ZIMBABWE: TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS SOLICITATION FOR

UNCLAS HARARE 000350

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

AF/S FOR S. HILL
AF/RSA FOR M. HARPOLE
G/TIP FOR A. LEMAR-MEREDITH

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL ZI
SUBJECT: ZIMBABWE: TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS SOLICITATION FOR
G/TIP-MANAGED FY2007 FUNDS

REF: STATE 00028157


1. (U) In response to reftel, Embassy Harare forwards the
following five summary excerpts from anti-trafficking
proposals submitted by International Organization for
Migration (IOM),Save the Children Norway, Musasa Project,
Girl Child Network and Human Rights Trust of Southern Africa
(SAHRIT). The complete proposals and other supporting
documentation will be sent via email to Amy LeMar-Meredith in
the G/TIP programs coordination office.

--International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Requested Funding: $500,000
Project Title: Eliminating Trafficking in Persons in Zimbabwe
Project Duration: 24 months

Proposal Abstract: Zimbabwe is a source, transit and
destination country for women, men and children trafficked
for forced labor and sexual exploitation, with the majority
trafficked to South Africa for farm labor or commercial
sexual exploitation. The overall goal of this project is to
reduce and prevent internal and cross-border trafficking in
Zimbabwe and to offer assistance and protection to victims of
trafficking in persons (TIP). The purpose is to enhance the
institutional capacities of civil society and relevant
Government agencies to combat trafficking through the
development of comprehensive, sustainable, well coordinated
and integrated activities promoting prevention measures,
protection of victims and prosecution of traffickers. The
project is furthermore a direct response to the Zimbabwean
Government's expressed interest and request for IOM to
implement and coordinate counter-trafficking activities in
the country.

The strategy focuses on three main components, which build
and complement IOM's already existing counter-trafficking
work in Zimbabwe. The three main components are:
institutional capacity building, information awareness
raising and direct assistance to victims of trafficking.
Institutional capacity building aims at strengthening local
institutional capacities such as civil society organizations
(CSOs) and relevant Government bodies to enhance their
ability to address trafficking. An information awareness
raising campaign aims to sensitize and inform potential
migrants, victims of trafficking and their families about the
risks of internal and cross-border trafficking and irregular
migration and its linkages to HIV/AIDS, to empower them to
protect themselves from falling prey to traffickers, as well
as to change the general attitude towards victims of
trafficking. Furthermore, direct assistance to victims of
both internal and cross-border trafficking will be provided
and a shelter for children and a toll-free help-line will be
established. IOM will also establish an effective referral
mechanism involving both Government and CSOs with the
objective of delivering direct assistance to victims and
prosecution of traffickers. The project will also pilot some
livelihood intervention activities in communities that have
been identified as the areas from where most children are
being trafficked from.

The project will target the following locations: Harare,
Beitbridge, Plumtree, Chiredzi and Chipinge districts. The
rational behind choosing these locations is that IOM through
its previous counter-trafficking and irregular migration work
through out the country has identified theses areas to be
hotspots for trafficking activities. The project will be
implemented in two phases where phase two will build on phase
one.

Upon conclusion of the two year project it is IOM's hope that
trafficking from and/ or to Zimbabwe will no longer be as
attractive as it is today due to a greater capacity on the
part of the Government, CSOs and other stakeholders to
identify, protect and assist victims. Additionally, the
public will have a greater awareness of the issue and risks
associated with the trafficking phenomena. Furthermore,
Zimbabwe will have comprehensive and sustainable strategies
put in place at district and provincial levels to deal with
TIP.

Post's Notes: Of the groups submitting proposals, IOM is in
the best position to engage the government to address the
trafficking problem in Zimbabwe. Additionally, this proposal
leverages IOM's ongoing regional anti-trafficking program
managed from South Africa as well as the IOM reception center
already open in Beitbridge and another planned for Plumtree.
Based on its existing relationships and experience, IOM
should be able to effectively collaborate with the Government
of Zimbabwe and CSOs working on the issue to build a strong


victim referral and assistance network.

--Save the Children Norway (SCN)
Requested Funding: US$420,877
Project Title: Prevention and Protection of Trafficking in
Women and Children
Project Duration: 24 months

The proposed project, although conceived by the Save the
Children Norway, is a collaborative response by the Save the
Children Alliance (SCA) to the illegal movement of children
across borders from Zimbabwe to neighboring countries, and
aims at addressing gaps existing particularly in border
areas, regarding the protection of children susceptible to
pressures that result in the illicit migrations. The project
intends to improve care and protection for deported
unaccompanied children. The mitigation approach will be based
on prevention, protection, and prosecution initiatives and
improving referral and support services for the children
through relevant organizations in the target areas, including
provision of direct and indirect support services to children
to foster reunification and reintegration.

It is anticipated that activities shall adopt a collaborative
implementation dispensation that utilizes the SCA
philosophical framework and capacities. In that regard, the
activities to be implemented in this project, such as
reviewing legislation on migration and documentation,
training and capacity building of stakeholders and community
sensitization on illegal child migration and provision of
material and psychosocial support to the deported and
reunified children, shall, as far as it is possible, harness
and draw technical support and expertise from the SCA.

Post's Notes: SCN has submitted a proposal that addresses
victim assistance and the criminal justice sector.
Additionally, SCN currently runs the children facility at the
IOM reception center in Beitbridge and has a good working
relationship with the Department of Social Welfare. The SCN
proposal, however, may focus too much on addressing the
negative impact of irregular migration on children as opposed
to the actual child trafficking problem.

--Musasa Project
Requested Funding: US$500,000
Project Title: Prevention and Protection of Trafficking in
Women and Children
Project Duration: 24 months

Proposal Abstract: Musasa Project has established that
trafficking is a violation of women and children's rights and
is a modern day form of slavery. Existing gender imbalances
in Zimbabwe make women and girls easy targets for
trafficking. Socio-cultural norms such as male perception of
female inferiority and male superiority, lack of education,
early/forced marriages, all contribute towards exposing women
to violence and marginalization. Another factor is the lack
of economic empowerment, particularly where a country faces
great economic challenges. More people become desperate to
escape the country at any cost and hence can become easy
targets for traffickers. As a leading organization that is
championing the promotion and protection of women's rights,
Musasa believes that there is a need to challenge society and
policy makers to take action against trafficking. The
vulnerability of women and children to trafficking could be
tackled through empowerment programs and the strengthening of
legal and social frameworks. Victims in turn need to be well
supported, nurtured and re-orientated into society and
communities.

Musasa Project proposes embarking on a prevention and
protection program that includes the following elements:
victim identification and support; capacity building;
information and awareness campaigns; education and mass media
campaigns; lobbying for widespread criminalization of
trafficking and identifying gaps in the justice system; and,
a national survey to establish the nature, extent, and impact
of trafficking and to establish if there are any existing
structural support systems. The expected results include the
following: increase in the number of women accessing
counseling, legal advice and shelter; increase in the number
of counselors trained on trafficking in counseling sites and
shelters; improved service provision for survivors of
violence from other service providers like the police,
judiciary, health personnel, traditional and religious
leaders; eradication of gender based violence and trafficking
cases; improved community capacity to identify and report
cases of trafficking; treatment and redress for victims; and,
legal sanctions for alleged offenders.

Post's Notes: The Musasa proposal covers a number of
important activities, including victim identification and
support, capacity building at counseling centers, and an
awareness campaign. Additionally, Musasa Project is one of
the few organizations that currently operates women's
shelters in Zimbabwe and is capable of expanding these
activities to cover trafficking victims. The proposal,
however, includes a request for funding for a vehicle
($24,000) and a baseline survey ($64,000).

--Girl Child Network
Requested Funding: US$152,000
Project Title: Anti-Trafficking In Persons Project
Project Duration: 12 months

Proposal Abstract: GCN's experience in dealing with
anti-trafficking activities has called for the urgent need to
consolidate efforts towards alleviating the menace that has
left many a girl child's life and dreams shattered because of
the abominable activities that are involved. From August 2006
to date, GCN through the support of a US Embassy Grant
managed to rescue and assist numerous girls who were involved
in human trafficking.

Having realized that most of the victims of human trafficking
are young girls, GCN has also realized the need to come up
with programs and activities that are geared towards reducing
the vulnerability of girls to human trafficking, rescuing
girls already engaged in human trafficking related activities
and also alleviating the plight of girls rescued from the
jaws of human traffickers. As such GCN will implement
programs that include: capacity building of girls' club
presidents and their coordinators; training of media
personnel on sensitive reporting of trafficking issues;
awareness raising campaigns with traditional leaders; rescue
and rehabilitation and support of girls involved in human
trafficking; and, production and distribution of material on
trafficking.

From the above proposed activities GCN intends to achieve the
following: increased knowledge within girls' clubs on
trafficking and related anti trafficking efforts that reduce
their vulnerability to the menace and reduce cases of
trafficking involving girls; increased reporting of
trafficking in the mainstream media as a way of raising
awareness of the problem; reducing the number of girls and
women falling prey to trafficking as a result of increased
and enhanced capacity of traditional leaders to deal with
issues of trafficking as most cases involve people they lead.

Post's Notes: The current USG grant of $18,000 to GCN to
assist trafficking victims expires in June 2007 -- this
proposal would support a continuation and expansion of the
existing activities. GCN has shown some success in
identifying and rescuing trafficking victims and the
organization provided important case information that was
included in this year's TIP report.

--Human Rights Trust of Southern Africa (SAHRIT)
Requested Funding: US$411,873
Project Title: Determining the Link between Corruption and
Human Trafficking in the SADC Region
Project Duration: 24 months

Proposal Abstract: SAHRIT sets out to under take a project on
human trafficking with the aim of establishing the extent to
which corruption contributes to human trafficking in the
Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region. The main
concern is that human trafficking has been a trend that has
been in existence for many years in other parts of the world,
but is seemingly becoming a matter of great concern in the
SADC region. A look at the current trends of human
trafficking has shown that in the SADC region most of the
trafficking is being perpetuated by both corruption and harsh
economic environments that most SADC countries are challenged
with. Also added to this is the fact that there seems to be
no specific legislation in the region that addresses the
problem of trafficking, and also, the problem has been down
played by governments and civil society, thus creating a
niche to address this problem.

The project that SAHRIT seeks to engage will involve
conducting a situational analysis that will determine the
extent of human trafficking in the SADC region and the link
between corruption and human trafficking, highlighting the
extent to which corruption contributes to the process of
human trafficking. Further the project also seeks to identify
what legislative and administrative reforms need to be put in
place that will adequately address the problem of human
trafficking within SADC. Some of the recommendations will
then form the basis for the interventions which will include
development of a capacity building program for officers
within anti-corruption agencies and law enforcement agencies
to effectively arrest the growing exploitative and lucrative
industry through carrying out a training needs assessment.

The expected results of the project are that the extent that
corruption contributes to human trafficking within SADC will
be identified and possible strategies to address the problem
identified; strategies for more robust legislative reform and
the training needs of law enforcement officers and those
working within the anti-corruption institutions identified
and capacity developed.

Post's Notes: SAHRIT's proposal takes a regional approach and
contains activities that focus on performing a situational
analysis of the regional trafficking problem as it relates to
corruption that will eventually lead to capacity building for
law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies. The proposal,
however, does not contain victim assistance activities.

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Point of Contact
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2. (U) The post point of contact for trafficking in persons
is Scott C. Higgins; office phone 263-4-250-593, extension
321; fax 263-4-253-000; e-mail HigginsSC@state.gov.
DELL