From Potential to Practice: What We Learned from the AICSA Pilot

Late last year, I reflected on the formation of the Australian International Counter Slavery Alliance (AICSA) and its bold ambition: to scale Australia’s impact in countering all forms of modern slavery through coordinated partnerships and survivor leadership across our region.

In that piece, “Punching Above Their Weight — Australian international agencies aligning to counter slavery ”, I made the case that while no single organisation can end slavery, together we might just be able to shift the system that enslaves people. We know that many aspects of modern slavery — particularly human trafficking and forced labour — manifest themselves within a complex adaptive system of networks upon networks.

The myriad of counter-slavery not-for-profit organisations doing critical work on the ground are also part of a system and network — albeit one not by design, but by default. There has rarely been an effort made to design an organise and aligned network of international counter-trafficking agencies.

And yet, as the UNODC is calling out ahead of this year World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, human trafficking is oftentimes linked to transnational organised crime.

And it’s organised. So should we not contemplate, wherever we can, the development of organised counter-networks to disrupt these networks built upon some of the worst human rights violations and exploitation?

While just starting out, we have now begun to test that proposition through the ‘Alliance’ — the Australian International Counter Slavery Alliance (AICSA).

Over the past eight months, AICSA has completed its inaugural pilot initiative. What began as a vision is now a tested, tangible Australian platform for collaborative international action and collaboration.

And while there is still work to do, the early results from an evaluation of this pilot project are both encouraging and clarifying.

An Australian Federal Election and a Foundation Worth Building On

The pilot initiative was not designed to solve everything — but to build trust, test alignment, and model what working together could look like in the real world.

Prior to this, the eight organisations in the Alliance had been quietly working together to clarify over the course of about 12 months what would be the core components of our Alliance partnership — our Principles, Vision, Purpose, Strategic Opportunity and critical points of shared interests.

Now we had a small window ahead of an upcoming Australian Federal Election in the first half of 2025.

This was an opportunity for the Alliance to put forward together an agenda ahead of the election for all candidates and parties to consider. But it would also test how well equipped we were to work together, and importantly, meaningfully engage those from our region with lived experience of modern slavery.

In a three-month sprint to the election, the Alliance went from theory to action. Here is a taste of what took place:

• To set the foundation stone, 32 people from all eight agencies attended a Survivor Insight Session led by four AICSA Lived Experience Advisors. For many agencies, this was the first opportunity to consider what survivor-centred advocacy could look like, and explore how to meaningfully engage survivor leaders at all levels of their organisation.
• More than 72 participants from the private, public and civil society sectors attended a Virtual Export Roundtable a month out from the Federal election. Hosted by members of the Alliance and the AICSA Lived Experience working group, there was a broad representation of experts from across the Aisa-Pacific region. This developed into a Joint Statement — Too big to ignore: Australia’s role in combating slavery in our region — shared with key stakeholders and across all major political parties.
• In the days prior to the election, AICSA’s call for Australia to step up and do more was shared on the Election News Blog of Guardian Australia, their most read news site. In addition, one of AICSA’s Lived Experience Advisors had the opportunity to share his story and advocacy via the 7am news Podcast episode on the Human Trafficking fuelled scamming industry.

The Alliance was also pleased to engage with the Australian Ambassador for Human Trafficking, Modern Slavery and People Smuggling, new Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner, the Australian Human Rights Commissioner and senior advisers to the Foreign Minister and the Attorney General.

All these engagements were made easier by the process of identifying that by aligning together on the common international policy challenge of modern slavery, political and government stakeholders find it easier to engage via a single, organised network then one that is fragmented or splintered.

Progress towards key goals

At the start of the pilot, the Alliance set out to make a contribution in the following three areas:

• Proximity — We enabled meaningful access between Australian political leaders, survivor advocates, and grassroots counter-slavery organisations and leaders in the region.
• Coordination — We created a collective identity for the Alliance and proved we can speak with one strategic, survivor-informed voice.
• Investment Readiness — While scaling Australia’s relatively small levels of funding was not going to realised overnight, the pilot has positioned AICSA as a credible and aligned Australian based but internationally focussed platform, ready for future, innovative investment and collective action. At scale.

The fact that we made progress on these goals via the Alliance is no small thing.

Someone described our working together — something that seems to be inherently challenging in the anti-trafficking sector — as a ‘bloody miracle’. And so we have to take all the small wins we can get, and be reminded that this is a long game that will require new methods of organising to maximise impact.

Amplifying International Survivor Leadership

Perhaps the most significant outcome of the pilot was the central role of lived experience in both strategy and advocacy.

The Lived Experience Advisory Group did not just advise — they were instrumental in guiding, critiquing and shaping ideas and solutions from the Alliance. From media tactics to the roundtable design, their leadership helped shape how AICSA member agencies engage with, learn from, and centre survivor perspectives.

As one survivor leader said:

“It felt like we were valued and equals in the process. I don’t often feel like that as a survivor.”

There was widespread support from stakeholders regarding how the newly formed Alliance meaningfully engaged survivor leaders, and that this was a key strength of the pilot. Here are a few key areas where this was noted as part of an evaluation of the pilot project:

• Most Alliance partners both learnt a great deal about survivor leadership and increased their capacity for survivor engagement. The pilot led to tangible improvements in some member organisations’ policies and practices.
• The Lived Experience Advisory group noted that their engagement was not tokenistic. Their input led to changes in media policy, advisory councils, and internal processes across Alliance members.
• The Lived Experience advisors noted that it was unusual for the groups they work with to open up direct access to decision-makers, including representatives of government ministers or government departments.
• For some in the Lived Experience Working Group, the pilot was a personally restorative process. They described the process as empowering and respectful — even transformative. They reported feeling honoured and respected. They appreciated being involved in decision making from the early stages of the process, and gave feedback in instances where that may not have occurred.

While just the beginning with limited time, the Alliance was able to model how international non-government organisations can work via a common platform to partner with international survivor leaders in a way that might be more challenging if done on their own.

A Shift in the Sector’s Posture

One unexpected yet powerful outcome of the pilot has been a shift in how agencies relate to one another.

“We don’t see each other as competitors anymore.”

That is how one partner described it. And in truth, the most significant competitor in our field is the traffickers themselves who waste no time in accumulating more profit, and more allies in powerful positions, to consolidate their position.

We must recognise the strengths and assets in our sector, and leverage those by intentionally designing better organised and integrated collaborative platforms for change.

AICSA created a space where trust, not turf, defined engagement. For many — especially smaller organisations — it was a chance to be part of national-level advocacy and coordination they would not have accessed alone. For others, it was a chance to reimagine their role within a broader, regional system.

We saw real professional growth. Real organisational learning. Real momentum.

Of course, it was not always smooth sailing

No genuine collaboration is challenge-free. The pilot surfaced important tensions:

• Political advocacy risk in complex country contexts
• Time and capacity constraints for stretched agencies
• The need for a clearer strategic direction over the medium term
• Reliance on a central convener (namely, me) to keep the wheels turning

Of course, meaningful collaboration is never without challenge. The pilot illuminated real and expected tensions — especially around advocacy risk, time capacity, and strategic clarity.

Some members found the pace fast, especially in balancing the demands of the Alliance’s work with their own programming. Others have raised concerns about the risks of joint advocacy in politically sensitive contexts. And across the board, there is a recognised need to sharpen AICSA’s long-term vision and the role it plays within the broader counter-slavery ecosystem.

These are not signs of failure or weakness.

They are just the real-world friction points that come with genuine system change and building something that does not already exist. In fact, I am yet to see any other collaboration of dedicated counter-slavery INGO’s that is intended to shape their home countries response to modern slavery and human trafficking abroad.

So perhaps AICSA can provide an insight for others around the world.

Three Strategic Steps for What’s Next

We have taken the lessons of the pilot and are now exploring a couple of key next steps:

1. Co-design a Theory of Change and Strategy

We are working together to articulate how change happens in our region — and what unique role AICSA plays in that system. This will guide everything from messaging to funding to measurement.

2. Clarify AICSA’s Structure and Governance

We will refine decision-making processes, membership expectations, governance and resourcing strategies. What is the best means to address the urgent and important challenges ahead of us, while remaining lean, adaptable and focussed.

3. Sustain the Momentum

We are keen to keep building from what we have started, learn from this pilot and explore what a mature Australian International Counter Slavery Alliance could emerge into in 2026.

And would it not be an appropriate year to launch — the 100th year anniversary of the adoption of the 1926 Slavery Convention at the League of Nations.

Designed for a different era but the same problem, the 21st century now needs bold aligned, coordinated and integrated platforms to shape counter-slavery action in the region with the highest number of actual people being exploited anywhere in the world.

An Invitation to Partner

This short project proved something important: the Alliance demonstrated that working together is possible. And it has laid a foundation for future work.

Through the pilot, a new collective brand has been established. While some members of the Alliance were already engaged in strategic advocacy, there was previously no mechanism for collective engagement between the sector and those in positions of political and industry influence.

We have created a model that is collaborative, informed by survivor leaders, and strategic for the direct and indirect challenges that come upon us because of the rampant modern slavery and human trafficking in Asia and the Pacific. But to scale that model — to bring visibility, influence and investment to where they’re most needed — we will need partners.

If you are a funder, policymaker, advocate or business-partner ready to help build Australian’s regional response that matches the scale of the problem, I would welcome a conversation.

This is only the beginning for AICSA.

While the global civil society anti-trafficking sector remains fragmented, lacking a unified strategy or coordinated methodology, alongside a decreasing global investment and political interest (outside of a handful of isolated examples), the Australian International Counter Slavery Alliance is acting like a pilot light.

A model of the type of future we all want, but are going to have to co-design, to make a reality.