Deadline: 28-Sep-20
The Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office) announces an open competition for 2020 projects to combat trafficking in persons outside of the United States.
The TIP Office has identified 17 regional and country priorities for potential funding. These priorities are heavily informed by recommendations from the annual Trafficking in Persons Report, coordination with a broad range of anti trafficking donors, engagement with foreign governments and local civil society, and based on current anti-trafficking efforts.
Objectives
AFRICA (AF)
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- Provide assistance to child trafficking victims by improving comprehensive services, especially the development of psycho-social and reintegration assistance, for child victims targeted by violent extremist groups.
- Build capacity of actors who provide protection services to these victims.
- Cabo Verde
- Strengthen the capacity of the anti-trafficking committee through the refinement of roles and responsibilities, development of SOPs, establishment of regular meetings, and the possible consolidation and streamlining of anti trafficking tools, such as hotlines.
- Reduce child sex tourism in popular tourist destinations, such as the islands of Sal and Santiago, by increasing victim identification investigations and prosecutions.
- Kenya
- Work with the government of Kenya to encourage and assist in establishing a specialized prosecution unit to focus on commercial sexual exploitation of children and online sexual exploitation of children, with embedded experienced human trafficking prosecutor(s) to provide ongoing mentoring and case consultation.
- Work with all relevant partners in the Kenyan government to implement a centralized human trafficking data collection and reporting mechanism to facilitate victim assistance and investigations.
- Madagascar
- Reduce child sex tourism in popular tourist destinations such as Nosy Be and Antananarivo through stronger justice responses (investigations and prosecutions), victim protection, and community engagement.
- Work with the government of Madagascar to encourage and assist in establishing specialized human trafficking investigation and prosecution units.
- Niger
- Establish and institutionalize a centralized human trafficking data collection and reporting mechanism to gather and consolidate case data to guide victim assistance and investigations.
EAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC ISLANDS (EAP)
- Malaysia
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- Fund a bilateral project to counter forced labor in Malaysia. Forced labor remains a major concern in a variety of Malaysian industries, such as on palm oil and other plantations; at construction sites; in domestic work; and in the electronics, textiles, and rubber product industries. Successful applications may include the following areas of focus:
- Work with the Malaysian government to investigate and prosecute forced labor crimes.
- Strengthen labor protection for workers in industries particularly prone to forced labor.
- Fund a bilateral project to counter forced labor in Malaysia. Forced labor remains a major concern in a variety of Malaysian industries, such as on palm oil and other plantations; at construction sites; in domestic work; and in the electronics, textiles, and rubber product industries. Successful applications may include the following areas of focus:
- Philippines
- Build on the successful Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC) investigatory foundation in the Philippines by increasing the government’s capacity to investigate and successfully prosecute OSEC cases. Though this project will be chiefly focused on the Philippines, applicants are encouraged to consider working to fight OSEC in one or more additional Southeast Asian countries that receive referrals from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Successful applications will be focused on one or more of the following areas:
- Improve government capacity to analyze, triage, and investigate OSEC referrals that arrive from NCMEC, including providing relevant technical and legal training and assistance.
- Assist the government in updating its agreement with NCMEC to promote more comprehensive and better filtered referrals.
- Assist the government in promoting trauma-informed investigations and prosecutions, in which victims are not re-traumatized.
- Build on the successful Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC) investigatory foundation in the Philippines by increasing the government’s capacity to investigate and successfully prosecute OSEC cases. Though this project will be chiefly focused on the Philippines, applicants are encouraged to consider working to fight OSEC in one or more additional Southeast Asian countries that receive referrals from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Successful applications will be focused on one or more of the following areas:
- Philippines
- Enhance and improve services for victims of Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC) in the Philippines. Victims of OSEC are faced with devastating trauma that can impact them and their families for generations. Though some support systems are currently in place, victims would particularly benefit from specialized comprehensive protection services, aimed both at their short- and long-term needs.
EUROPE AND EURASIA (EUR)
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- Improve victim-centered identification, referrals, services, and procedures to enhance human trafficking protection. Work with Armenian officials to:
- Increase proactive identification efforts, such as developing standard operating procedures for screening and protecting trafficking victims, including children in state childcare institutions.
- Improve comprehensive services for victims of trafficking.
- Improve screening for trafficking among individuals in commercial sex, migrants, refugees, and other at-risk populations.
- Facilitate victim-centered investigations and improve victim-centered approaches during court proceedings.
- Assist with the implementation of the National Action Plan.
- Improve victim-centered identification, referrals, services, and procedures to enhance human trafficking protection. Work with Armenian officials to:
- Southeastern Europe (Albania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and one or more Tier 1 European Union country mentors).
- To develop and sustain enhanced anti-trafficking criminal justice response, assist law enforcement, prosecutors and judges, through training, mentoring, workshops and mobilizing change agents. The majority of the project (70%) will be spent on bilateral efforts and (30%) on regional cooperation. The implementer will develop a sustainable regional system of collaboration for both transnational and internal cases, and thereby strengthen networks and communication practices. Project outcomes should incorporate change in judicial norms and practices across target countries. Bilateral priorities are listed below.
- Albania
- Assist Albania to investigate, prosecute, and convict traffickers under human trafficking articles more effectively.
- Increase knowledge and skills of police, labor inspectors, and other front-line officials to proactively identify victims.
- Assist law enforcement, prosecutors and judges, particularly in districts, to more effectively investigate and prosecute human trafficking cases, including with guidance on issues of consent and coercion.
- Moldova
- Assist Moldova to investigate, prosecute, and convict traffickers under human trafficking articles.
- Assist Moldova to implement measures to shield trafficking investigations and prosecutions from external influence.
- Assist Moldova in exempting all victims from the requirement of in-person confrontations with their accused traffickers before an investigation can begin.
- Montenegro
- Assist Montenegro to investigate, prosecute, and convict traffickers under trafficking articles.
- Increase knowledge and skills of judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement on trafficking investigations and prosecutions.
- North Macedonia
- Assist North Macedonia to investigate, prosecute, and convict traffickers and impose strong sentences under human trafficking articles.
- Encourage North Macedonia to allocate sufficient resources for police and prosecutors to proactively investigate trafficking.
- Serbia
- Assist Serbia to investigate, prosecute, and convict traffickers, and sentence them with adequate penalties under human trafficking articles.
- Increase knowledge and skills of prosecutors, and judges on victim-centered approaches, and establish mechanisms to refer cases to those prosecutors and judges.
- Assist Serbia to fully implement written guidance to prevent penalization of trafficking victims for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit.
- Tier 1 European Union mentor country or countries
- Mentor selected countries to solidify and sustain best criminal justice practices for the above targets in the regional project.
- Albania
- To develop and sustain enhanced anti-trafficking criminal justice response, assist law enforcement, prosecutors and judges, through training, mentoring, workshops and mobilizing change agents. The majority of the project (70%) will be spent on bilateral efforts and (30%) on regional cooperation. The implementer will develop a sustainable regional system of collaboration for both transnational and internal cases, and thereby strengthen networks and communication practices. Project outcomes should incorporate change in judicial norms and practices across target countries. Bilateral priorities are listed below.
NEAR EASTERN AFFAIRS (NEA)
- Egypt
- Increase the number of human trafficking victims identified (including men and non-Egyptians) and referred for protective services; and improve comprehensive services for identified victims including increased training for staff.
- Morocco
- Increase knowledge and skills for investigations and prosecutions of human trafficking cases, including working with partners to provide comprehensive services for identified victims.
- Tunisia
- Increase number of investigations and prosecutions, improve access to justice for identified victims through the provision of legal counselling services.
SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA (SCA)
- Kyrgyz Republic
- Institutionalize victim-centered investigations and prosecutions of human trafficking cases by relevant government agencies, with a focus on labor trafficking.
- Establish local, national, and regional networks empowered to combat human trafficking.
- Expand comprehensive services for victims of trafficking, and ensure they are trauma informed.
WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS (WHA)
- Belize
- Because Belize has no human trafficking-specific shelters, work with existing shelters to develop Standard Operating Procedures for shelter staff working with trafficking victims.
- Honduras
- Work with the Honduran Public Ministry Training School to develop and institutionalize a human trafficking training curriculum, including forced labor elements, with a special emphasis on the Specialized Unit of Trafficking in Persons (UTESCTP).
- Regional: Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay
- Establish coordination of human trafficking criminal investigations in the tri-border region.
Funding Information
- Award Ceiling: $2,000,000
- Award Floor: $250,000
Eligible Applicants
- Organizations eligible to apply include U.S.-based and foreign non-profits, nongovernmental organizations (including faith-based organizations), for-profit organizations, institutions of higher education, and public international organizations (IPOs).
- For-profit organizations are not permitted to generate profits from grant-funded activities. U.S. government agencies may respond to this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) with applications for projects that would be funded through an Interagency Acquisition Agreement.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=329038