Human trafficking also becomes a public policy assessment target

Bolivia is working on an assessment of its multi-year policy, addressing, among other issues, a national strategy to fight against drugs, the aim of which is to fight against drug trafficking and related crimes, such as human trafficking and smuggling.

Last Monday, the Bolivian capital hosted this international workshop on the design and assessment of public policies. The workshop, jointly organised by the EVALÚA project and the fight against drugs in Bolivia, was run in tandem with the Plurinational Council against Human Trafficking and Smuggling in Bolivia . Its general objective was to effect an exchange of knowledge between different institutions and countries for attendees to acquire a basic knowledge in assessing different methods and the design of public policies against human trafficking.

Some of the particular aims of this workshop were to delve deeper into methods for assessing public policies, to learn about the assessment processes in a country bordering Bolivia, namely Paraguay, to learn the importance of collecting data and preparing reports and how a public anti-human trafficking policy is designed based on the experience of the Ministry of Justice.

Over 20 institutions, members of the Plurinational Council against Human Trafficking and Smuggling in Bolivia, civil society and the main partners of the FIIAPP-EU Bolivia project were all invited. In addition, a specialist from the Ministry of Economy of Paraguay and a specialist from the UNODC were present, with the latter providing a United Nations perspective on the design of public policies to combat human trafficking and smuggling.

FIIAPP projects

FIIAPP, as an institution dedicated to the improvement of public policy implementation processes, has EVALÚA  as one of its projects which, forming part of the Adelante programme,  is financed by the European Union and focuses on the assessment of public policies on demand. Specifically, it is working in six countries in Central and South America. One of its goals is to expand the number of countries where it operates. Furthermore, both initiatives facilitate peer support in order to use assessment as a tool to improve decision making.

For its part, the project entitled European Support for special forces to fight drugs in Bolivia , which is also run by FIIAPP in collaboration with CONALTID and managed by the European Union, is working in the fight against human trafficking as a related problem to drug trafficking, which constitutes the main project focus. The project centres on prevention, tracking down, and victim protection.