Legatum renews partnership with the Freedom Fund to tackle the root causes of modern slavery
The Freedom Fund has secured a renewed five-year, $6 million commitment from Legatum, one of its founding donors, to expand efforts to dismantle the structural drivers of modern slavery. The funding, which includes $1 million dedicated to research, will strengthen frontline efforts in countries with high prevalence of exploitation, including Kenya, Ethiopia, Brazil, Bangladesh, Nepal, Nigeria, and Indonesia.
Modern slavery takes hold in the structural gaps left by weak enforcement, social exclusion, and economic desperation. The Freedom Fund’s strategy tackles these drivers head-on by investing in local solutions that change policies, shift norms, and expand access to services for the most at risk of exploitation.
Unlike short-term, issue-specific interventions, this renewed partnership supports a long-term vision of systems change. It comes at a critical time when the sector is facing funding cuts and shortages that exacerbate the vulnerability of those at risk to exploitation. Legatum’s investment powers the Freedom Fund’s work to combat the $250 billion modern slavery industry.
This critical new funding from Legatum supports work that:
- Improves the effectiveness of anti-slavery laws and public policies
- Expands survivor-centred services and access to legal entitlements
- Influences businesses to adopt labour practices that protect workers
- Fosters social norms of intolerance to exploitation
- Strengthens community resilience and survivor-led movements
- Drives resources to and increases capacity of frontline/proximate organisations to address exploitation in their communities
This multifaceted approach has already shown measurable results. Since 2014, the Freedom Fund has:
- Helped an estimated 10.4 million people become more resilient to slavery
- Enabled over 1.1 million individuals to access social and legal services
- Assisted in 7,600+ legal cases
- Contributed to 323 changes in public policy in countries where modern slavery is widespread
Rigorous research, much of which global and local institutions produce in partnership, complements field-level programming. With $1 million of the new commitment allocated to research, the Freedom Fund will deepen its evidence base on how systems-level interventions can prevent exploitation, and scale what works.
“We are deeply grateful for Legatum’s increased support and vision,” said Nick Grono, CEO of the Freedom Fund. “Their tireless support empowers frontline organisations and fuels our collective drive for systemic change. With Legatum’s partnership, we continue to make significant strides toward ending modern slavery.”
Guy Cave, President of the Legatum Foundation, added, “Legatum’s philanthropic investments target complex, system-level problems that prevent people from flourishing. We do this by prioritising the work of local, frontline organisations, and through collaborating with other donors to this aim over the long term. The Freedom Fund, which we helped to found in 2014, has made huge inroads in addressing the terrible problem of modern-day slavery and trafficking. We are delighted to re-confirm our commitment to their impactful work at this time with this new injection of capital. We also wanted to support Freedom Fund’s research, as it is vital that we all learn more about what really works in ending modern-day slavery.”
For journalists interested in learning more, interviews are available with Nick Grono, CEO at the Freedom Fund, and Guy Cave, President of the Legatum Foundation. Case studies and additional data on programme impact are also available upon request.
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For more information please email Lara Fatah, Head of Communications, The Freedom Fund.
The Freedom Fund is a global collaborative fund dedicated to ending modern slavery and human trafficking. We invest in and partner with frontline and survivor-led organisations in countries and sectors where modern slavery is most prevalent. By supporting community-based strategies, we help people exit exploitation, access services, and secure decent work. We also convene partners, build capacity, and drive research and advocacy that challenge systemic exploitation in global supply chains. As a donor collaborative, we mobilise resources and expertise to shift power to, and support systems-level change driven by, those most affected.
Legatum is an investment partnership, with offices in London and Dubai, that invests its capital and ideas into initiatives it believes will shape a better future. Since 2006, Legatum has created a diverse collection of ventures to meet big global challenges and increase prosperity around the world.
Legatum’s portfolio includes:
- Investments in listed and private businesses with a focus on the consumer, technology, and finance sectors.
- The END Fund formed to control and eliminate the five most common neglected tropical diseases by 2030. To date the Fund has directly impacted over 480 million lives.
- The Luminos Fund gives children excluded from school due to poverty, conflict or discrimination, a second chance at mainstream education. To date, it has supported more than 377,000 children to return to school.
- The Freedom Fund identifies and invests in the most effective community-led efforts to eradicate modern slavery. In the last nine years, the fund has helped liberate more than 30,000 people from slavery.
- The Prosperity Institute is a research and policy organisation with a focus on understanding prosperity’s building blocks and the complex interactions between them. The Institute’s purpose is to unlock how individuals, families, communities and nations can become more prosperous.
For more information Legatum.
Photo credit: Katie Orlinsky / Legatum
