Regional Child Trafficking Response Programme
Child trafficking continues to be a serious concern in South Eastern Europe, with high numbers of children trafficked for exploitative purposes. Despite increased attention and responses to the issue over the past years from relevant actors in the region, the capacity of governments to undertake effective measures to prevent children from being trafficked and to protect and promote the rights of those who have been trafficked remains limited, mainly because of weak child protection systems, lack of financial and technical resources, a limited understanding of factors that make children exposed to trafficking and failure to address the root causes and the structural dimension of the problem. Apprehension and prosecution of criminal networks and individuals engaged in trafficking remains limited.
What is Save the Children doing?
The initial phase of the Regional Child Trafficking Response Programme (CTRP) started in 2002 (2002-2004) and over a three-year period addressed the issue of child trafficking on prevention, identification and support to victims. Based on this initial experience, extensive qualitative research on “Risk and Resilience” was carried out in the second phase (2006-2008) of the CTRP. The research involved a large number of children considered to be ‘at risk’ in seven countries in the region, and provided valuable new insight into their lives, and a basis for designing programmes that can reduce the risks these children face and prevent unsafe migration and child trafficking. The research findings were widely publicized in the report “Children Speak Out” in 2007.
Save the Children continues to see child trafficking as a regional priority in South East Europe (SEE) and initiated the final phase III of CTRP in January 2009, building upon achievements and lessons learned from phase I and II. This is a three-year programme that is expected to end in 2011. The CTRP is currently funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the Oak Foundation
What do we want to achieve?
The overall goal of the CTRP IIIis to apply knowledge gained from the research to establish effective models of support and protection services to at risk and trafficked children and adolescents in order to prevent violence, exploitation and abuse and minimize unsafe child migration and risks of trafficking.
The programme’s main objectives are:
1. Governments and national institutions acknowledge their obligations as state parties to the CRC and related international legislation on human rights, trafficking prevention and service provision to affected children.
2. Children at risk have access to informal venues where they receive quality support from trained professionals, responsible adults, and peers and where they are invited to participate in and help design activities intended for them.
3. Regional and national advocacy/communication strategies are undertaken to address unsafe child migration and trafficking.
Where do we work?
Save the Children in Albania is the managing agency of this initiative, in which seven countries in South East Europe participate. These are: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia. The CTRP is managed by a regional team, based at Save the Children in Albania’s office in Tirana, which coordinates and supports all seven projects, facilitates exchange of experience and lessons learned and document impact of project interventions. A robust M&E system has been developed and will be applied to all activities of the programme.
Major achievements
- Save the Children positioned as a key regional stakeholder in the fight against child trafficking. Its projects and activities are based on a child-centred, child participatory and child rights-focused approaches as underlined in the UN CRC.
- Extensive field-based and child participatory research project was carried out across seven countries in Southeast Europe. More than 650 children in 7 countries have been involved.
- Training and capacity building of “front-line” professionals (e.g. social workers, police officers etc.) on children’s rights and their specific needs in situations of abuse and exploitation (all countries). This has included the writing of training manuals for professionals dealing with child protection.
- Non-formal education activities by youth centres have been implemented. (one country).
- Training and capacity building of staff and advertising of hotlines have increased awareness and the use of hot-lines for children (two countries).
- Provision of assistance, including shelter, counseling and psychosocial support, medical and legal assistance and material aid, as well as support to social inclusion, has been provided to trafficked children (four countries).
- Coordination and cooperation with other actors have taken place to establish/strengthen efficient referral mechanisms and ensure that services are child friendly (all countries/entities).
Planned activities in phase III at a glance
- Support to policy, advocacy and legislative reform for protection of the rights of trafficked children and children at-risk, by fostering closer links with national and local policy institutions to champion the rights of children at the macro level and making children a priority among State authorities (all countries).
- Training and capacity building of professionals and/or partners providing direct services to children at risk/trafficked children, aim at strengthening their knowledge to better respond to children in a child-friendly manner, to build trust, and fully recognize children’s right to support and protection (all countries).
- Strengthening of local child protection systems, aim at increasing the total capacity of the community to respond appropriately to the welfare and protection of children. Activities will include training of professionals of Child Protection Units on identification of children in need of special support and protection; the development of standard operating procedures, protocols on cooperation (referral mechanisms), reporting procedures and procedures on birth and school registration (Albania, Kosovo, and Bulgaria).
- Direct support and outreach work to children living/working on the street, their families and communities, children victims of neglect and abuse and/or deprived of parental care to prevent violence, exploitation and abuse through child friendly hotlines and service provision, including drop-in-centers, shelter, psychosocial counselling and other empowering activities for children living in institutions and in refugee camps. Issue-based discussions on various topics will be offered to children, and will include information about safe migration and the many risks involved in unsafe migration (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Serbia, and Romania).
- Issue-Based Peer to Peer Life-Skills sessions and training to support community participation of children/adolescents, aim at addressing children’s general need for knowledge and information that will enhance their self-confidence and resilience (Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Romania).
- Monitoring and documentation of changes in the lives of targeted children through regular interaction and consultation with targeted children to assess impact monitoring and changes in their lives (all countries).
- Advocacy at country and regional level, involving children and other key actors seek to further the exchange of lessons learned and will aim at sharing good practices, thus promoting the adoption of good child protection models to protect the rights of children at risk and victims of trafficking/unsafe migration in Europe (RMT and all countries).
More information from:
CTRP 2009 Country-Level activities
Professional Exchange Network
Save the Children Alliance on CTRP
Regional Child Trafficking Response Programme (Ph II) photo Gallery
Position Paper on Preventing and Responding to Trafficking of Children in Europe
Child Trafficking Response Programme in South East Europe Phase II: April 2005 – March 2008
CTRP External Evaluation: Final Report
Child Trafficking Response Programme in South East Europe Phase II, Final Report
Project Progress Report