People with lived experience of modern slavery and human trafficking are rarely included in the development of research or policy. The same goes for workers that work in vulnerable sectors. Knowing that survivor participation is a crucial yet often missing element to anti-slavery efforts, the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group (ATMG) – coordinated by LSI’s member Anti-Slavery in the UK – developed a briefing.
This briefing outlines approaches to participatory action research and shares the experiences, learning and reflections of the research team. The team consisted of three women with lived experience of modern slavery and the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group (ATMG). The briefing was produced between November 2020 and May 2021 through a series of virtual workshops.
The briefing aims to highlight the importance of co-production to the wider anti-slavery movement; as well as key considerations when approaching this work, including the types of barriers that can prevent or affect survivor engagement and suggestions for addressing these issue. The briefing also aims to share the views of both survivors and non-survivors on the co-production of research, exploring how and whether survivors might and should engage in co-produced research and the realities of this.