Repository of Practices
Primary GCM Objectives
GCM Guiding Principles*
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Dates
2017 - Present
Geographic scope
Geographic Scope:
Global
Summary
The Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative (CTDC) is the first global data hub on trafficking in persons, publishing harmonised data from counter-trafficking organisations worldwide; it was relaunched in June 2024 with new features, following its genesis in 2017. Historically, making data on trafficking in persons accessible has been challenging due to privacy and identification concerns. CTDC's central aim is to break down these barriers by providing up-to-date and reliable data on trafficking in persons while ensuring the privacy and safety of victims. This empowers local, national, and international stakeholders to combat trafficking and exploitation more effectively. CTDC's key activities involve collecting, harmonising, and publishing data from contributing organisations, including IOM, Polaris, A21, RecollectiV, and the Portuguese Observatory on Trafficking in Human Beings (OTSH). The CTDC platform offers interactive dashboards and data stories that provide insights into trafficking trends and patterns, as well as datasets available for download. Academics, policymakers, and the public use the data to inform their work and develop evidence-based counter-trafficking initiatives. The resources powering CTDC include financial and in-kind assistance from donors and partners. Several governments and counter-trafficking institutions worldwide also support CTDC through programmes implemented by IOM. Additionally, CTDC collaborates with partners like Microsoft Research to integrate cutting-edge technologies and techniques like differential privacy, the current gold standard in privacy protection, into its publicly available datasets: the Global Synthetic Dataset and the Global Victim-Perpetrator Synthetic Dataset.
Organizations
Main Implementing Organization(s)
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Partner/Donor Organizations
Polaris
RecollectiV
A21
Portuguese Observatory on Trafficking in Human Beings - OTSH
Microsoft
Tech Against Trafficking
Benefit and Impact
The CTDC enhances the rights and well-being of migrants by providing accessible, actionable, up-to-date, safe, and reliable data on trafficking in persons. This empowers stakeholders to develop targeted interventions and evidence-based policies to combat trafficking in persons and exploitation while addressing the needs of trafficking victims, including through enhancing protection and support services.
Selected into the first cohort of the Tech Against Trafficking Accelerator program in 2019, CTDC collaborated with Microsoft to develop the Global Synthetic Dataset, first published in 2021 and updated in 2024. This dataset offers critical insights into victim profiles, exploitation types, and trafficking methods, featuring data from over 206,000 trafficked persons across 190 countries and territories. Building on this collaboration, CTDC also published the Global Victim-Perpetrator Dataset in 2022, highlighting trafficking trends and informing academic research and policy decisions.
CTDC’s dataset on victims of trafficking, among other data sources, contributed to the development of the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery by ILO, Walk Free, and IOM, published in 2022. CTDC’s inputs were crucial to this report by providing detailed data on victims trafficked for forced labour and sexual exploitation, significantly contributing to understanding and combating modern slavery globally.
Initially launched in November 2017, CTDC has continuously evolved. A website relaunch in June 2024 introduced a more user-friendly interface and enhanced features. This redesign further improves data accessibility and utility, contributing to data-informed decision-making among counter-trafficking organisations and enhancing stakeholder collaboration.
CTDC's sustainability is ensured through its ongoing partnerships and financial support for donors. This support ensures that CTDC remains a vital resource in the global fight against human trafficking. To further expand its reach and utility, CTDC continually seeks new partners willing to contribute their data, expertise, and resources.
Selected into the first cohort of the Tech Against Trafficking Accelerator program in 2019, CTDC collaborated with Microsoft to develop the Global Synthetic Dataset, first published in 2021 and updated in 2024. This dataset offers critical insights into victim profiles, exploitation types, and trafficking methods, featuring data from over 206,000 trafficked persons across 190 countries and territories. Building on this collaboration, CTDC also published the Global Victim-Perpetrator Dataset in 2022, highlighting trafficking trends and informing academic research and policy decisions.
CTDC’s dataset on victims of trafficking, among other data sources, contributed to the development of the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery by ILO, Walk Free, and IOM, published in 2022. CTDC’s inputs were crucial to this report by providing detailed data on victims trafficked for forced labour and sexual exploitation, significantly contributing to understanding and combating modern slavery globally.
Initially launched in November 2017, CTDC has continuously evolved. A website relaunch in June 2024 introduced a more user-friendly interface and enhanced features. This redesign further improves data accessibility and utility, contributing to data-informed decision-making among counter-trafficking organisations and enhancing stakeholder collaboration.
CTDC's sustainability is ensured through its ongoing partnerships and financial support for donors. This support ensures that CTDC remains a vital resource in the global fight against human trafficking. To further expand its reach and utility, CTDC continually seeks new partners willing to contribute their data, expertise, and resources.
Key Lessons
Implementing the CTDC has provided several key lessons so far. Initially, CTDC used k-anonymization to de-identify data, redacting rare quasi-identifier combinations to protect privacy. However, this method reduced the caseload included in the dataset, which distorted some of the data statistics, which in turn limited its utility. To address this, CTDC collaborated with Microsoft Research through the Tech Against Trafficking Accelerator Program in 2019 to transition to synthetic data generation using differential privacy. While the resulting synthetic dataset no longer includes “real” data from actual individuals, this approach preserves data structure and statistical properties, ensuring privacy while maintaining data utility. This allowed CTDC to publish more comprehensive and accurate datasets, enhancing research and policy-making efforts.
Another significant challenge has been ensuring the CTDC website is as user-friendly and accessible as possible to a broad audience. Feedback from stakeholders indicated the need to improve navigation, mobile optimisation, and interactive features. In response, CTDC was redesigned and relaunched in June 2024, prioritising the user experience. The new design features enhanced accessibility, seamless mobile access, streamlined navigation, interactive dashboards, and multilingual support in Arabic, English, French, German, and Spanish. These improvements make it easier for users to find and engage with the data, supporting more effective use of the available information.
Another significant challenge has been ensuring the CTDC website is as user-friendly and accessible as possible to a broad audience. Feedback from stakeholders indicated the need to improve navigation, mobile optimisation, and interactive features. In response, CTDC was redesigned and relaunched in June 2024, prioritising the user experience. The new design features enhanced accessibility, seamless mobile access, streamlined navigation, interactive dashboards, and multilingual support in Arabic, English, French, German, and Spanish. These improvements make it easier for users to find and engage with the data, supporting more effective use of the available information.
Recommendations(if the practice is to be replicated)
1. Prioritize Data Protection and De-identification: Assess the legal and ethical considerations of sharing data, including its sensitivity and the available de-identification methods. Ensure your organisation can protect raw data adequately before and after publication. Use legal agreements to regulate data sharing, outlining protection, sharing conditions, and intellectual property rights. This safeguards individuals' privacy and ensures compliance with related standards.
2. Strategic partnerships: Establish strong partnerships with counter-trafficking organisations whose contributions are essential for data sourcing and harmonisation. Collaborate with tech partners to leverage advanced technologies such as synthetic data generation and differential privacy, ensuring data utility while maintaining privacy and safety. Ensure adequate and sustainable resources are available, such as from donors and other partners.
3. Balance data availability and user-centred design: Conduct extensive audits and stakeholder consultations to prioritise user needs. Focus on enhancing accessibility, data quality and comprehensiveness. Ensure the platform is accessible globally by providing multilingual support.
4. Continued monitoring and evaluation: Regularly gather user feedback to continuously improve the platform, as CTDC did with its redesign in June 2024, leading to significant user experience enhancements. Keep the data current through frequent updates and ongoing coordination with contributing organisations. Provide datasets, ready-to-use analysis, and engaging data stories to make the information accessible to various audiences, including academics, policymakers, and the public.
5. Adapt to the context: Ensure compliance with local and international regulations on data privacy and ethical handling of sensitive information. Adapt the platform and its content to be culturally sensitive and relevant to the diverse regions it serves.
2. Strategic partnerships: Establish strong partnerships with counter-trafficking organisations whose contributions are essential for data sourcing and harmonisation. Collaborate with tech partners to leverage advanced technologies such as synthetic data generation and differential privacy, ensuring data utility while maintaining privacy and safety. Ensure adequate and sustainable resources are available, such as from donors and other partners.
3. Balance data availability and user-centred design: Conduct extensive audits and stakeholder consultations to prioritise user needs. Focus on enhancing accessibility, data quality and comprehensiveness. Ensure the platform is accessible globally by providing multilingual support.
4. Continued monitoring and evaluation: Regularly gather user feedback to continuously improve the platform, as CTDC did with its redesign in June 2024, leading to significant user experience enhancements. Keep the data current through frequent updates and ongoing coordination with contributing organisations. Provide datasets, ready-to-use analysis, and engaging data stories to make the information accessible to various audiences, including academics, policymakers, and the public.
5. Adapt to the context: Ensure compliance with local and international regulations on data privacy and ethical handling of sensitive information. Adapt the platform and its content to be culturally sensitive and relevant to the diverse regions it serves.
Innovation
The CTDC provides an innovative approach to combating trafficking in persons through several groundbreaking aspects. Firstly, CTDC is the first global data hub that publishes harmonised and synthesised individual case data from multiple counter-trafficking organisations worldwide, providing unprecedented detail on human trafficking incidents. These individual case data offer crucial insights into victim sociodemographic profiles and human trafficking dynamics, enriching the CTDC dataset and empowering stakeholders to develop targeted interventions and enhance survivor assistance.
Essential to CTDC's innovation are synthetic data generation and differential privacy, developed in partnership with Microsoft Research. Previously, CTDC used k-anonymization, which redacted data to protect privacy. However, valuable information may lie in these data that previously could not be released safely. The transition to synthetic data preserves the structure and statistics of the original data without corresponding to actual individuals, ensuring privacy while maintaining data utility. This method allows CTDC to publish detailed, accurate datasets invaluable for research and policymaking.
CTDC is one of the few examples of using synthetic data in the humanitarian-development sector. CTDC and its partners hope to inspire other organisations and actors to use synthetic data and similar data-driven approaches in other areas of social impact and humanitarian work beyond human trafficking. In particular, differential privacy has shown how sensitive data can be shared safely and effectively.
The impacts of CTDC are sustainable due to its robust partnership model, continuous data updates, and commitment to incorporating user feedback for ongoing improvements. The platform's scalability is evident in its ability to integrate data from new partners and adapt to different regional contexts and languages.
Essential to CTDC's innovation are synthetic data generation and differential privacy, developed in partnership with Microsoft Research. Previously, CTDC used k-anonymization, which redacted data to protect privacy. However, valuable information may lie in these data that previously could not be released safely. The transition to synthetic data preserves the structure and statistics of the original data without corresponding to actual individuals, ensuring privacy while maintaining data utility. This method allows CTDC to publish detailed, accurate datasets invaluable for research and policymaking.
CTDC is one of the few examples of using synthetic data in the humanitarian-development sector. CTDC and its partners hope to inspire other organisations and actors to use synthetic data and similar data-driven approaches in other areas of social impact and humanitarian work beyond human trafficking. In particular, differential privacy has shown how sensitive data can be shared safely and effectively.
The impacts of CTDC are sustainable due to its robust partnership model, continuous data updates, and commitment to incorporating user feedback for ongoing improvements. The platform's scalability is evident in its ability to integrate data from new partners and adapt to different regional contexts and languages.
Additional Resources
Date submitted:
26 June 2024
*References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).