Training Programs and Technical Cooperation
last updated September 1, 2005


Professional training programs, while educational, are distinct from the general awareness raising projects discussed above. The objective for training programs on trafficking in women is to provide technical instruction, assistance and support for professionals who are already working to address the problem. Training is geared toward law enforcement agents, prosecutors, the judiciary, lawyers, immigration officers, medical personnel and NGO representatives. Effective training, most often carried out by NGOs, requires facilitators who themselves have been educated in training techniques.

Technical cooperation can also take the form of local, national, regional or international conferences. The OSCE promotes cooperation between participating States through meetings in which experts can "discuss specific needs and challenges, share approaches and best practices, and promote joint actions between origin and destination countries." Technical cooperation can be take place between small groups of experts or between one or two countries and do not necessarily have to be on the level of an international conference. The main goal of technical cooperation is to share expertise in order improve each country's ability to respond to the needs of trafficking victims and to facilitate international efforts to combat the problem. In its Proposed Action Plan 2000 for Activities to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings, the OSCE recommended organizing roundtable meetings "in two to three key destination countries, with the aim of enhancing co-operation between embassy officials of the countries of origin and NGOs and officials of the destination countries around the issue of victim assistance. The objectives would be to raise awareness and to enhance international co-operation at a practical level, by improving the capacity of source-country embassies in destination countries to provide assistance and support to their nationals who become victims of trafficking."

Long-term work to prevent trafficking includes putting pressure on national governments to take the problem seriously. NGOs, at the local, national, and international levels, can engage in lobbying for such changes as strengthening legislation against trafficking, the allocation of resources to combat trafficking, increased government spending on protection of and services for victims of trafficking, and for government sponsored anti-trafficking campaigns. Effective lobbying requires specific strategies such as the need to clearly identify the desired change, to develop a plan of action and to gather support for the issue.