As a part of our partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, GFEMS is excited to share the launch of our new project and partnership with International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ), IAWJ – Kenya Chapter (IAWJ KC), and the National Association of Women Judges Uganda (NAWJU). Coupled with other efforts in the portfolio, the project objective is to strengthen judicial and law enforcement response to cases of trafficking, improve coordination between anti-TIP efforts in Kenya and Uganda, and develop shared victim-centered resources for identifying, prosecuting, and adjudicating trafficking cases. 

Migrant labor trafficking is a complex, cross-border phenomenon. To ensure that each relevant stakeholder has the knowledge and tools to assist victims and prosecute traffickers, robust multi-sectoral responses are required. Information gaps and lack of coordination among law enforcement and judicial stakeholders hamper effective identification and prosecution of traffickers and prevalence of reduction efforts. These gaps exist within both Kenya and Uganda and across borders.  

Cross-border dialogues are a critical component of effective TIP prosecutions in Kenya and Uganda. There are many reported cases of victims being trafficked from Uganda to Kenya or transiting through Kenya to a final destination. As these cases implicate both countries, criminal justice stakeholders need to understand how the criminal justice system works in each country, learn which agencies have responsibilities for supporting TIP victims, and identify relevant points of contact. Providing a forum to share this information facilitates a more victim-centered and effective justice-sector response. This project aims to transform the enabling environment of trafficking and slavery in Kenya and Uganda by creating such a forum.

Focusing on capacity to develop and deliver victim-centered training, the project works to ensure that national institutions have the human and informational resources to offer comprehensive TIP training on a continuing basis and to address significant training needs in both Kenya and Uganda. The training offered as part of this project will be tailored to the specific needs identified by front-line practitioners, who are grappling with human trafficking cases. 

By improving the judicial and law enforcement response to labor trafficking in the region, the project aims to ensure more effective prosecution of traffickers, raise the price of the crime, and ultimately deter traffickers.

GFEMS incorporates rigorous learning and evaluation agendas into all projects. This project will focus on identifying some of the challenges the judiciary has faced in effectively identifying, protecting and supporting trafficking victims.

GFEMS looks forward to providing updates on this project and sharing our learnings with the anti-trafficking community. For updates on this project and others like it, subscribe to our newsletter, or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

This article and the IAWJ  project were funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of State. The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of State.

Want to contribute to projects like this one?

A GFEMS-funded law and policy review conducted by The Rights Lab, University of Nottingham has been produced as a precursor document to upcoming notes and manuals on rehabilitation, livelihoods, and cross-border coordination for return and repatriation of CSE survivors. 

The compendium provides an overview of legislative and policy frameworks on rehabilitation and reintegration in India and Bangladesh for CSE practitioners and stakeholders working to support justice, protection, and trauma-informed minimum standards of care in restoration and reintegration of survivors. The review highlights significant efforts that both countries have taken towards effectively combating CSE and supporting victims. The success of these frameworks is determined by the implementation and enforcement of policies. Synthesizing local knowledge and expertise, the Rights Lab has indicated the following recommendations to close implementation gaps between policy and practice:

• Investigations of CSE cases must be timely, sensitive, and victim-centered. 
• Successful recovery and reintegration requires ongoing long-term support. 
• Greater support is needed to ensure that survivors can access existing compensation frameworks.
• Ensure the inclusion of adult male victims who are often overlooked by current policies. 
• As governments rely on international and non-governmental organizations to ensure the provision of sustainable comprehensive care, they should provide adequate funding and standardized monitoring and oversight.
• Governments should provide support that includes foreign nationals, and with greater attention to sexuality, gender identity, ethnicity, and socio-economic status of victims. 

The Rights Lab is leveraging these insights to develop victim-centric and trauma-informed training materials for CSE practitioners in India and Bangladesh to support their understanding and implementation of best practices in key protection areas.

For full findings, download the compendium.

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for updates on the latest developments, news, and opportunities with GFEMS. 

GFEMS has partnered with Seefar and My Choices Foundation to design and implement an awareness campaign to test and build evidence for what works best in promoting positive knowledge, attitude and practices among children, parents and communities to prevent Child Trafficking (CT) and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC). The goal of this experimental campaign is to build a body of evidence on a ‘best practice’ communications model for preventing CT/CSEC in West Bengal.

GFEMS has partnered with Athena and Itad to review the intervention, with the objective of measuring progress towards a sustainable model for reduction of prevalence of modern slavery, and using the learning from the projects to offer feedback for how to scale and increase effectiveness over time.

To learn more about the outcomes of this case study, download the report.

Gaps in knowledge and risk perception on the child trafficking (CT) and commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) are among some of the key drivers for continued exploitation of children in West Bengal, India, a new GFEMS-funded study shows. 

The study, “Understanding Child Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in West Bengal India”, was commissioned by Seefar and My Choices Foundation and conducted by Sattva Consulting in August to December 2020. The study was conducted in three vulnerable districts in West Bengal, namely Bankura, Bardhaman and Birbhum. 

Learn more about our work with Seefar and My Choices Foundation.

Out of the 15 million victims of sex trafficking in India each year, up to 40% are adolescents and children, some as young as nine years old. West Bengal is among India’s most vulnerable states, with the highest number of children trafficked in India in 2016. The study found that individual factors such as chronic poverty, unemployment and the lure of a better life make children more vulnerable to child marriage, child labour and unsafe migration that could lead to CT and CSEC. Additionally, COVID-19 has fueled cases of child marriage and school dropouts, triggered by financial pressures and increased harmful online practices, as children spend more time on the Internet.

If knowledge and risk perception gaps among children, families, and the wider community are addressed, child trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children can be prevented.

If knowledge and risk perception gaps among children, families, and the wider community are addressed, CT and CSEC can be prevented. Seefar and My Choices Foundation have utilised findings from the report to inform their integrated campaign “Surokhito Gram Karyakrom”, launched in three districts of West Bengal in February 2021. The campaign aims to promote the role that children, families and the wider community, including teachers, health workers, police and Panchayat leaders, can play in ending CT and CSEC. 

Surokhito Gram Karyakrom, which means Safe Village Programme in Bengali, will test the relative efficacy of varying breadth and depth of the intervention. This will be done through a spectrum of activities, such as school-based events, community-based events and one-to-one counselling. The interventions will take place over six months. 

For more learnings, download the full report.

For updates on this project and others like it, subscribe to our newsletter, or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Surokhito Gram Karyakrom is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery.

About Seefar Seefar is a social enterprise that provides opportunities to vulnerable populations to advance and  enhance themselves, and specialises in justice, migration and social inclusion. 

About My Choices Foundation (MCF) MCF is a locally rooted campaign and services network, dedicated to eliminating sex

As a part of our partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, GFEMS is pleased to share the launch of two new projects with our partner, Terre des Hommes Netherlands. The projects are based in Kenya and Uganda with a focus on skills development and livelihoods for survivors and community-based prevention of child sex trafficking, respectively. 

See more of our work combatting sex trafficking.

In Kenya, the partnership will focus on implementing community-based prevention methods, formal education for young survivors, vocational skills training, apprenticeships and job skilling for older survivors, and improvement of household livelihoods for the most vulnerable families of survivors of child sex trafficking. Targeting known sex trafficking hotspot locations in coastal Kenya, the project works to address both the supply of vulnerable individuals and the enabling environment that allows trafficking to persist. 

On the supply side, the project aims to reduce vulnerability of survivors and children to  exploitation. For young survivors, the project will reintegrate participants into formal education with additional support services such as provision of school supplies, access to social protection programs, and training for teachers on how best to identify and report instances of child sex trafficking and support survivors.

For older child survivors, the project will focus on job skilling and facilitate job placement with partner companies. This will include enrollment in vocational skills training or apprenticeship programs, market-based job placement and continued training opportunities, and coaching and mentoring for survivors. 

Addressing the enabling environment, community leaders will be trained to engage through community-led dialogues to address the deep rooted negative social norms that contribute to child sex trafficking.

In Uganda, GFEMS and Terre des Hommes Netherlands are focusing on community-based prevention of child trafficking, including child sex trafficking, by establishing and enforcing child protection regulatory frameworks from the national level to the community level. Targeting the Karamoja region, the project aims to reduce the supply of individuals vulnerable to child trafficking and address the enabling environment in the region.

Addressing the enabling environment, the project will work to counter the negative social norms that perpetuate and support child trafficking, through interconnected community dialogue and engagement activities. Subjects addressed will include the importance of education for children, especially girls; what communities and families can do to protect children, and how to prevent stigma and discrimination against survivors. Male involvement in these dialogues is key, as men are the “consumers/clients” of child sex trafficking and the primary household decision makers, especially regarding education. 

Incorporated into the programming agenda, throughout the course of the project, GFEMS and Terre des Hommes Netherlands will seek to understand whether targeted community engagement can effectively promote positive behavior change.

GFEMS looks forward to providing updates on this project and sharing our learnings with the anti-trafficking community. For updates on this project and others like it, subscribe to our newsletter, or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

This article and the Terre des Hommes Netherlands projects were funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of State. The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of State.

Interested in projects like this one?

As a part of our partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, GFEMS is excited to share the launch of our new project and partnership with Hope for Justice. Coupled with other efforts in the portfolio, the project objectives are to: 

• Provide rehabilitation services to survivors of sex trafficking in Uganda
• Improve and standardize rehabilitation and trauma-informed care practices within the region
• Build capacity for service delivery for the national network, Uganda Coalition Against Trafficking in Persons (UCATIP). 

See more of our work combatting sex trafficking.

Sex trafficking is a key focus of the Fund’s efforts. Working within our intervention framework, we target reduction in the supply of vulnerable individuals, demand for sexual exploitation, and the enabling environment that allows modern slavery to persist and traffickers to operate with impunity. This project specifically targets the supply of vulnerable individuals and the enabling environment. 

On the supply side, GFEMS and Hope for Justice will provide holistic rehabilitation services to survivors, including shelter, psychosocial support, and medical care at its reintegration centers, Lighthouses in Kampala. Hope for Justice will also trace survivors’ families and, when safe, will work with the family to provide reintegration support. Working with local partner, Platform for Labor Action (PLA), the project will facilitate access to vocational training, apprenticeships, and sustainable employment opportunities for survivors over age 16 to reduce their risk of re-trafficking. In addition, with the support of PLA, the project will facilitate access to legal support for survivors of child trafficking. To improve access to care and services long-term, GFEMS and Hope for Justice will support the members of CAPITU to strengthen coordination and improve the standard and consistency of care for survivors in the region. 

To address the enabling environment and reduce risk of re-traumatization for survivors, the project will focus on improving trauma-informed care within the justice system. Police, magistrates, and prosecutors will be trained on trauma-informed care and practices. This reduced risk level should also make their testimony more effective for the prosecution of traffickers and provide a critical step in deterring traffickers. 

Further, the project partners will work with the University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab to develop a suite of evidence-based, trauma-informed Standards of Care resources. Hope for Justice will implement these resources as a part of its services at Lighthouses. Throughout the project, GFEMS will monitor the uptake of the resources and their impact on quality of survivor care. 

GFEMS looks forward to providing updates on this project and sharing our learnings with the anti-trafficking community. For updates on this project and others like it, subscribe to our newsletter, or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

This article and the Hope for Justice project were funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of State. The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of State.

Interested in working with us on survivor empowerment?

GFEMS is funding International Justice Mission (IJM) to strengthen systems that protect victims of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) and sustain their freedom in Maharashtra, India. In this project, the IJM team is working towards strengthening the institutions in place for the care and protection of CSEC victims across 10 districts in Maharashtra. GFEMS has partnered with Athena-Itad to review the intervention, with an objective to measure its progress towards a sustainable model for the reduction of modern slavery.

IJM aims to strengthen the institutions that bolster and facilitate protection and rehabilitation services for CSEC victims in order to prompt redressal and reintegration outcomes for CSEC victims in Maharashtra. This is a systems-focused intervention being implemented in four administrative divisions (Pune, Aurangabad, Amravati, and Nashik regions), which cover 10 districts of Maharashtra. The intervention is planned to be implemented in 3 phases in the selected districts in order to build capacity among the primary government institutions mandated to care for CSEC victims. Using a multi-pronged approach, the intervention focuses on 3 major aspects – upgrading Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) to a child-friendly model, strengthening Legal Aid Clinics (LACs), and supporting a Survivor Care Centre (SCC).

This ‘First Look’ case study focuses on the first aspect– a child-friendly CWC model. Building on the successful establishment of this model in CWCs in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Sangli, the IJM team is now planning to take this model to 10 other districts (Satara, Solapur, Kolhapur, Amaravati, Beed, Latur, Ahmednagar, Jalgaon, Jalna, and Nashik) with the GFEMS grant.

To learn about the outcomes of this case study, download the report.

The Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS) is excited to share the launch of a new portfolio of investments in Kenya and Uganda. These new projects represent the growth of the Fund into East Africa and a significant expansion to our growing portfolio since our first investments in Asia in late 2018.

With support from the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, GFEMS is pleased to be funding nine new projects and working with seven new partners in East Africa. The portfolio totals nearly $10M USD.

“This is a significant moment for GFEMS as we grow and make progress towards our vision of ending modern slavery. These innovative investments will be a powerful step forward and reflect our unwavering commitment to ensuring local leadership and solutions that are sustainable and tailored to the needs of the populations we serve. We are excited to launch these projects with our fantastic partners and the support of the U.S. State Department, ” said Alex Thier, GFEMS CEO.

These innovative investments will be a powerful step forward and reflect our unwavering commitment to ensuring local leadership and solutions that are sustainable and tailored to the needs of the populations we serve.

— Alex Thier, CEO

These investments focus on two of the Fund’s key sectors– enhancing ethical recruitment and combating sex trafficking.  These efforts are intended to reduce the vulnerability of people to trafficking, forced labor, and exploitation and to support survivors; reduce the market pressure for sex trafficking and impossibly cheap labor; and improve the enabling environment to ensure good laws and regulations are properly enforced, and impunity for traffickers is ended. Learn more about Our Approach.

PARTNERS AND PROJECTS: 

• International Organization for Migration (Kenyaand Uganda):Ethical recruitment is a key to disrupting forced labor and debt bondage. Our project with IOM will work with recruitment agencies to foster ethical practices while supporting government actors to create accountability with new recruitment oversight mechanisms.
• International Associate of Women Judges (Kenya and Uganda): Labor trafficking among migrant workers is a complex, cross-border phenomenon. Information gaps and lack of coordination among law enforcement and judicial stakeholders hamper effective identification and prosecution of traffickers and prevalence reduction efforts. GFEMS and IAWJ will work together to bridge these information gaps and strengthen judicial and law enforcement response to trafficking cases. 
• Terre des Hommes (Kenya and Uganda): Comprehensive efforts to combat sex trafficking need to include long term survivor support and community engagement. Terres des Hommes and GFEMS are focusing on skilling and livelihood training  for survivors for long-term employment and building a proactive and supportive community through community-based prevention 
• Hope for Justice (Uganda): Putting the needs and wellbeing of survivors first is a critical part of addressing sex trafficking. This project aims to not only provide rehabilitation services to survivors, but to improve the standards of care within the region to prioritize survivor-informed practices. 
• International Justice Mission (Kenya): Improving coordination among different actors in the justice system– prosecutors, law enforcement, social workers– is essential not only to deterring trafficking, but for increasing survivor confidence in the justice system. Together with IJM, GFEMS is working to build community and survivor confidence in the criminal justice system, increase capacity of local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute sex trafficking, and to develop new victim-centered standard operating procedures for victim case management.
• Willow International (Uganda): To build resiliency against unethical recruitment and risk of trafficking, migrant workers need end-to-end support. Willow and GFEMS are working to build community resilience against exploitative recruitment for vulnerable populations in Uganda by providing pre-labor migration support, training, and resources, and rehabilitation and reintegration services for survivors.
• Awareness Against Human Trafficking (HAART) (Kenya): Reducing vulnerability to trafficking includes safely rehabilitating and reintegrating survivors into their community. GFEMS and HAART are working to support survivors in their reintegration journey, and empower vulnerable populations by driving their employability in safe jobs. 

Across these projects and the Fund’s wider portfolio, GFEMS designs programs and strategies for future investments with systemic change and sustainability in mind. Our funding focuses on projects with high potential for replication and scale, and identifies opportunities to leverage national priorities and market demands. All projects are informed by, and tailored to, the populations that GFEMS seeks to serve. Through our partnership with the U.S. Department of State, GFEMS is working to establish sustainable change in at-risk communities, criminal justice reform, and survivor care through increased government, private sector, and community engagement.  

GFEMS will continue to share information about our portfolio, partners, and impact.

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for updates on the latest developments, news, and opportunities with GFEMS. 

This article was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of State. The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of State.

Estimating the prevalence of child sex trafficking (CST) is a critical first step for comprehensively addressing the problem. Information on the size of this key population provides national government agencies, non-profit organizations, another key stakeholders with an estimate of the scale and scope of the problem to inform protective and preventive measures. Such estimates also allow leaders to advocate for resources for CST victims. However, reliably estimating the size of this population has historically been extraordinarily challenging because victims are hidden by design. Further, it is often impossible to survey this population through traditional enumeration methods due to ethical and legal guidelines for interviewing children who are victims of sexual exploitation.

In 2020, IST Research, in collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and with funding from the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS), used a hybrid methodological approach to address the important challenge of estimating the number of CST victims in Maharashtra, India. This study aimed to estimate the population size of CST victims in Maharashtra at a state level across both the public and the private sides of the commercial sex trade. While prior research indicates that Maharashtra hosts a significant commercial sex industry, few or no studies have investigated characteristics of the populations of sex workers and CST victims in Maharashtra at a statewide level.

Select Key Findings

There were approximately 29,000 sex workers in the state of Maharashtra. Of those, roughly 7,900, approximately 27%, were under the age of 18.

Developing a comprehensive counter-trafficking effort is aided by an understanding of the size of the victimized population. Multiple measurements help identify trends over time that can improve the targeting and implementation of interventions and provide vital information to decision-makers seeking to best allocate resources to ensure that counter-trafficking programs have a significant and lasting positive impact. The results of the study use several data points and methods to quantitatively examine the scale of child involvement in the commercial sex industry in Maharashtra. Taken together, the results suggest the involvement of child sex trafficking victims in the industry is notable, indicating a need for multidimensional approaches to reduce the victimization of minors in the state.

Among buyers who paid to have sex with someone aged 17 or younger, more than 3,200, approximately 36%, arranged the transaction digitally.

Given the increasing usage of the internet to facilitate CST, researchers should further profile sex workers in Maharashtra who are primarily engaged in online transactions and advertisement. Without effective methods to identify and counter both venue-based and online trafficking, as well as effective legislation to prosecute traffickers, growth in internet-enabled trafficking is expected.

The findings from this study will be remeasured in 2022 to assess trends over time in Maharashtra. This initiation of trend analysis is critical for government stakeholders and implementing organizations in the modern slavery field in Maharashtra to understand the trajectory of CST in specific geographies, enabling them to comment on the potential collective effect of anti-CST interventions in the state.

For more key findings and recommendations, download the briefing or full report.