meaningful consultation, reflection, and learning with their target groups. Over time, NGOs adopt a way of thinking and working to fit these demands at the cost of listening to the people they are supporting and advocating for broader, structural socio-economic changes.

In this context, GAATW with eight partners is pausing to reflect on how we practice and understand ‘voice’ and ‘participation’ through our organisational work, principles, strategies, and practices. Each partner has developed a unique proposal for this learning journey that will be executed until next year. Each submission has its course and outcomes. These will be tied together by shared learning of practices, challenges, and breakthroughs.