Vital Voices Global Partnership is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that identifies, trains, and empowers emerging women leaders and social entrepreneurs around the globe. Its programs focus on expanding women’s political and civic participation to increase economic independence and successful entrepreneurship. A major area of engagement is combating human trafficking, both through direct anti-trafficking programs and by integrating an anti-trafficking lens across other program areas.
Vital Voices grew out of the U.S. government’s successful Vital Voices Democracy Initiative, established in 1997 by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Madeleine Albright after the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing to promote the advancement of women as a U.S. foreign policy goal. Vital Voices leaders – then U.S. government officials – played a central role in the U.S. government’s action on this issue, particularly in the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
Vital Voices is uniquely positioned to convene women leaders from government, NGO, and private sectors to develop and implement multi-stakeholder approaches and innovative strategies to combat human trafficking. Through the Vital Voices network and associated training, these women gain critical field experience and cultivate new skills, alliances, and ongoing support for their work. They return home to partner with local public agencies, social service centers, counselors, the legal community, and other NGOs to help women and girls in their communities. In addition, Vital Voices draws on its relationship with multi-lateral organizations, such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, to bring powerful global women leaders to the issue.
Vital Voices also works with government officials and non-governmental leaders from countries including Japan, Hungary, Russia, Belarus, India, and Cambodia as they strengthen outreach networks and draft national anti-trafficking legislation. Vital Voices launched a U.S. public awareness campaign that distributes anti-trafficking tool kits and public services announcements developed in partnership with several U.N. agencies. Vital Voices includes at least one segment on trafficking in each of its regional leadership summits, so that participating women leaders gain an understanding about this horrific form of exploitation and ways to combat it locally. Vital Voices also recently convened a cross-sector strategy conference for the sub-Mekong region as well as a regional conference on corporate social responsibility, which focused on trafficking, in Hong Kong.
About This Photo
Vital Voices was instrumental in establishing the Global Women Leaders Council of the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking, pictured here. The Global Women Leaders Council will use the prestige of their positions individually and collectively to mount new initiatives to combat human trafficking. (Vital Voices Global Partnership)
