Inception Meeting of the Project “Strengthen the Coordination Mechanism to Respond to Trafficking in persons and Ensure Justice and Protection for all Victims of Trafficking in Eswatini”

International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Prime Minister’s Office held a high-level inception meeting on the 21st of November 2019 to officially launch a project that will “Strengthen the Coordination Mechanism to Respond to Trafficking in Persons and Ensure Justice and Protection for all Victims of Trafficking in Eswatini”.  The project will span over a period of 20 months where the Government of Eswatini will be working together with IOM to identify, prevent, and protect all victims of Trafficking (VoTs) in Eswatini.  Participants in the meeting where members of the cabinet, members of the technical working group, civil society organization, non-Government organizations, members of the Diplomatic Corp, community leaders and representatives of shelters.

The meeting began with highlighting the efforts the Government of Eswatini has taken to combat people trafficking which include; Eswatini putting in place the National Strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Trafficking, establishing an Inter-Agency Task Force which is a national multi-sector committee responsible for giving direction to national programmes, collaborating with Mozambique on developing co-operation Terms of Reference on Trafficking in Person and related cases including children on the move (this initiative was later supported by the Save the Children), launching the SADC TIPNET which is a regional forum for national focal persons aimed at strengthening informal, and formal channels of information sharing, expert and technical guidance in the areas of prevention, protection , investigation and prosecution of cases.

Florence Sithubeko, a migration expert presented an overview of the project and looked at the funding mechanisms, project objectives, outcomes, outputs and main areas of implementation. In her presentation Florence spoke of IOM expertise and its added value as the Government of Eswatini strategic partner. Ms. Alem MAKONNEN, the representative of the IOM Regional Director for Southern Africa was present to witness the inception of the project and commended Eswatini for its efforts. Ms. Alem pointed out how it was important to have a centralized data management system involving all stakeholders in order to strengthen efforts to combat people trafficking. Other speakers at the inception included Ms. Lisa Peterson, Her Excellency Ambassador of the United States of America to Eswatini who commended Eswatini for having a victim centered approach when it comes to human trafficking. The ambassador encouraged the Government of Eswatini to continue “empowering communities to prevent and report trafficking” in the country. She stressed how local coordination was important in order to provide appropriate and comprehensive care to victims and pointed out how the “Do no Harm” principle should always be maintained when providing victims with their needs.

The project was officially launched by His Excellency, the Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini. The Prime Minister applauded the ground-breaking collaboration framework between the Government of Eswatini and IOM and expressed how the project being launched was very critical. The Minister expressed gratitude to IOM for coming on board to do the project and thanked other international partners including the United States and United Nations who have programs in the country that have helped tackle human trafficking. Mr Dlamini expressed how “no one must be left behind in the implementation of the project and all regions and sectors of the population should be reached.”  After the official launch of the project the technical task force proceeded to have roundtable discussions to review the proposed activities, select areas of intervention and adjust the calendar for the implementation of the project.