Promoting standards and guidelines for gathering data on human trafficking: UNODC
and IOM deliver joint workshop in Niger
Niger – 21 December 2022 - An effective response to human trafficking (TIP) must include data and evidence, particularly to support the development of evidence-based policies and programmes. Data management, use, and collection present some difficulties. One of the biggest obstacles to efficient TIP responses is the absence of uniform and comparable data across institutions and states. Coordination and data are highly stressed in the National Action Plan on Trafficking in Persons (ANLTP/TIM) of Niger. An effective response to human trafficking (TIP) must include data and evidence, particularly to support the development of evidence-based policies and programmes. Data management, use, and collection present some difficulties. One of the biggest obstacles to efficient TIP responses is the absence of uniform and comparable data across institutions and states. Coordination and data are string emphasized in the Niger National Action Plan on Trafficking in Persons (ANLTP/TIM).
From 8 to 11 November 2022, GLO.ACT Niger, in partnership with IOM (project COMPASS - Cooperation on Migration and Partnerships to Achieve Sustainable Solutions initiative), delivered training on data collection intending to address the needs of Nigerien stakeholders involved in data collection and management, in particular the National Agency for the Fight against Trafficking in Persons and Migrants Smuggling (ANLTP/TIM). The training's specific goals were to share the GLO.ACT-Niger toolkit for data collection and introduce the most recent International Classification Standards for Administrative Data on Trafficking in Persons from IOM and UNODC. The training provided a chance to pinpoint obstacles to producing administrative data on TIP in Niger and use that information to guide future, evidence-based action.
Since 2019, UNODC and IOM have been collaborating with the government of Niger to improve the country's data collection procedures. The creation of the 2022 National Report, which includes information on migrant smuggling and human trafficking, was one outcome of this partnership. Additionally, UNODC recently evaluated the data collection process in Niger. The evaluation showed that, among other issues, stakeholders still don't fully understand how different human trafficking is from migrant smuggling and that some organizations are reluctant to share their data.
83.3 per cent of the participants said the training was worthwhile and interesting after the workshop. Participants also mentioned that the GLO.ACT-Niger Toolkit would improve their own data collection procedures. In order to better analyze TIP and SOM data, participants also stated that they would like to receive more training on how to use pertinent programmes like Excel.
The training was attended by 15 participants, including members of the ANLTP, the Statistics Department of the Ministry of Justice, NGOs and the High Authority on Data Protection of Niger.
The Global Action against Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants – Niger (GLO.ACT-Niger) is a € 500.000 joint initiative by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MFA) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) (2019-2022). An earlier phase of this project (2015-2019) was supported by the European Union.
The project builds on a global community of practice set in motion in GLO.ACT 2015-2019 and assists the Government of Niger in targeted, innovative, and demand-driven interventions: sustaining effective strategy and policy development, strengthening the criminal justice response, and regional and trans-regional cooperation.
This project is funded by the Government of Italy.