With a fast-growing, young, and increasingly urban population, West Africa is undergoing rapid changes in population dynamics, which affect migration patterns. Mobility – which remains predominantly internal and within the region – and its associated benefits, such as access to employment and remittances, represent a vital livelihood strategy for many West Africans and their families. However, mobility can also increase vulnerability to exploitation and trafficking in children, women, and men for labor exploitation, domestic servitude, sexual exploitation and exploitation through begging. This is why combating trafficking in persons is a priority for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission and its Member States.
In this vein, the EU-funded project “Support to Free Movement of Persons and Migration in West Africa (FMM West Africa)” through its Demand Driven Facility for National Institutions (DDF) is supporting the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) to develop the necessary tools for its resource centre on Trafficking In Persons (TIP). These tools include a comprehensive training curriculum, training modules and a trainer’s guide. A 5 day NAPTIP Taskforce Workshop to finalise the training curriculum for the resource centre takes place in Abuja from 9 to 13 November at the Onyx hotel, whilst a 10 day NAPTIP Taskforce Workshop to finalise the training modules takes place at the same hotel on 30 November to 11 December.
The NAPTIP resource centre is the first of its kind in West Africa, and is designed to meet the training needs of agencies involved in the combat against TIP in Nigeria and in West Africa as a whole. This technical assistance to NAPTIP comes at an opportune time, when Nigeria has become a source, transit and destination country for trafficked persons. Many trafficked persons identified in Nigeria are from other ECOWAS countries, while Nigerians have been reported as trafficked to almost all of the other ECOWAS countries, to other parts of Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
Information Note on FMM West Africa Project
The FMM West Africa project is a five year project funded by the European Union (EU). The project is driven by the ECOWAS Commission and implemented jointly by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) and the International Labour Organization (ILO). More information on the project is available on the project website: www.fmmwestafrica.com.
For further information and enquiries on the DDF technical assistance to National Institutions in ECOWAS countries and Mauritania, contact the DDF team on ddf@fmmwestafrica.com
For more information
ECOWAS website: www.ecowas.int
EU Delegation to ECOWAS: www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/nigeria
EU Development & Cooperation Office, Migration & Asylum website: www.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/what/migration-asylum
IOM website: www.iom.int
ICMPD website: www.icmpd.org
ILO website: www.ilo.org
Contacts :
DDF Coordinator: Emmerentia ERASMUS, Emmerentia.erasmus@icmpd.org (+234) 814 137 5874