A domestic worker. Picture: Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW)

Hands up who thought slavery and the slave trade was abolished years ago? Perhaps even centuries ago? In fact, despite being illegal in almost every country on earth, slavery exists nearly everywhere, and in staggering numbers. The International Labour Organisation estimates that nearly 21 million people are forced to live in slavery today. That's around the same size as the population of Australia.

I sometimes find that statistics such as these are so big and overwhelming it can be hard to comprehend what they mean. The truth is that many girls and women trafficked into the garment and domestic work sectors experience horrific conditions and abuse when they arrive at the destination country. They often receive only a fraction of the money they are promised, are forced to work for up to 18 hours a day and deprived of sleep. To help raise awareness of the impact of human trafficking in Asia, MTV exit have created a number of brief and engaging videos to help tell the story.

As some of these vignettes suggest, slavery and forced labour is dynamic. It crosses boundaries – literally and metaphorically. Forced labour occurs within and between countries, affects both males and females, adults and children, the poor and not-so poor.

Given the sheer scale and scope of the issue, we at DFID are keen to ensure our work on human trafficking in South Asia is targeted to the right population and countries, and that the funds available are spent in a way that complements work being done by other organisations.

Picture: Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW)

I was personally excited by the starting premise of our work, as we decided to gather all available evidence, see what works, and do more of it, to really maximise the impact of our work. I didn't expect the results of the initial literature review however; the total number of peer-reviewed articles on evaluation of anti-trafficking programmes in South Asia, South East Asia and the Middle East? Zero. Yes, you got that right - not a single one!

In light of this it was difficult, based on the published evidence, to gauge which type of intervention might be most effective. To overcome this, DFID gathered together some of the leading experts in anti-trafficking at a conference in South Asia last month. Many of those present had completed pilot work for DFID in innovative new areas around anti-trafficking. One such example is the Vihaan pilot, which harnesses the potential of new technology to improve the safety of migrant workers, while another focussed on the experiences of migrant workers themselves.

At the conference we discussed how DFID might most effectively work in this area, complementing work done by others and filling gaps which exist. I found this a humbling experience, surrounded by dedicated experts who have spent years grappling with how to tackle human-trafficking and forced labour, all contributing to the discourse on how to most effectively work on this issue in South Asia.

There may be little published evidence, but I feel certain that the DFID project, which we are now busy designing, will be infinitely more successful, and achieve greater impact, as a result of the collaboration and creativity of the conference delegates.

"In front of you, you have two bridges. One is made from concrete. One is made from Bamboo. You have to decide which bridge to take. This one? Or, that one? If I take the bamboo bridge it might break. And then, I might fall and wet and hurt myself. So you have to think about it, and YOU have to decide" - a migrant worker from South Asia reflecting on her experiences of migrating for work. Watch more clips here.

The recent Sunday Times "Rich List 2012" listed a number of billionaires in the UK, and while this may not be true of Tajikistan, Dushanbe certainly has a number of wealthy residents, as evidenced by the Lexuses and Porsches driving the streets.

Wealth is, of course, relative, and this excellent blog post illuminates the perhaps surprising fact that the middle classes typically earn around half the national income, irrespective of country (once incomes are "normalised" for income-per-capita). So, with around half the national income falling to the middle classes, the interesting analysis is in what happens to the other half, and how this is distributed between 'the very rich' (the richest 10%) and 'the very poor' (the poorest 40%). 

Dushanbe - the tallest flagpole in the world, next to the Presidential Palace

In the UK, wealth and income drop in more rural areas, which will come as no surprise following the commentary around the recent proposal to link public sector pay to average regional income.

In Tajikistan too, regional pay and income is markedly low, as one would expect in a country listed by the World Bank Development Indicators as the 32nd poorest country based on Gross National Income (GNI) per capita in 2010. This, and the lack of employment opportunities, are significant reasons why such large numbers of Tajiks choose to migrate to Russia each year in search of more prosperous opportunities.

DFID is working proactively on this issue, both by supporting those who choose to migrate through the provision of advice and information, and by developing the investment climate and opportunities for the rural economy to flourish. One such project, entitled GREAT (Growth in the Rural Economy and Agriculture in Tajikistan) is tackling this from the point of view of promoting growth in rural Tajikistan, from agriculture to road-side enterprises servicing trade routes. And one of the key criteria is that this needs to be done in an inclusive way, helping those who are currently in the pooorest 40%.

Dushanbe's new library

I was discussing all this with colleagues from Germany, the USA, Australia and Afghanistan last week in Dushanbe, and one very knowledgeable and experienced development colleague reminded me of an additional significance of this rural work.

Yes, of course working to help Tajikistan's poorest is compelling enough. However, many of the poorest rural areas in Tajikistan border Afghanistan (Tajikistan and Afghanistan share a 1,200km border).

For Tajikistan to remain the peaceful country it is today, it needs to ensure the insurgency from Afghanistan, promising wealth and a better life, cannot take hold. And what better way than by empowering and supporting these residents to achieve this on their own terms? That, I think, really would be GREAT.

View of Hundu-Kush Mountains from Kabul

I've worked for various Whitehall departments for a number of years on issues like disability, race equality and violence against women, and my move to DFID presents me with the challenge of adapting from working in a developed country with an abundance of data and information, to working in some of the poorest and most fragile countries in the world.

My first visit to Afghanistan last month highlighted just how different this job is going to be. Given current security concerns, the Embassy compound in Kabul was in lock-down, allowing no visits off-site for the duration of my visit. So although I cannot claim to have really seen any of Afghanistan or even Kabul, I did get a sense of the day-to-day reality of working in Afghanistan – restricted movement, set meal times, and constant reminders of security threats. It made me appreciate the level of challenge we have set for ourselves, committing, for example, to support nearly 200,000 children in school by 2015.

The challenge I find compelling is in thinking through how to measure the progress of our work Afghanistan and the rest of Western Asia. The issues faced working to make a real and sustained difference to the lives of the region's poor people are pronounced: security problems threaten delivery, data sources can be unreliable, irregular, or low in quality, and relationships between the UK and foreign governments determine the tone of our engagement.

Dushanbe Fruit Market

But in particular, some of the topics that I am curious about and that occur to me to blog about are:

1) How can Asian countries work together to make life better for the people that live there – for example, how can DFID support regional trade, and help prevent human trafficking?

2) How do we measure and achieve sustainability? It is one thing to build a school, and quite another to support a long-term rise in the education levels of a developing country.

3) How is the results agenda in international development shaping the way DFID and other partners approach development? For instance, is there a risk we end up only doing that which we can measure?

4) The way we compare across countries in the region – can we do this or are we really just trying to compare apples and pears? Or should I say oranges and lemons - which reminds me of the Meyer Lemon, a cross between the two I came across during a recent visit to Dushanbe market in Tajikistan.

I look forward to exploring these things, and exploring more of Asia as the weeks and months progress!