‘If you do not change direction, you might end up where you are heading’. This quote, contributed to Lao Tzu, highlights the basic requirement to adjust from time to time in order to grow. Freedom in Disaster in its formative development stage, and as such we are focused on identifying and recognizing patterns for success. Operating for approximately three years, we are a young niche humanitarian organization with the aim of making a big impact; altering relevant sectors to avoid human trafficking in disasters. In 2023 our focus was on identifying how we can achieve our purpose with the means we have at our disposal. We identified what works, what doesn’t and who ‘we want to be’. In a nutshell, we need to change our direction slightly.
In our earlier years, we predominantly focused on (i) contributing to the academic body of knowledge via advocacy and attending conferences ; (ii) established an online platform/library which ensures global access to relevant counter-trafficking information; and (iii) ran our first on-site projects in Vietnam. Considering we are a low budget volunteer organisation we made significant inroads. Inspired by our early success we kept exploring new opportunities to realise our Vision. We went to Timor Leste to explore collaboration opportunities in different development countries, established an in-country office and continued to grow our network and influence. We connected with and interviewed relevant practitioners, policy makers and academics to truly understand how to disrupt current practices in order to put relevant safeguards in place during disasters to protect vulnerable men, women and children.
Our efforts allowed us to better understand the sector and our opportunity for impact. This sparked a review of our current impact model and initiated strategic planning efforts which will be shortly published in our 2030 Strategy. Coming back to and rephrasing Lao Tzu’s quote: we did identify how we need to change our direction, ensuring that we grow into the organization we need to be.
Over the coming months you will notice changes to our strategy, impact areas and initiatives. We identified replicable patterns of success and initiatives that are most promising to make the biggest impact. Without wanting to reveal too much detail from our 2030 Strategy, some highlights include:
- Maintaining our Resource Hub
Our custom-built repository facilitates knowledge exchange and creates a globally accessible database for human trafficking in disaster information. It was perceived as very valuable to researchers and policy makers, and we decided to continue our efforts to maintain and grow our Resource Hub.
- Focusing on the International Standard for Counter Human Trafficking Programming in Disasters Initiative
Our research and stakeholder interviews identified that the absence of an ‘international-agreed standard’ contributes to the lack of best practice implementation during disasters. Standards from related sectors significantly contributed to better policy and better practice. Our resaeach in 2022 and 2023 set us up for success, allowing us to commence more targeted stakeholder consultation. We decided to fast-track this initiative due to the highlighted importance and are set to design version one of a fit-for-purpose, internationally recognized standard in 2024.
- Growing and Expanding our Network and Influence
Our strongest assets are the people and organizations we connect and collaborate with. We are committed to further grow our network to ensure that we build a strong Community of Practice for counter trafficking in disasters. In 2024, FiD will play a more active role in bringing stakeholders from across the globe together, uniting individuals and organizations for our shared purpose.
Some questions remain; what is the organization we need to become in order to facilitate the direction as outlined above? Maybe even more importantly; what organization do we not wish to become?
Freedom in Disasters is to remain a predominantly volunteer-based organization, attracting and working with like-minded individuals who believe in its purpose joining us from various walks of life.
We decided that we do not wish to become an organization that dedicates a significant proportion of its’ effort towards philanthropy.
We have a very niche mission that doesn’t seem to easily allow for broad public appeals and fundraising campaigns. Our initiatives are conceptual in nature and have a longer-term implementation timeframe. These being trademarks of initiatives that are hard to raise funds for via public appeals. It is hard to explain to people outside of the human trafficking or disaster management sectors how, for example an International Standard is set to modify organizational policies of disaster relief organizations in 5 years from now. Yet this is what is required in order to protect men, women and children from trafficking during disasters – organizational policy and procedure change at global level. With our most meaningful initiatives being rather conceptual we decided to focus on collaboration with academic institutions and other entities for project-based collaboration. This is our space and the gap we need to fill.
We realize our specialization and niche to be our strength, and are therefore committed to shifting our direction. Stay tuned for more updates as we implement our changes throughout 2024.