In September 2007, UNAIDS released a ‘guidance note’ that essentially reduces sex workers to ‘targets for intervention’ and ignores the critical and beneficial role that sex workers’ organisations and networks can play in various issues. Within days of the release of the UNAIDS note, a blog went up on the internet. The Global Working Group on HIV and Sex Work Policy brought civil society and sex workers’ groups together to create this cohesive, collaborative response, on behalf of sex workers around the world. This online coordination was made possible by the training Tactical Tech provided at an event in Cambodia in 2007, showing a global set of sex worker advocates how to use online blogging software.

Sex workers have long emphasised that they have a critical role to play in international battles that affect their daily lives; that they need to be recognised as part of the solution, not part of the problem. Inter-governmental agencies and local governments repeatedly fail to consult sex workers when laws are changed or international policies proposed. Not only does this limit the beneficial role sex workers could have played in international campaigns (against HIV and AIDS or human trafficking, for example) but it also has a negative knock-on effect on the ground. Without consultation, these policies are at best ineffective and at worst, place sex workers at greater risk of human rights abuses.

In 2007, Tactical Tech conducted the first-ever assessment of over 40 different sex worker health and rights organisations from around the world, to understand the movement’s experience and ability to use different information and communications technologies. The resulting paper found that whilst sex worker organisations still faced significant challenges with using technology, there was a wide and creative use of video and powerpoint. The study also found that the greatest potential for future organising and outreach lies in the extensive use of mobile phones, a tool that most sex workers around the world use on a daily basis. Our report resulting from this study can be found at http://www.tacticaltech.org/sexwork_ict_report.