LONDON: A global fund aiming to raise $1.5 billion to halve the number of modern slaves in the world’s hardest-hit countries could be a “game-changer,” leaders said at the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The Global Fund to End Modern Slavery, a US-based partnership that unites governments, businesses and charities, hopes to replicate the success of a similar initiative that boosted financing to tackle AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

“We need a global fund to deal with this... much like the international community did with HIV/Aids,” US Republican Senator Bob Corker said on a panel of activists, lawmakers and investors at the political and business summit in Davos.

The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the world’s largest project aimed at tackling the three diseases, says it has saved at least 22 million lives since it was set up in 2002 — having disbursed at least $36 billion in that time.

About 40 million people were living as modern slaves last year — either trapped in forced labour or forced marriages — according to the United Nations International Labour Organisation (ILO) and human rights group Walk Free Foundation.

The fund to end slavery is seeking $250 million from the United States, $500 million from other nations and $750 million in private funding to co-ordinate global anti-slavery efforts and finance projects that prosecute criminals and protect survivors.

It has raised about $75 million — mainly from the United States and Britain — since it was set up in 2015.

Reuters