MONITORING REPORT ON ETHIOPIA G/TIP PROGRAM

UNCLAS ADDIS ABABA 002314 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR G/TIP RACHEL YOUSEY AND MARK FORSTROM PASS TO USAID E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KTIP SMIG PHUM ASEC ELAB KWMN PREL EAID ET SUBJECT: MONITORING REPORT ON ETHIOPIA G/TIP PROGRAM REF: A. 08 STATE 104394 ¶B. ADDIS ABABA 47 ¶1. (U) This cable provides monitoring information, requested ref A, to the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP) to evaluate the effectiveness of G/TIP's USD 324,000 grant to Project Concern International (PCI). PCI's used the funds to support the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) to identify and assist TIP victims and to prevent and prosecute TIP. The project began July 17, 2008 and will conclude July 17, 2010. As of August 31, 2009, PCI's expenditures for this project totaled USD 103,274, or 32 percent of the total grant. (Note: This represents a significant increase in initially slow spending of only 1 percent of the total grant at the 5.5 month mark, per Ref B. End note.) PCI anticipates that by September 30, 2009, it will have spent 50 percent of the total grant, and notes that based on the project agreement, 7 percent of the grant is reserved for final evaluation. ¶2. (U) PCI Country Director Walleligne Alemaw and PCI TIP Project Manager Aytenew Meheret briefed PolOff on PCI's activities under the G/TIP grant during a September 9, 2009 site visit and subsequent correspondence. ¶3. (U) Grantee's general activities to meet the goals and objectives of the grant proposal: Under the terms of the G/TIP grant, PCI committed to improving the delivery of victim protection and assistance services for both children and adults and to increasing prosecutions in Ethiopia of human trafficking perpetrators. By the end of the two-year funding cycle, PCI also seeks to have improved cooperation and coordination among key anti-TIP stakeholders, such as civil society organizations (CSOs),non-governmental organizations (NGOs),and the GoE. ¶4. (U) Between January 16 and September 9, 2009, PCI scaled up its activities and overcame a number of the challenges reported in Ref B. In late January, after months of lobbying the Ministry of Justice to approve its sub-grantee agreements, PCI signed a sub-grant agreement with the Multi-Purpose Community Development Project (MCDP),an Ethiopian NGO working in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples (SNNP) Region of Ethiopia. With technical advice from, and in cooperation with PCI, MCDP established numerous "Child Protection Committees" and "Child Clubs" in SNNP, and provided TIP awareness and prevention training to 879 club members. In addition, MCDP provided basic business skills training to 89 members identified as at-risk for TIP, and established two savings and credit cooperatives, both with the aim of reducing members' vulnerability to TIP by increasing their economic well-being in their own communities. MCDP also operates a temporary shelter for TIP victims in SNNP, and intercepted 23 trafficking victims during the reporting period (mainly children being trafficked within SNNP). ¶5. (U) PCI also signed a consultancy service agreement with Empire Consult, an Addis-based consulting firm with TIP experience from South Africa, to draft a handbook on the protection of trafficking victims and management of traffickers, and to jointly conduct a series of Anti-TIP workshops with PCI throughout the country. An English version of the 201-page handbook has now been drafted and will be published in the coming month. Based on feedback from workshop participants, PCI is considering translating the handbook into Amharic. (Note: PolOff strongly encouraged PCI to publish an Amharic version of the handbook, as the majority of TIP victims in Ethiopia come from rural areas where English is not widely spoken. End note.) The handbook provides background on the nature and causes of TIP, detailed information on international and Ethiopian laws pertinent to TIP, strategies for preventing TIP, recommendations for the treatment of TIP victims, and government and NGO TIP case management. PCI has utilized the handbook to conduct three workshops with a total of 77 participants (36 government and prosecutors, 17 police, 11 Child Protection Committee members, and 13 NGO),in Addis Ababa, SNNP, and Amhara. Recognizing the critical role that judges, prosecutors, and police play in prosecuting and preventing TIP, and the relative unfamiliarity with TIP of many of these professionals in Ethiopia, PCI plans to host workshops for 1,000 legal professionals in the next 10 months, utilizing the training materials it has developed. ¶6. (U) In July, PCI signed a sub-grant agreement with the Justice Professionals Training Center (JPTC),which is operated by the Supreme Court to train judges and prosecutors, to train 120 legal professionals on TIP. PCI has granted the JPTC full rights to use and modify the TIP handbook it produced, and is encouraging the center to adopt all the training materials it has provided into its standard curriculum. ¶7. (SBU) Special issues or problems the grantee has encountered: The GoE's interministerial task force on TIP has not met since June 2007, and PCI has not been able to convene the task force or assist in coordinating its functions. PCI has had limited success working with the Federal Police, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, and Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs, and has therefore been unable to meet many of its project objectives related to building the government's capacity to combat TIP and improving intra-government and government-civil society cooperation. Participants in each of the three training sessions conducted to date noted the importance of involving these senior government officials who are capable of implementing the recommendations made in the training on a larger scale. Interaction with the Federal Police may improve through PCI's recent agreement with the JPTC, but PCI has not developed plans for lobbying other ministries. ¶8. (SBU) PCI's operating context, sustainability of grantee activity: Despite resource constraints, the GoE is committed to combating the international trafficking of Ethiopian nationals. In contrast, it has done very little to combat internal trafficking, and many Ethiopians (including police and government officials) do not consider internal trafficking a major problem. Interagency coordination has not been strong, as evidenced by the failure of the interministerial task force to meet in over two years. Most NGOs with anti-TIP programming are under-funded, and there is still a lack of awareness regarding TIP amongst working-level public and private actors. PCI has not identified funding to continue its TIP programming once G/TIP funding has been exhausted. However, many of its activities, including production of Ethiopia-specific training materials (which will hopefully be made available in Amharic),awareness and capacity building amongst government, non-governmental, and community organizations, and training of legal professionals, will enable PCI's partners to continue anti-TIP programming in the future. ¶9. (U) Grantee's capacity and qualifications for its current activities and location: PCI has more than 30 years of experience managing grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements from USAID in a variety of countries, and has the requisite familiarity with U.S. Government reporting procedures. In Ethiopia, PCI has firmly established itself as a leading voice in the network of anti-TIP NGOs, and enjoys positive working associations with nationally and internationally recognized NGO stakeholders. Via its relationship with MCDP, PCI has established a significant presence in the SNNP region, and is successfully conducting training in other regions of the country as well. PCI has not directly hired staff for its TIP project beyond the Project Manager; its sub-grantees develop and provide training with his assistance and supervision. PCI's Country Director, Regional Director, and Senior Technical Officer provide managerial support, oversight, and technical assistance. ¶10. (U) Recommendations for G/TIP grantee assistance: -- Encourage PCI to further develop its relationship with the JPTC, as well as with the Federal Prosecutor's Office (which prosecutes the vast majority of TIP cases) and Federal Police, and to meet its goal of training 1,000 legal professionals in the next 10 months. -- Support PCI's efforts to convene the interministerial task force, and to lobby senior GoE officials to enact policies and allocate resources to support the anti-TIP work being done by working level government offices and civil society. -- Encourage PCI to translate its handbook and all training materials into Amharic, and to offer workshops solely in Amharic, particularly outside of Addis Ababa. ¶11. (SBU) How the activities address key deficiencies in Ethiopia's anti-TIP work: To improve victim protection and assistance, PCI must work with government and NGO actors to allocate further resources to and promote awareness of anti-TIP measures. PCI has demonstrated its ability to work with judges, prosecutors, and police to improve the prosecution and prevention of trafficking in Ethiopia, and has a solid goal of training 1,000 additional legal professionals and working with the JPTC to train even more. As prosecution of TIP has been a weakness for the GoE, this attention addresses a key deficiency. ¶12. (SBU) Summary of the grantee's overall performance: PCI has both the national and international reputation to carry out its anti-TIP work in Ethiopia. The PCI and sub-grantee staff in place are knowledgeable of the issues presented by their working environment, and are building strong relationships with both government and civil society actors. PCI has significantly scaled up its anti-TIP programming, accomplished a great deal during the reporting period, and is primed to accomplish more in the coming year. It is unclear if PCI will be able to sustain its anti-TIP work, based on its inability to identify future funding for the project. MEECE