Training Manual to Fight Trafficking in Children for Labour, Sexual and Other Forms of Exploitation

"The trafficking of children is a serious human rights violation. Only recently, however, has the international community recognized that child trafficking is also undeniably a labour issue."

This training package is designed to contribute to the work of governments, workers' and employers' organisations, international organisations, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in ending child trafficking. As part of their efforts to support the Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) set up an Expert Group on Child Trafficking to create the 3 textbooks, exercise book, and electronic guide for facilitators that constitute this package.

The training manual is structured to move from understanding to action, and is composed of 3 books, the third of which is communication-centred:

• Textbook 1: Understanding Child Trafficking [PDF] includes facts and figures designed to give a "snapshot" of child trafficking across the world, looks at how statistics and data can be gathered and used, and explores the work of people involved in anti-trafficking efforts.
• Textbook 2: Action Against Child Trafficking at Policy and Outreach Levels [PDF] is tailored to the specific needs of participants from governments, workers' organisations, employers' organisations, UN agencies, and NGOs. It is organised around the actions that can be taken by these various groups in 4 categories: protection of children to prevent them from being trafficked, prevention of trafficking, law enforcement, and victim assistance.
• Textbook 3: Matters of Process [PDF] underlines the fact that "how you do things is as important as what you do", and focuses on matters of process that can improve the impact and effectiveness of anti-trafficking efforts. It has 4 sections:
  1. Bringing it all together - Planning + Actions = (N)AP [National, or Local, Provincial, Subregional, Community] action plan. A sample suggestion from this portion of the manual is: "For each of the elements of action, including coordination and development of 'products' such as publications, websites, tools or training modules, the NAP should include clear and specific plans for monitoring progress (including consultation, testing and feedback from beneficiaries and target user groups wherever possible) and evaluation."
  2. Mobilisation, media, social dialogue, and involving children and young people - Harnessing the power of the media and social dialogue and action involving children and young people: building partnerships and, in particular, recognising and enhancing the contribution that children and young people can play. The sub-section on working with the media offers tips such as this one: "The media are often the 'intermediary' between the advocacy tools/research you have prepared and the people you want to get your messages to. This is true of many specific groups that you may be targeting (government officials, for example, read newspapers, watch television and listen to the radio), but it is especially true of the broad public. The key to targeting messages through the media is to do your research and know which targets use which media. For example, government ministers are likely to read national newspapers (or their advisers will), whereas people in a village community may be more likely to be influenced by the community newspaper or a popular radio show, or perhaps by someone addressing them at a village meeting."
  3. Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) - Measuring the effectiveness of policies and actions and their impact on children and young people. One section explores participatory M&E, and here is an example of some advice provided: "It should also always be inclusive, and this means you should take account of any obstacles that may hinder the participation of some members of the community. For example, in some communities women may feel uncomfortable sitting in a focus group with men and may not wish to express themselves openly, so consider a single-sex focus group in this case. People with a disability may have special needs in order to participate comfortably (for example, a hearing-impaired person may require amplification equipment to be in place, or sign language)."
  4. Learning and sharing lessons - Allowing identified successes to be shared and developed further. Concrete guidance such as this is offered: "Remember that dissemination does not always mean writing a long report, printing it in a glossy cover and sending it out by mail at high cost. Dissemination can take many forms including one-on-one meetings, information-sharing sessions, multimedia products, publications, or word-of-mouth. You will need to pay particular attention to how you can get the information to hard-to-reach groups, so check all possible means of transmission and whether your target groups have Internet access or postal access, for example. It is always a good idea to try and contact such target groups before you begin to prepare materials, so that you know how they can be reached."
• Exercise Book [PDF] includes exercises that relate to the various sections in the 3 textbooks.
• Facilitators' Guide [PDF] includes suggested answers to the various assignments and ideas on customising the contents of the training manual to satisfy participants' and agency needs.

The manual includes specific references to an ILO resource kit [PDF] that provides access to more than 150 resources - documents, good practice notes, international legal instruments, examples, guidelines, and websites.