The Lived Experience Expert Group (LEEGs) on the Government Response Index (GRI), is a 3-day workshop facilitated by Survivor Alliance and Walk Free in collaboration with a selected in-country partner organization. The LEEGs workshop is a safe and inclusive environment where up to 20 survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking come together and learn about the GRI in the Global Slavery Index (GSI) that assesses the government’s response to slavery through 5 outlined milestones.

The workshops include interactive activities that seek to identify and address gaps within the current grading system and milestones within the GRI. Participants learn about the importance of survivor leadership and ways to leverage the GSI to support the development of local survivor-led advocacy strategies with the support of Survivor Alliance and Walk Free.

LEEGs History

• In 2018, Survivor Alliance and Walk Free partnered to conduct its first LEEGs workshop in the UK. Since then, the LEEGs workshop has been facilitated in other countries like India, Ghana, Kenya, and most recently in Brazil.

• In 2023, Survivor Alliance reconnected with participants from Ghana and Kenya LEEGs workshops to provide technical assistance to support the development of their own survivor-led advocacy campaign and strategies utilizing the GSI as a point of leverage.

• In 2023 and 2024 Survivor Alliance connected with Lived Experience Expert Group (LEEG) participants from Thailand, Brazil and Ethiopia on the Government Response Index (GRI) to collect and consolidate the input of survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking regarding government performance on addressing slavery within their countries. Survivor Alliance and Walk Free in partnership with local organizations KASMA, Instituto Trabalho Decente (ITD) and The Whispering Willow (TWW) co-hosted the LEEGs workshop - a workshop that is survivor-led and survivor-driven to ensure that survivors have a trauma-informed and safe environment where they can feel empowered to contribute to how their governments are graded on their response to slavery and human trafficking.

• In 2025, Survivor Alliance, in partnership with the Office of the NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner (OASC), we held our eighth Lived Experience Expert Group. This four-day workshop brought together survivors of modern slavery, including migrant labour exploitation, domestic exploitation, and forced marriage from across Australia to share knowledge, build skills, and strengthen advocacy efforts by centering survivor voices in shaping national and global anti-slavery responses. Survivor leaders learned about Walk Free’s Government Response Index (GRI), a key component of the Global Slavery Index (GSI). Building on this, survivors were given space to share their insights on what constitutes an effective government response to modern slavery in Australia, identify gaps in current systems, and contribute to the development of more inclusive and impactful policy recommendations.