Deadline: 2-Aug-21
The Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office) announces an open competition for projects to combat child trafficking in Benin under a forthcoming Child Protection Compact (CPC) Partnership (hereinafter the CPC Partnership) to strengthen the capacity of the Beninese government, as well as civil society organizations and public international organizations, to address child sex trafficking and forced child labor.
The CPC will strengthen existing efforts by the Government of Benin to meet the needs of child victims and at-risk children and eradicate these crimes.
Prevention
- Goal: Child trafficking prevention efforts and networks are coordinated and targeted at specific sectors throughout the country with the greatest prevalence of child trafficking (revealed by the prevalence study), potentially to include markets and domestic service.
- Objectives:
- With the support of civil society, the Government of Benin coordinates and implements a harmonized nationwide child trafficking prevention strategy
- With support from civil society, the Government of Benin leads targeted child trafficking prevention campaigns that reduce the prevalence of forced child labor and child sex trafficking.
- With support from civil society, the Government of Benin provides at-risk families support to reduce the prevalence of child trafficking.
Prosecution
- Goal: Justice sector actors, including but not limited to law enforcement (vice squad, the Central Office for the Protection of Children and Families and the Punishment of Trafficking in Persons (OCPM), border patrol, and other relevant entities), prosecutors, and the judiciary, understand and utilize existing legal and procedural frameworks – including cross border – to identify child trafficking victims, investigate cases and networks, prosecute and convict perpetrators of child trafficking, and sentence traffickers to sufficiently stringent sentences while respecting due process and applying a victim-centered, trauma-informed approach.
- Objectives
- Justice sector actors (named above) understand and use the laws that govern child trafficking, including, but not limited to, the 2018 Penal Code, the Child Trafficking Act, and other relevant laws, as well as international legal instruments to which Benin is a party.
- Benin’s justice sector actors understand and employ promising practices when investigating and prosecuting child trafficking cases and enforcing their laws applying a victim-centered, trauma-informed approach.
- Benin has implemented mechanisms and decrees for antitrafficking laws.
- Benin’s justice sector actors understand and follow the implementing mechanisms and decrees for the anti-trafficking law.
- Benin’s justice sector actors integrate victim identification SOPs into their daily operations.
- Benin reinforces the legal framework for anti-trafficking coordination with other countries involved in child trafficking cases to investigate, prosecute, and convict perpetrators of transnational child trafficking cases, while respecting due process.
- Benin is able to protect its child trafficking victims during judicial proceedings to prevent re-traumatization.
- Benin’s criminal justice sector actors have secure access to trafficking in persons data, including victims identified (disaggregated by type of trafficking, children vs adults, sexual orientation, and region where identified), criminal cases under investigation (including region, POC), trafficking cases currently in process in court (including which courts), the outcome of the cases (including the type of trafficking case, region, and some non-sensitive information on the case).
Protection
- Goal: The Government of Benin oversees a functioning system of victim identification and referral to and provision of proactive trauma-informed, victim centered protection services for child trafficking victims, including girls, boys, homeless and other vulnerable youth (including LGBTQI+ youth), in coordination with civil society.
- Objectives
- The government and civil society improves their ability to identify and refer child trafficking victims to shelter and services.
- Child trafficking victims have access to regulated shelters that provide minimum standards of care.
- Child trafficking victims receive comprehensive, trauma-informed and victim-centered care, from identification to reintegration.
- The government manages and guides child trafficking victim protection efforts.
Partnership
- Goal: The Government of Benin prioritizes anti-trafficking efforts and commits to sustaining the CPC Partnership impacts beyond the life of the Partnership itself.
- Objectives
- Relevant ministries, in particular the Ministries of Planning and Development, Justice, Social Affairs, Foreign Affairs, and Interior, demonstrate their commitment levels towards anti-trafficking efforts.
- Civil society and the Government of Benin systematically and regularly collaborate on anti-child trafficking efforts.
Funding Information
- Funding Floor (lowest $$ value): $1,000,000
- Funding Ceiling (highest $$ value): $10,000,000
Eligibility Criteria
The TIP Office encourages applications from the following entities:
- U.S.-based and Foreign-based Non-Profit
- For-Profit Organization
- Institution of Higher Education
- Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)
- Public International Organization (PIO)
- Applications submitted by for-profit entities may be subject to additional review following the panel selection process. Additionally, the Department of State prohibits profit to for-profit or commercial organizations under its assistance awards. Profit is defined as any amount in excess of allowable direct and indirect costs.
- While foreign governments are not eligible to apply, governments may be beneficiaries of programs provided that funding does not pay salaries of government agency personnel and that such assistance is not restricted by U.S. law or policy.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=333997