The Global Modern Slavery Directory (GMSD) is a collaborative effort led by Polaris. With funding from the Freedom Fund in 2014, the Database was launched on October 9, 2014 with 800 public anti-slavery organisations listed and this expanded to 1,100 as of April 2015.

The Freedom Fund is providing a further grant to Polaris in 2015 to fund technology upgrades to the GMSD and to hire personnel to drive marketing and outreach efforts, manage on-going research, and develop new partnerships.

Polaris began to create an international database of anti-trafficking organisations through support from funders such as the Google Foundation and the United States Department of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. The database will be online from summer 2014.

Placing over 1,300 organisations working in the anti-trafficking field globally into a public database will:

• Enable global hotlines to connect callers to much needed local resources.
• Provide the growing global anti-trafficking field access to key stakeholders at a country level.
• Drive additional resources to the field and enable strategic investment.
• Drive awareness of how and where trafficking is occurring globally.

In addition, by putting the database online, organisations can proactively reach out to be included and/or to update their existing information, enabling the database to grow and scale more quickly and cost-effectively.

With the Freedom Fund’s grant, Polaris will be able to employ an additional staff member who will be focused on the verification and addition of organisations to the database.

This grant will fund technology upgrades to the Global Modern Slavery Database and to hire personnel to drive marketing and outreach efforts, manage ongoing research, and develop new partnerships.

This grant will enable Polaris to enhance the Global Modern Slavery Directory, an online, publicly accessible database of organisations working on human trafficking, exploitation and forced labour.