2024 WORLD CONGRESS
Photo credit: Saliba Marie
In-person gatherings might seem a luxury, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic restricted face-to-face contact and travel. However, building community by being in the same room is critical to Survivor Alliance’s mission. The World Congress is an international event designed to do just that - build community.
This report shares the decisions and planning behind our five-day meeting of 96 survivors and 39 allies, known as our 2024 World Congress (WC). It lists the key topics on the agenda and captures some of the many insights, conversations and ideas shared amongst attendees. The content has been drawn from session slides, recordings, participant notes, attendee evaluation survey responses, and any additional feedback people have kindly shared with us directly.
The Power of the Collective
The World Congress is a tri-annual (every 3 years), survivor-led, movement-building event that brings together the Survivor Alliance community to advance survivor leadership. There are separate and combined programs for survivors and allies, culminating in a shared and collaborative final day of the World Congress.
The World Congress is the only survivor-led and focused event of its kind, bringing together almost 100 multinational adult survivors of all types of human trafficking. It is also the only anti-trafficking sector event where survivors are the primary curators of the agenda for allies. You can read the report from our first World Congress to learn more.
World Congress Goals
The World Congress Survivor Leaders Program creates opportunities for people with lived experience of human trafficking to foster a survivor-led, inclusive, and intersectional movement, develop leadership skills, and work with allies to develop strategies for survivor inclusion.
By the end of the World Congress survivor leaders:
Experienced an increased sense of belonging and individual empowerment.
Felt an increased sense of collective power.
Learned from each other’s experiences and expertise.
Expanded their capacity to engage with survivors and allies from diverse backgrounds.
Strengthened leadership skills to enhance contributions to survivor-led movement building.
By the end of the World Congress allies:
Engaged with, and learned from, a diverse range of survivor leaders - people from around the world in a range of leadership roles.
Increased knowledge about the challenges survivor leaders face globally and survivor-informed interventions.
Gained practical tools and strategies for addressing systemic barriers to survivor inclusion in their work.
Event Details
The World Congress took place October 1-4, 2024. With almost 100 survivor leaders to joined us in Nairobi, Kenya. We also held an online program for those who are not able to join the World Congress in person.
In-person and online interpretation in English, Bangla, Hindi, Portuguese, and Spanish were provided.
For any questions about the World Congress reach out to worldcongress@survivoralliance.org
Survivor Alliance’s World Congress is made possible in part through support provided by the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS) under a Grant issued by the Government of the United Kingdom Home Office. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of GFEMS. We are equally grateful to Minderoo for their generous support, which plays a crucial role in making this event possible.
