review & asssessment report cis anti-trafficking …...cis anti-trafficking programme (cat)...

REVIEW & ASSSESSMENT REPORT CIS ANTI-TRAFFICKING PROGRAMME (CAT)

Project "Secondary School Education in Armenia, Azerbaijan and

Georgia to Prevent Trafficking in Persons", Phase 1 International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Implementing partner :

International Organization for Migration project implementation period: I November 2008 – 31 October 2010

no-cost extension to 31 December 2010 allocated funds: CHF 1,089,180 (total budget: CHF 1,089,180)

International Consultant: Sarah Stephens Review mission: 9.11.2010 – 24.11.2010

Review & Assessment of IOM SSE & WVG SATPii (Final, 24/02/11)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

THANKS

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF THE REVIEW / ASSESSMENT

Assessment objectives

Method

Key questions for the assessment

IOM SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATION PROJECT

Description of project and target/output numbers

Approach of project

Achievement of outcomes

Management

Strengths of the project

Challenges for the project

Regional dimension of the project

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations regarding regional approach for programs

Recommendations specific to the IOM SSE project

Recommendations specific to the WVG SATPii project

CONSULTANT PRODUCTS DELIVERED

ANNEXES (ENCLOSED SEPARATELY ) APPENDIX I: SDC, IOM & WVG Staff and External Partners Interviewed APPENDIX II: National Workshop Participants & Example Agenda APPENDIX III: Pre-workshop Questionnaire Instruments APPENDIX IV: IOM SSE Questionnaire Responses APPENDIX V: WVG SATPii Questionnaire Responses APPENDIX VI: National Workshop Working Group Report Out APPENDIX VII: SDC Terms of Reference APPENDIX VIII: Approved Consultant Proposal


GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS ADP Area Development Program

A-TiP Anti-Trafficking in Persons

CAT SDC’s CIS Counter Human Trafficking Program

CIG Community Interest Group

CIS Commonwealth of Independent States

EU European Union

GYLA Georgian Young Lawyers Association

GoG Government of Georgia

MoFA Ministry of Foreign Affairs

MoIA Ministry of Internal Affairs

MoE Ministry of Education – Ministry titles vary by country. In some countries this is the Ministry of Education and Science.

MoHLSA Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Affairs

ICMPD International Center for Migration Policy Development

IDP Internally displaced person/people

ILO International Labor Organization

IOM International Organization for Migration

NAP National Action Plans (to counter trafficking in persons)

NGO Non-governmental organization

NRM National Referral Mechanism (for VoTs)

NSC National Steering Committee

PSA Public Service Announcement (for broadcast, usually on television)

RA Republic of Armenia

SATPii Social Assistance for Trafficked Persons project, phase II, implemented by World Vision Georgia and funded by the SDC

SDC Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

SOD Special Operations Department (within the Georgian MoIA)

SSE Secondary School Education in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to Prevent Trafficking in Persons project, implemented by IOM and funded by SDC

THB Trafficking of human beings (also referred to as trafficking in persons or TIP)

TOT Training of trainers

USAID United States Agency for International Development

VoT Victim of trafficking – many practitioners prefer various designations that place greater emphasis on empowerment, such as Survivor of trafficking. However, VoT remains the predominate parlance in most governmental and inter-governmental documentation and therefore is used in this report.

WVG World Vision Georgia


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In October 2010, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation engaged an international expert to assess two 2-year counter-trafficking projects in the South Caucasus, supported with SDC funds, as they are nearing completion. These are the Secondary School Education in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to Prevent Trafficking in Persons project implemented by IOM and the Social Assistance for Trafficked Persons, phase II project, implemented by World Vision Georgia. The consultant was tasked with facilitating a participative review process with the project teams of the two organizations and to use the data gathered through this process to provide an assessment of both projects. The assignment included a two-week mission to the three countries from 9 to 24 November 2010. The core of the mission data was acquired through three participative national assessment workshops, supported by individual and small group interviews with a variety of project staff, stakeholders and related international organizations.

Secondary School Education in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to Prevent Trafficking in Persons, IOM

The comprehensive goal of the project was to contribute to the prevention of trafficking in persons in the three countries by educating adolescents about human trafficking and safe migration.

Main achievements

- Three curriculums and accompanying manuals, books, posters & videos produced, individualized to each country context and published in multiple languages.

- Substantive involvement of national Ministries of Education as well as local school principles and teachers in design and implementation of project.

- Introduction of human trafficking within wider context of safe migration messages. - Widespread awareness raising with MoE officials, school staff and parents as well as

youth in formal and non-traditional education settings.

Main challenges

- Sustainability of curriculum through adoption into national curriculums. - Ensuring budgetary commitments to sustain teacher training and continuing use of

curriculum and related materials.

Main recommendations:

Regarding regional approach for projects

- Clarify “added value” of regional dimension of projects. - Ensure an SDC officer in each country is directly involved in project oversight and

support. - Train SDC regional staff about human trafficking and how to monitor such programs. - Ensure substantive coordination of regional counter-trafficking activities with the EU-

funded ILO-led regional counter-trafficking project.

Secondary School Education in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to Prevent Trafficking in Persons, IOM

- Secure documented commitments from the Ministries of Education for the inclusion of safe migration and human trafficking as a topic in appropriate subject(s) before next stage of project.

- Conduct impact studies of the current phase of the SSE in the first stage of a next phase.

- Incorporate a research component into the next phase of the project. - Expand curriculum implementation to more residential and day care facilities for

vulnerable children. - Revise and update the curriculum with advice of international experts.


THANKS - Many people contributed to the success of this mission and assessment. Sophie

Delessert, SDC Programme Coordinator for Human Trafficking / CIS in Bern guided the design and implementation of the entire assessment. Her colleague, Estela Lopez, provided extensive administrative support.

- Staff of SDC, IOM in Baku, Tbilisi and Yerevan as well as World Vision Georgia cooperated substantively in pre-mission interviews as well as review of interview instruments and workshop design. They are recognized more precisely in subsequent paragraphs.

- Staff from IOM, World Vision Georgia and SDC, as well as NGO partners, provided invaluable co-facilitator support for the national workshops. In Azerbaijan: Zahir Amadov (SDC Project Liaison), Saltanat Mammadova (IOM Project Coordinator) & Mehriban Zeynalova, Director of “Clean World” Social Union. In Georgia: Marc Hulst (IOM Regional Project Coordinator), Nino Gurgenideze (IOM Georgia Project Coordinator), Nathala Mzhavanadze (IOM Project Assistant), Teona Kupunia (WVG Project Coordinator) and Tamuna Barkalaya (WVG Program Director). In Armenia: Ilona Terminasyan (IOM Chief of Mission) and Nune Asatryan (IOM Project Coordinator) and Natalya Martirosyan, “Armenian Committee of Helsinki Civil Assembly”. It was a pleasure to work with these national teams. Their willingness to be creative and flexible enabled the success of the national workshops.

- Substantial administrative and logistical support for the consultant’s travel as well as the national workshops were provided by: Lala Bairamova, SDC Administrative Assistant in Azerbaijan; and Lela Mamrikishvili, SDC Administrative Assistant in Georgia.

- In addition, thanks go to the heads of missions and other senior managers who took time to be interviewed, speak at workshops and otherwise support this assessment process: Derek Mueller, SDC Regional Director for South Caucasus; Philip Keller, SDC Dpt. Regional Director for South Caucasus; Nathalia Gvindadze, SDC Regional Project Officer; Vassilliy Yuzhanin, IOM Chief of Mission in Azerbaijan; and Mary Sheehan, IOM Chief of Mission in Georgia.

- Senior ministry officials as well as representatives of international organizations who were not directly involved with the project, but who had very useful information to share, were also generous enough to allow the consultant to interview them. Their names are listed in Appendix

PURPOSE AND METHOD OF THE REVIEW / ASSESSMENT In 2007, SDC decided to strengthen and consolidate its commitment in the fight against human trafficking and to further develop a more coordinated, integrated, “regional” approach in the CIS. This process led to the CIS Anti-trafficking Program (CAT), which promotes a) transnational activities, and b) capitalization, exchange and replication of good practices.

The CAT Program has 3 activity lines and related projects being implemented in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Moldova. This assessment reviews the management and results of two projects funded under CAT Components A and C. "Secondary School Education in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to Prevent Trafficking in Persons", Phase 1 implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) addresses component A by focusing on awareness raising towards human trafficking at the secondary school level and among groups of marginalized youth (i.e. orphanages, boarding schools). "Social Assistance to Trafficked Persons (SATPii)", implemented by World Vision Georgia (WVG) addresses component C by seeking to strengthen the network and capacities of organizations as well as of key actors (i.e. consular staff, social workers, etc.) in preventing human trafficking, identifying victims and providing adequate assistance for their due rehabilitation and reintegration.


Assessment objectives

The joint review of the two projects of the CAT Program with project management in South Caucasus focused on the four following main objectives:

A. to assess the management of the projects;

B. to assess the achievements of outcomes of the projects to date;

C. to analyze the approaches of the projects and their collaboration with partners/TIB actors;

D1. (specific for SATPii) to formulate precise and concrete recommendations for the phasing out or bridging phase of the project, in view of the changes of priorities from the GoG.

D2. (specific for IOM) to give recommendations as to whether a consolidation phase is necessary or whether the project’s results are sufficient for sustainability.

E. to assess regional conditions/dynamics for expanding regional counter-trafficking efforts with SDC support.

The complete Terms of Reference are attached in Appendix VII.

Method

The SDC engaged an international expert to facilitate a participative review process with the project teams of the IOM in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, and World Vision Georgia and to use the data gathered through this process to provide an assessment of the two projects. This included a two-week mission to the three countries from 9 to 24 November 2010. Prior to the beginning of her mission, the international consultant conducted a desktop review of the two project proposals and all interim reports and attachments submitted as of October 2010. Both projects report on a semi-annual basis and both projects are not yet concluded. Therefore the desktop review covered the activities from the beginning of each project through each projects’ third semi-annual report (ending April or May of 2010).

The assessment was grounded in appreciative methodologies, which organize, energize and align multiple players across diverse needs, interests, and cultures. Therefore, the evaluation tools and processes were characterized by: high client involvement in evaluation goals, questions, and results; understanding key elements of quality and past successes; and integrating the experience of involved stakeholders. The methodology focused on identifying success, while recognizing project gaps and weaknesses. This enabled the assessment process to be an encouraging and energizing experience for staff and stakeholders.

The key assessment data gathering mechanism was three national workshops (one per country) designed by and facilitated by the international consultant with the assistance of national staff from SDC, IOM, WVG and partner NGOs1. IOM staff (in cooperation with WVG staff in Georgia) created the list of project stakeholders to be invited for each workshop. Although IOM and WVG staff felt that it was important to include stakeholders from outside the capitals, they asserted that, for reasons of timing and funds, it was not feasible to include many such stakeholders. All ‘invitees’ received an ‘appreciative’ questionnaire with their workshop invitation, which they were requested to complete and turn in at the event. A total of 502 completed questionnaires from adults and students were received, translated3, and reviewed by the consultant. These questionnaires also served to prepare the workshop participants for the peer interviews they conducted during the workshops.

The SDC, IOM and WVG staff in the three countries were not familiar with the appreciative

1 See “Thanks” on page 2 of this report for names of facilitators. 2 For IOM SSE: Azerbaijan - 13 adults; Georgia - 11 students and 12 adults; Armenia – 8 adults.

For WVG SATPii – 5 adults. 3 Translations provided through the kind cooperation of SDC Azerbaijan, IOM and WVG staff and some external

translators.


and heavily participatory approach used for the national workshops. While they were cooperative with the preparation efforts, most expressed doubt about whether the techniques would prove effective. During debriefing meetings after each workshop, there was universal agreement that the techniques were engaging and effective. They were surprised by the amount and quality of the participation as well as the breadth of information elicited. Most confirmed that they learned new things during the workshop in addition to being able to substantiate more fully the impressions they already had about the successes and challenges of their projects. They were particularly encouraged by the quantity and quality of participation from central and local government representatives, noting that it was somewhat unusual to have some many of these busy officials remain for the duration of the day-long workshop. Individual and small group interviews were also conducted with SDC, IOM and WVG staff as well as selected international agency representatives. See Annex 1 for full list of individuals interviewed by the consultant.

Key questions for the assessment

The Terms of Reference issued by SDC for this review and assessment elaborate a comprehensive set of questions for the review.

The main guiding questions for the IOM SSE project are the following:

In relation to A (management):

A4. Is the project well on track according to its work plan (effectiveness)?

A5. How effective and efficient is the project management -the results obtained in relation to the invested resources, to what extent the project delivered results according to the budgeted resources and to what extent the management arrangements and accountability practice exercised by the project was supportive to achieve planned results?

A6. Is the project implementation sufficiently monitored and documented (monitoring/ reporting)?

A7. Is the process of project steering expedient?

In relation to B (outcomes):

B6. Do the achieved results correspond to the expected ones?

B7. How does "Secondary School Education in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to Prevent Trafficking in Persons" project complement other anti-trafficking projects implemented in the region?

B8. Are the elaborated teaching materials appropriate and adequate for the selected classes and the content and method of the delivered trainings expedient and adequate?

B9. To what extent were beneficiaries able to improve their knowledge and skills?

In relation to C (approaches and partners)

C7. Is the approach chosen by the project implementing organization appropriate?

C8. Are the SDC’s specific expectations as expressed during the planning of the present phase accommodated?

C9. Does the project collaborate with the right stakeholders/partners?

C10. How can the commitment and ownership of the governments of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan towards the project be judged?

C11. Does the project ensure sufficient coordination among stakeholders in the region of implementation (including local/national authorities)?

C12. Does the selection of beneficiaries appear appropriate?


C13. Are the cross-cutting issues gender and governance embedded into the project approach?

In relation to D (recommendations)

D6. Which are the main “assets” of the project? How can the sustainability of these be assured?

D7. Which are the project’s major shortcomings?

D8. How sustainable are the results the project reached so far?

D9. What general assessment can be made about the context in South Caucasus regarding prevention activities towards human trafficking at secondary school level? Is the context conductive for further initiative?

D10. Which are the main elements to be particularly taken into consideration for an eventual consolidation phase of the project?

IOM SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATION IN ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN AND GEORGIA TO PREVENT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS PROJECT

Project implementation period: I November 2008 – 31 October 2010 no-cost extension to 31 December 2010

SDC contribution: CHF 1,089,180 Total budget: CHF 1,089,180

Description of project and target/output numbers

The overall goal of the project is to contribute to the prevention of trafficking in persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The specific objectives of the project are the following:

1. To include trafficking in persons as a topic in the national school curricula of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

2. To test, produce, disseminate and implement targeted training package(s) for secondary school students, their teachers and parents on trafficking in persons in the three countries.

3. To facilitate the exchange of information among the three target countries to identify common modalities and best practices in preventing trafficking in persons.

The expected results are:

Objective 1: Three country-specific education modules on trafficking in persons have been developed, in line with international standards, reflecting local specificities and adopted by the local authorities.

Activities / Outputs:

• Target: 3 national curricula drafted and pilot-tested Achieved as of 30.11.2010: - Azerbaijan: 3 sets of lesson plans and supporting material for 9th, 10th and 11th grades (ages 15-17); most material published in Azerbaijani. - Georgia: lesson plans and supporting material developed for 9th and 10th grades; most material published in Georgian, Azerbaijani and Armenian. - Armenia: 8 lessons for high school age and supporting material; published in Armenian.

• Active participation of MoE officials in National Steering Committees and public meetings, workshops and conferences


Objective 2:

1. Three pilot counter trafficking education curricula/training packages developed and tested in collaboration with 15 schools per target country.

2. Expected number of 2,400 teachers have been equipped with the knowledge and skills to inform students of the dangers of trafficking in persons and capacitated to transfer this knowledge and skills to their colleague teachers.

3. Approximate number of 100,0004 students aged 15 to 17, as well as their parents, have been exposed to the anti-trafficking education module.


• Students educated

Target: no target setsee footnote 4 Achieved as of 30.11.2010: 7,416 youth directly impacted by activities conducted by the SSE project

- Azerbaijan: 1,153 - Georgia: 4,969 - Armenia: 1,294

• Teachers Trained as Trainers

Target: 60, Achieved as of 30.11.2010: 119 people (198% of target)

- Azerbaijan: 45 people - Georgia: 42 people - Armenia: 32 people

• Teachers trained by TOT teachers

Target: 2,400, Achieved as of 30.11.2010: 3,361 people (140% of target)

- Azerbaijan: 849 people - Georgia: 180 people - Armenia: 2,332 people

• Teacher Manuals

Target: 2,500, Achieved as of 30.11.2010: 9,300 manuals (372% of target)

- Azerbaijan: 5,000 in Azerbaijani and 1,000 in Russian - Georgia: 3,100 in Georgian, 515 in Armenian and 495 in Azerbaijani - Armenia: 2,500 in Armenian, 500 in Russian and 500 in English

• Student Books

Target: 105,000, Achieved as of 30.11.2010: 129,700 books (123% of target)

- Azerbaijan: 35,000 in Azerbaijani - Georgia: 27,700 in Georgian, 2,500 in Azerbaijani and 3,000 in Armenian - Armenia: 60,000 in Armenian, 1,000 in Russian and 500 in English

• Parent Books


- Azerbaijan: 50,000 in Azerbaijani - Georgia: 50,000 in Georgian, 6,000 in Azerbaijani and 5,500 in Armenian. - Armenia: 60,000 in Armenian, 500 in Russian and 500 in English

4 100,000 is an estimate – rather than a target - of the students that would be reached by both direct SSE

activities and then through the further use of SSE materials and training in schools and institutions where

trained teachers used the SSE material.


• Pocket Information Cards or Bookmarks


- Azerbaijan: 100,000 in Azerbaijani - Georgia: 100,000 in Georgian - Armenia: 100,000 in Armenian

• Classroom posters

Target: 4,100, Achieved as of 30.11.2010: 18,500 posters (451% of target)

- Azerbaijan: 8,000 posters - Georgia: 7,500 posters - Armenia: 3,000 posters

• Pilot Schools

Target: no target number set, Achieved as of 30.11.2010: 66 pilot schools

- Azerbaijan: 16 schools and institutions - Georgia: 32 schools and institutions - Armenia: 18 schools and institutions

• Focus Groups

Target: 64 group events, Achieved as of 30.11.2010: 57 group events (89% of target) with 1,604 participants

- Azerbaijan: 15 focus group events with 612 participants - Georgia: 27 focus group events with 808 participants - Armenia: 15 focus group events with 184 participants

Objective 3:

1. Key officials of the Ministries of Education and relevant educational institutions, involving third parties such as other international organizations, in the three target countries, have been sensitized and capacitated to act as coordinators through the National Steering Committees (NSC) to address the problem of trafficking in line with the national action plans to combat trafficking and ensure project sustainability over time.

2. One regional workshop and nine national conferences and workshops have been organized to review and exchange experiences of pilot projects and reflect this in the context of the national frameworks for counter-trafficking actions through education.


• National Steering Committee meetings

Target: 18 (6 meetings per country), Achieved as of 30.11.2010: 18 meetings (100% of target)

- Azerbaijan: 6 meetings - Georgia: 7 meetings - Armenia: 5 meetings


• Workshops for MoE & Nat’l Conferences

Target: 9 national events + 1 Regional workshop

Achieved as of 30.11.2010: 12 events (133% of target)

- Azerbaijan: 4 events - Georgia: 3 events - Armenia: 5 events - One regional workshop convened in Tbilisi, 2 Dec. 2010

Approach of project

The components of the project were well designed, with substantive linkage and interdependency between areas of activity. The core of the project focuses on building the capacity of secondary-level schools to educate students about human trafficking through the training of teachers. The inclusion of parents as targets for information not only expanded the impact of awareness raising, it also engaged parents more actively in the school experience of their children.

Information gathered through interviews, national workshops and individual questionnaire responses overwhelming confirm that most stakeholders were genuinely enthusiastic about the project. Education professionals and students emphasized the importance of the interactive teaching methods and expressed particular appreciation for the educational video. Students reported that they felt the lessons addressed the realities of their daily lives. Teachers reported that the students were more engaged than usual in the subject matter.

Many senior- and middle-managers from the Ministries of Education as well as school directors and teachers stated that this program served to educate and sensitize them about the phenomenon of human trafficking. Most had limited awareness of the problem and very little knowledge about prevention and assistance mechanisms prior to participating in this project. They reported that this was also true for parents and emphasized the importance of this program for wider community awareness raising through this additional impact.

The teacher manuals, student books and parent books in each country were developed for a particular subject area (e.g. civic education) within the national curriculum. However, several teachers and school directors commented that teachers from other subject areas demonstrated interest in the SSE material and some had taken the initiative to modify the material for use in other subject areas.

The SSE project directly supports implementation of the National Action Plans to counter human trafficking in each of the 3 countries. The Azerbaijan NAP specifically calls for curriculum on human trafficking. The Georgian NAP tasks the Ministry of Education and Science to develop educational programs and train teachers about human trafficking.

Achievement of outcomes

All of the outcomes of the project have been achieved or are reasonably in process as the first phase of the project comes to a conclusion, except for the goal of formal inclusion of the topic in the national curriculums. This also is in process, but may not be able to be achieved in full by the end of the contract.

The most substantial achievement of the outcomes of this project can be measured in the impact on the 15 – 17 year olds targeted by the curriculum. Students’ responses to the pre-workshop questionnaire5 in Georgia demonstrate significant learning and appreciation for the project. Examples of student comments about the project curriculum and teaching techniques include:

5 Questionnaires were distributed to students only in Georgia [distribution of questionnaires was determined

by IOM and WVG staff in each country]. The entire set of these student questionnaire responses can be found

in Appendix III.


“Prior to the classes I knew a little about trafficking from the TV. Legislation classes helped me to understand the meaning of trafficking. Classes on trafficking were very interesting for me. I also enjoyed hands-on exercises. They were fun and informative.”

“...Understanding of this problem changed my attitude towards trafficking. An individual should not blindly trust oral promises and false document. In order to achieve his/her goals he/she should know everything about signed job contract.”

“...In-depth study of this issue changed many things in me. I learned how the poor people, who seek their daily bread in working abroad, were deceived. What conditions and life they had to live in.”

“...These classes also helped me to understand that human rights are the rights that help you to feel yourself as a member of civilized world.”

“I think the most important element is that people need to get informed on such issues. When an individual is informed he/she can easily protect himself/herself. The classes gave us opportunity to get informed. We discussed all methods that will prevent innocent person from becoming a victim of trafficking.”

“...Now I am fully informed about trafficking and strongly believe in myself. If I have to study or work abroad I will not become a victim of trafficking.”

This achievement in student learning was accomplished by the responsible implementation by the project staff of the project design and components in a timely fashion.

Education professionals at various levels of government responsibility (ranging from MoE officials to school principles and teachers) expressed strong and specific appreciation for the curriculum content, teaching techniques and material. One MoE official stated:

“The next concern of many experts was that the provision and placement of the materials in manuals is useless, because the modern students are not reading books, even the ones, which are mandatory and necessary. And so big was my joy and amazement, when it was revealed, that the students had not only read the materials, but also had found additional literature and they were using it during the discussions, the problem was interesting for them, they considered its discussion as useful and interesting for them.”6

In Armenia, the Government has formally adopted the SSE curriculum through RA decree N 1140-N, adopted 03.09.2010. It stipulates that the SSE educational manuals should be included into the schools of Armenia and the manuals have been distributed to all the schools of Armenia. Already, three NGOs (People in Need, World Vision, Armenian Caritas) have used the SSE curriculum in their school-based activities, expanding the student impact to an additional 1,500 youth.

The components of the project that were most appreciated by the stakeholders include:

• the participative process for development of curriculum manuals and books, particularly the involvement of teachers;

• variety of curriculum and supporting educational materials like the video, information cards and posters;

• the interactive teaching techniques;

6 Quoted from an Armenian pre-workshop questionnaire response. Note that this response not only supports

the overall positive reaction to the curriculum; it also demonstrates that MoE officials were involved in

monitoring SSE project activities and that leaders involved in the project were testing their conclusions with

observable data.


• the training of trainers method to built the capacities of education professionals and spread knowledge to their peers;

• outreach to vulnerable populations & communities; and

• public awareness raising through outreach to school directors, teachers, parents and NGO leaders as well as students.

Management

The project met or substantially exceeded all project targets..

The regional coordinator consolidated the semi-annual reports and submitted them on time. The reports provide overviews of all activity areas as well as more specific information about each activity by country. The outputs are reported in the midst of other narrative, making it difficult to track how activity timelines and product output targets were being met. The report could be substantially strengthened by the addition of output tracking tables attached as annexes.

The regional coordinator exercised the designated fiduciary responsibilities. Under-expended budget lines were identified in a timely fashion and reasonable reallocation of their use was requested of SDC appropriately. For example, the pilot phase cost less than anticipated; timely reallocation of funds enabled production of additional educational material.

Project implementation funds basically were divided equally between the three countries (although it should be noted that Azerbaijan had a full-time project coordinator charged to the budget, whereas Georgia and Armenia had coordinators at approximately 40% of their time). The populations of these countries vary greatly (Azerbaijan 8,997,400; Georgia 4,4436,400; Armenia 3,254,3007). The substantial number of products that were produced in significantly greater numbers than projected indicates that the budget could have been more precisely built if staff in the three countries had been more engaged in developing their portions of the project according to local costs. Similarly, this could have avoided the need to transfer additional funds to Azerbaijan to cover the much greater costs for broadcasting PSAs in that country. It is possible that the capacity to publish more manuals and books, particularly in Azerbaijan, might have enabled that program to reach a wider audience of teachers, students and parents.

There is a significant discrepancy in breadth of teacher training between Armenia, where it is asserted that 1,356 teachers were trained covering all the high schools of the country compared with the pilot impact levels achieved in Georgia and Azerbaijan. This raises questions about both the appropriate balance of funds per country as well as the possibility that the training achieved in Armenia may have had more breadth but less depth than in the other two countries.

At the end of the first month of the project (November 2008), the project’s regional and country coordinators met in Tbilisi to establish general guidelines for project implementation. The intent of IOM was to secure consistency of methodology and approach in the three countries while allowing the local teams sufficient flexibility to determine the contents of the educational material based on consensus of the stakeholders in each particular country.

The country project coordinators expressed appreciation for the responsiveness of the regional coordinator. However, there was little indication that the regional coordinator encouraged cross-fertilization of ideas or other types of cooperation among the three country components. The regional coordinator clearly met his responsibilities for budget management and reporting. It is less clear to what extent he exercised oversight for quality control.

The Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) was funded by USAID from 2005 to 2008 to conduct a large human trafficking prevention project that targeted school students. IOM invited a GYLA representative to advise the SSE project at the beginning and near the

7 Sources: websites of the National Statistics offices of each country’s government for the year 2010.


conclusion of the project, thus building on another donor’s investment in similar activities. This representative completed a pre-workshop questionnaire in which he confirmed his high regard for the design and implementation of the SSE project. A representative of the ILO also confirmed that the SSE project activities in Georgia are coordinated with the EU funded multi-agency regional counter-trafficking project headed by the ILO. In Azerbaijan, IOM is the project partner to ILO for the EU-funded project, with specific responsibility for awareness raising. Whenever possible, IOM is using material developed for the SSE project for awareness raising activities conducted within the framework of the EU-funded project.

Strengths of the project

The activities of the project were interwoven into a strong fabric of safe migration / counter-trafficking awareness raising and education. Focus groups served initial data gathering purposes for development of curriculum materials, but also began the process of community awareness raising and garnered support for the project. These groups were designed and used somewhat differently in the three countries. In many cases, they brought together youth, parents and teachers to investigate the level of knowledge about human trafficking among both the youth and the adults who would be teaching and advising them. Project staff and experts were somewhat surprised t discover in most communities that not only did the youth have very little knowledge about THB, but that this was also true for the teachers, principles and parents. This learning substantively informed the development of the curriculum content and approach, placing greater emphasis on basic information about THB for the adults. Later groups enabled project managers to test the reactions of parents, school directors, teachers and students to the implementation of the curriculum. Once curricula were designed, the content and techniques were tested in pilot schools.

The content and techniques of the teacher manual, student and parent books were tested in at least 15 schools and residential youth facilities per country. This piloting process not only informed the finalization of the texts of the major products of the project; it also engaged Ministry of Education officials, school directors, teachers, parents and students in the development of the project. This contributed to eliciting substantial “buy in” from project stakeholders.

In each country, effort was made to at least pilot the project materials and techniques in residential facilities such as boarding schools and orphanages. This is an important element of the project, since children estranged from, or without families, are likely to be much more vulnerable to trafficking and labor exploitation. Similarly, effort was made to reach out to minority populations and communities . This included translating and printing at least student books, and some parent books and teachers manuals in languages other than the primary national language.

Involvement of parents increased support for the project, helped educate adults in the community about human trafficking, and opened channels of communication between adolescents and their parents at a critical point in the youths’ lives as they reach the brink of adulthood.

One 9-minute educational video was written and produced in Georgia, for use in all three countries, focusing on general recruitment issues related to trafficking and illegal migration. The production is high quality. Several stakeholders in different countries commented that the people and locations evoked “local realities” and helped viewers imagine the situations occurring in their own country. The video is presented in a series of segments with screens displaying questions for discussion in between, so that the teacher may stop the video and invite discussion about what is being viewed. The teams in Azerbaijan and Armenia translated the dialogue into their own national languages and revised the questions to be more relevant to their country’s context and curriculum. The video was copied onto DVDs and enclosed with the teacher manuals, enabling extensive use in schools and other settings.

The presentation of “active teaching techniques ”, including the dialogical use of the educational video, introduced teachers to new methods of teaching that apply not only to the counter-trafficking topic, but may also be appropriated into other subjects. These techniques


encourage more open exchange between students and teachers, which holds the possibility of enabling teachers to help play an advisory and potentially preventative role as youth are considering choices for their futures.

The project staff made concerted efforts to involve the appropriate education professionals and authorities in the design and imp lementation of the education activities. The participation of a number of Ministry of Education senior- and middle- managers on the National Steering Committees built government support for the project and helped ensure that the project education materials were developed in line with national curriculum standards. In Armenia, the Deputy Minister of Education and Science, Mr. Manuk Mkrtchyan, chaired the National Steering Committee and contributed substantively to the review and approval of materials as well as the promotion the project in the Ministry and schools. Ministry officials were generally involved in the selection of pilot schools and teachers to be trained. Most Ministry officials interviewed or who were present at the national workshops expressed genuine interest in and support for the project. One official stated “I was selected a coordinator by the Ministry of Education. First it was not interesting for me but during the project I became very close to the project.” Another official observed “...the most successful [aspect] was the interest of the school leaders in this project.”

Three public service announcements (PSAs) were created, one per country by the national teams. These PSAs were broadcast extensively in each country and served as a general public awareness tool about human trafficking as well as generating more interest and support for the educational activities in schools. In Georgia, one school approached IOM with the proposal to contribute to the development of the PSA by convening a workshop with students and teachers to elicit message and presentation ideas. This resulted in the PSA scenario being developed by a 10th grade student. The student and her civic education teacher then participated as primary actors in the final PSA production.

Challenges for the project

Each country has significantly different procedures for adopting topics and material into national curriculums as well as publication of textbooks. Georgia has the most decentralized system for writing and publishing of textbooks. Publishers develop texts based on national curriculum and then sell them to local schools.

Each of the Deputy Ministers of Education expressed varying levels of support for the project; but MoE officials in Azerbaijan and Georgia have not offered reliable commitments that the topic of safe migration and human trafficking will be officially adopted into their national curriculums. Most particularly, they were unwilling to consider making budget commitments to sustain the project (e.g. reprinting manuals and books). Budget commitments might include reprinting of booklets and manuals, payment of TOT teachers to conduct further teacher trainings, development of additional audio-visual material8 for education, etc.

Comments and discussion at the national workshops indicated some significant differences in the content and impact of the material. The understanding of human trafficking as a problem of exploited labor as well as sexual exploitation came through most clearly in Azerbaijan, fairly clearly in Georgia, and was weak in Armenia. Empowerment and safe migration themes came through from teachers and students9 in Georgia, while adult and student workshop participants in Armenia expressed more fear messages. The content of each country curriculum was not reviewed by advisors or experts from outside the country10.

8 All the Ministries of these governments are under pressure to implement many reforms simultaneously.

Therefore, it is unlikely to see the MoE make a substantial budget commitment. However, sustainability

necessitates that this curriculum topic become sufficiently mainstreamed that it becomes part of the

institutional commitment, which can partially be demonstrated by a modest budgetary commitment. 9 No students were present at the Azerbaijan workshop. But teachers there expressed understanding of the

importance of conveying empowerment messages. 10

The Armenia materials were the only texts translated into English. This consultant does not understand any

of the national languages of the three countries and therefore was not able to review the breadth of materials

produced by the project.


While this consultant does not have any reason to think that the quality of the material is insufficient, it seems a lost opportunity not to have had experts from the IOM, with it’s substantial world-wide experience in counter-trafficking awareness raising, help the competent national experts (both on IOM staff and sub-contractors) improve their products even further.11

Regional dimension of the project

In the various interviews conducted by the consultation, there were substantial differences of opinions expressed about the value of the regional approach to the SSE and other donor-funded projects in the South Caucasus. This includes significant differences in the countries defined as part of this region. The bullet points below highlight the key observations made.

Strengths

- The regional SSE approach helps set regional standards.

- It promotes consistency of content, minimum standards for topics and messages about safe migration and human trafficking.

- It encouraged emphasis on empowerment rather than fear (although the Armenia component didn’t seem to transmit this approach as well as in the other two countries).

- It promotes gender equality in the curriculum.

- It enabled some efficiency in use of resources by producing one educational video to be used in all three countries.

- It creates an easier management and reporting relationship between IOM and the SDC because it consolidates three country activities into one project budget and reporting procedure.

Weaknesses

- The three countries don’t have a constructive regional identity. Azerbaijan is openly hostile about Armenia, which pervades public attitudes and hinders regional cooperation. Attitudes in Georgia seemed more indifferent to the other two countries, but very little interest was expressed about learning from or collaborating with efforts in the neighboring countries. Government and civil society actors in Armenia expressed more interest in regional cooperation; but much of this came across as the desire to show their successes to their neighbors more than a strong desire to learn from others.12

- There is no discernable interest from senior officials in the Ministries of Education to cooperate at the regional level.see footnote 14

- The project staff in the three countries didn’t reference each other’s project activities or products.

11

For example, an external expert might have been able to constructively engage the writers of the Armenia

Teacher Manual about some assertions such as, under a section titled Youth as risk group for

trafficking...Reasons caused by social structure, the following bullet point:

• “Loose morals among young people and minors. Probably, this phenomenon comes to be a more serious

problem for the developed countries of the West than for others. Minors and young women are used as

sex objects in advertisements, motion pictures and music videos. Such depiction of minors in the mass

media entails that a sexual contact with persons of much younger age is eventually viewed as a common

practice, which in its turn promotes increased demand for child prostitution and contributes to the

development of the sex industry.” 12

The SSE project is convening a regional conference in Tbilisi 2 December to which key project stakeholders

from all 3 countries have been invited. It will be important to test the consultant’s observations against the

outcomes of that event.


- The project was managed by the SDC office in Tbilisi. The SDC counterparts in Baku and Yerevan had very little knowledge of, or involvement with, the SSE project component being implemented in their countries.

- The IOM and SDC regional officers for the SSE project are both located in Tbilisi. They both demonstrated substantially greater knowledge about the SSE Georgia component.13

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The sophistication and breadth of implementation of the NAPs in each of these countries varies. Similarly, across the region the extent of the volume and variety of human trafficking remains unclear. This seems to be significantly due to the lack of public and professional understanding of the nature of human trafficking, leading to both lack of recognition of potential victims by professionals and reluctance by victims to self-identify. Human trafficking, by its very nature, is hidden from public, and particularly law enforcement, “view”. In addition, there are substantive professional and sectoral differences about how to apply the definitions of human trafficking to various forced labor and undocumented migration situations. Hence, in regions such as the South Caucasus, where the systems for prevention, protection and prosecution related to human trafficking are still being elaborated, basic awareness raising about human trafficking is pivotal.

The IOM SSE project assessment revealed that not only have youth across the region learned about the fundamentals of human trafficking and its prevention, the project has served to raise the awareness of a variety of senior and middle-management Ministry officials as well as local school officials, teachers, parents and community leaders. This is likely to promote an environment in which decisions makers will become more inclined, due to both heightened understanding and responsiveness to changing public attitudes, to cooperate with the elaboration of purposeful activities and systems that will increase identification and referral of victims of trafficking. Increased identification, in turn, will provide greater objective information from which decisions makers can determine the trends of human trafficking in local communities, at the national level, and potentially eventually in regional mechanisms.

Therefore, it is recommended that a second phase of the IOM SSE project be conducted to 1) increase the percentage of the secondary school population and faculties in Azerbaijan and Georgia who are exposed to the curriculum and 2) ensure that well-capacitated national leadership is secured to promote continued teacher training in use of the curriculum, annual or bi-annual review and updating of the material and identification/distribution of supporting educational print and visual tools for the curriculum

Recommendations regarding regional approach for projects

• If a project is to be continued as a regional project, clarify the “added value” of the regional dimension . Ensure that substantive regional dimensions of the project – beyond coordinated reporting and financial oversight – are evident throughout the life of the project.14

• An SDC officer in each country should be involved d irectly in oversight and support of each project. This could be achieved either by creating separate country projects with direct reporting relationships between the IOM and SDC offices in each

13

The SDC officer has assumed this role comparatively recently, which may also account for the discrepancy in

the level of detailed knowledge about each country component. This may also speak to the nature of the

consolidated reporting from IOM about the project. 14

The current IOM SSE project had one regional meeting of project staff in the first month and one regional

workshop near the conclusion of the project. It was not evident how this substantially increased a regional

identity, information sharing or cooperation between the stakeholders or staff of the three country

components.


country or by including some SSE monitoring responsibilities to a staff person in each of the three SDC offices coordinated by a lead SDC officer either in the region or Berne. This would increase the capacity of the SDC staff to provide advice and diplomatic support for the SSE, particularly with regard to increased Ministry and other national Government commitment and cooperation.

• SDC staff i n the South Caucasus would benefit from some training from the home office about how to monitor and support counter-trafficking efforts in their region/countries.

• Ensure substantive coordination of further IOM and/or World Vision Georgia project activities with the EU funded “Comprehensive Anti-trafficking Response in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia” led by the ILO .

• Encourage project activities that supplement and expand the work of the EU-ILO regional project 15 by mobilizing organization and staff expertise in social services, child protection/rights and gender perspectives .

Recommendations specific to the IOM SSE project

• Conduct a second, and most likely final, phase of t he SSE project in order to consolidate and institutionalized the successes achieved in the first two years of the SSE project in each of the three countries.

• Secure documented commitments from the Ministries of Educa tion for the inclusion of safe migration and human trafficking a s a topic in appropriate subject(s) for secondary school grades for ages 15 to 17 (i.e. through graduation, not just the age that children can legally leave school16) a prerequisite for a next phase of the project .17

• At the beginning of the next phase, conduct an impact survey through questionnaires and/or focus groups of Phase I student, teacher and parent beneficiaries to learn a) what they learned and still remember (should include both content and teaching skills for teachers) and b) what changes of behavior have occurred from participating in the project (e.g. students may have shared the information with their family and friends, they may have decided to pursue a different avenue to seek employment, etc.; teachers may have intervened when they thought a student was at risk, they are continuing to teach the SSE material in new classes, they may be using the interactive teaching techniques for other topics, etc.).

• Similarly to the previous point, also survey the extent to which teachers who were trained as trainers in phase I have conducted furth er trainings for additional colleagues beyond those who participated in trainings conducted during phase I. Engage appropriate professional development departments/institutes to maximize their commitment to using these trainers in their professional development activities to maximize sustainability not dependent on international funding.

• Incorporate a research component to provide more co untry/population-specific, evidence-based messages and information f or the curriculum . Key questions could include: What are the profiles of VOT to and from each country? What are the social and system barriers to increased identification of VOTs? How do

15

IOM is already part of this inter-agency effort, but SDC regional staff members were not aware of the EU

funded ILO project nor IOM’s participation in it. 16

In all three countries, youth may legally leave school before the final year of matriculation. For example, in

Georgia, youth may legally leave school at age 16. Therefore, in Georgia it was decided to focus the SSE project

on ages 15 to 16. In Azerbaijan, the curriculum was designed to be taught across the final three years of

secondary schooling, regardless of whether some students may leave the school prior to completing the entire

secondary school education. 17

In Armenia, this has already been accomplished with the issuance of RA Government decree N 1140-N,

03.09.2010.


youth in each country make migration choices? What skills & knowledge do they need to enable them to make constructive choices with regard to migration and employment?

• Expand implementation of the curriculum to more sch ools , putting greatest priority on schools serving more vulnerable communities and populations but with the goal of ensuring nationwide inclusion of the curriculum in all high schools.18 Include vocational training as well as juvenile detention centers as target institutions.19

• Expand access to curriculum to more residential and day center facilities for vulnerable children (e.g. boarding schools, orphanages, centers serving street children).

• Consult with Unicef and NGOs with child education expertise about what may be age appropriate information on human trafficking for younger children. Encourage schools attended by children from 1st grade to graduation to assess how to convey and reinforce safe migration and human trafficking information in age-appropriate ways that build children’s knowledge and skills over more yea rs of education . Such multi-year plans can reinforce key concepts and information while increasingly engaging students in building skills for making constructive life choices regarding further education, employment and migration.

• Revise and update the texts of the educational mate rials with the advice of international experts in safe migration and human trafficking awareness raising and education.

• Encourage the “main streaming” of the topic safe mi gration and human trafficking across different national curriculum subjects. Supplement existing teacher manuals with additional lesson plans that apply to other curriculum subjects (e.g. civic education, social studies, geography, economics, health, etc.).

• Promote more peer-to-peer education t echniques and forums for youth to support and inform each other. Youth tend to turn to one another for information about sensitive issues such as sex, health and human trafficking. Youth who are knowledgeable about how human trafficking occurs and how it can be prevented can encourage constructive knowledge sharing among equals and enable informed dialogue on the topic among their peers.

• Emphasize training of teachers as trainers ; pursue commitments from relevant Ministry of Education departments and related professional development institutes to incorporate this training in their plans for continuing professional development for teaching professionals.

• Work with pedagogical institutes to include the topic of safe migration and human trafficking in their materials for students studying to become teachers; also the interactive teaching techniques.

• Provide coaching/mentoring to project coordinators to build their skills for transferring the initiative of the project from their leadership to appropriate government and civil society leaders. Introduce project coordinators to ways to promote public-private partnerships.

• Build the capacity of the project National Steering Committees to become established, on-going leadership to monitor continu ing inclusion of safe

18

In Armenia, the IOM staff reported that at least two teachers in every high school of the country have been

trained. The challenge in this country now is to ensure the quality of the teaching and the continued use of the

curriculum with a sufficient number of students. Since the training of these teachers was conducted by an

NGO, Armenia might still benefit from conducting a training of trainers component to increase sustainability of

the curriculum through greater outreach to a broader spectrum of teachers. 19

Outreach to vocational training centers should be coordinated with the EU funded regional counter-

trafficking project led by the ILO, which includes activities targeted at these centers.


migration and human trafficking topics in secondary schools. The goal should be the sustainability of the Committee and program without IOM staff leadership. These Committees could assume responsibility for preparing and distributing annual to bi-annual updated information on the state of human trafficking in the country, including changes in patterns of recruitment and destination “employment” / countries, and updated information on hotlines and other protection / assistance mechanisms. These Committees should secure Ministry of Education budgetary commitments towards the sustainability of the curriculum.

• Explore potentials for public-private partnerships to help secure financial support for curriculum sustainability. For example, coach National Steering Committee members and/or school directors and teachers to approach the business community to sponsor events, pay for reprints of manuals, books and posters, etc.

• For the National Steering Committee and/or other program advisory roles, increase the participation of the government and civil socie ty actors who are directly involved in identification and assistance for victi ms of trafficking , particularly to maintain updated information about the changing nature of human trafficking in the country and region.

• Create one or more websites where teachers, students and parents may access relevant material and information related to the curriculum and potentially have blogs or other forums for sharing opinions, ideas and information.

review & asssessment report cis anti-trafficking …...cis anti-trafficking programme (cat)...

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