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Stanford University issued the following news release:
When people want data on human trafficking, they might turn to widely cited statistics, such as a study showing there are 40.3 million victims of human trafficking in the world today.
But global prevalence numbers like these, even if they are reliable, do not provide the kind of information needed to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-trafficking efforts, said David Cohen, director of Stanford's WSD Handa Center for Human Rights and International Justice.
While high-level statistics are important to raise awareness and galvanize action, they are not enough to solve the problem, Cohen said.
"One of the key gaps in our ability to respond effectively to the global trafficking crisis has to do with the lack of coordinated and reliable data," said Cohen, who is also a professor of classics in the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. "We are far from where we need to be in terms of the kind of coordination and interoperability of data collection we need to address current challenges."
That's why his group has created a set of resources to help NGOs and government agencies working in the anti-trafficking...