On 9 and 10 December 2015 the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT) organised an Expert Group Meeting at UNODC headquarters in Vienna to discuss the development of a coherent, evidence-based system of measuring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) for counter-trafficking responses.
It was acknowledged that in the fifteen years since the Protocol on Trafficking in Persons was produced, there has been no rigorous evidence linking counter-trafficking efforts with the completion of objectives or long-term effects. Accordingly, this has led to considerable problems when trying to evaluate the effectiveness of projects.
Part of the reason for this is due to the lack of a common standpoint from which the impact of different projects can be measured as well as a lack of a systematic investment in MEL from the multiple and evolving counter-trafficking efforts to date.
Accordingly, ICAT seeks to build a roadmap to a framework to harness the accumulated knowledge gained from counter-trafficking programmes and guide relevant actors to use this knowledge as a base for design, monitoring and evaluation of anti-trafficking projects, that as a result will be built on logical connections and planned results.
The ultimate aim is to help improve actions in the field as well as to develop robust evidence of effectiveness, therefore making positive progress on combating trafficking in persons.
Work on the project is ongoing and a final product will be launched in 2016.
For further information please contact:
Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Section, htmss AT unodc DOT org