We at Challenging Heights spent much of last year assessing the state of trafficking in Ghana and thinking big. This lead to our new strategic plan, launched at the beginning of the year, with the goal of ending trafficking in Ghana’s fishing industry in five years and slavery in 10. We’re excited to see that the government is joining us in this ambitious goal with their new National Plan of Action for the Elimination of Human Trafficking.
A few weeks ago, our President and Director joined more than 50 other stakeholders, including ministers, members of parliament, non-governmental organisations and others to contribute to this new NPA.
This new plan addresses four main themes: prevention, protection, prosecution and partnership. These focus areas largely overlap with the three focus areas that we have outlined, prevention, rescue & recovery and advocacy, as well as address some of the calls to action that we have made to the government.
Some of the aspects where we expect to work in tandem with others, that address both our own strategic plan as well as actions listed in the NPA, include raising awareness among the public, addressing the root cause poverty, reintegration support for children and families, and partnering with other agencies and organisations in order to effectively work together.
We’re particularly pleased to see that the government is prioritising actions that fall under their domain and focusing them on how they can address trafficking. For example, by increasing efforts to register births and foster children, expanding the Livelihoods Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme into source communities, ensuring a budget for the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit and ensuring that the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) has adequate and required resources.
We’re looking forward to the official launch of this National Plan of Action for the Elimination of Human Trafficking and subsequently finding how we can best partner with other stakeholders to achieve the mutual goals of our strategic plan and the NPA.
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