Program for the Enhancement of Anti-trafficking Responses in South-Eastern Europe: Data Collection and Information Management (DCIM)
Implementing Agencies: ICMPD, NEXUS Institute, Office of the Dutch National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings, Migration Asylum Refugees Regional Initiative (MARRI), Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI Center) and governments in SEE
Geographic Scope: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Kosovo*
Years: 2006-2008
Project Summary: In 2004 and 2005, in the framework of the EU CARDS Programme for the Enhancement of Anti-trafficking Responses in South Eastern Europe, the SEE countries supported by ICMPD (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Kosovo*) joined forces to tackle the problem of trafficking in persons by elaborating regional standards and guidelines for the development and implementation of comprehensive National Anti-trafficking Responses. This included developing regional criteria for a uniform data system, developing and installing a database within each of the participating countries/territories, developing and disseminating a handbook on the database usage and providing training on database usage for each of the participating countries/territories.
The Project took place in two phases, implemented in ten countries of SEE (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Kosovo*).
Phase I:
The objectives of Phase I were: 1) To strengthen the capacities of SEE countries to systematically collect and manage data and information relevant to trafficking in human beings and 2) To contribute to the harmonization of data related to trafficking in human beings in SEE countries in the areas of prevention, protection and prosecution by developing regional criteria and agreed common indicators. In this regard, the project supported the development of two distinct database systems to support governments in their anti-trafficking data collection work:
- Victim-centered database: Collects data about trafficked persons, for prevention work and the protection and assistance of trafficking victims.
- Trafficker-centered, criminal justice database: Collects data about perpetrators of human trafficking, tracking their cases through the full legal and judicial process. Tool for tracking, monitoring and evaluating trafficking prosecutions.
Phase II:
This phase aimed to strengthen the capacities of participating countries to monitor, evaluate and review their National Anti-Trafficking Responses. The focus was to train local actors on the utilization of the collected data in the design of effective policies and targeted programmatic activities corresponding to the specific needs and trends of each country.
Phase I of the project was generously funded by the Norwegian Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Phase II of the project was funded under the EU Grant “Prevention of and Fight Against Crime”.
Project Publications and Studies:
Handbook on Anti-Trafficking Data Collection in South-Eastern Europe: Developing Regional Criteria (2007)
This handbook is a practical tool to guide the implementation of victim-centered and trafficker-centered databases. This handbook was developed in the context of achieving regional criteria for countries in South East Europe. Part 1 outlines information relevant to this data collection project – particularly the objectives and framework of the work. Part 2 maps out the data collect methodology and relevant legal and ethical issues as well as reporting obligations. The handbook then (in parts 3 and 4) provides step-by-step guidance in terms of each type of database being implemented under the project, including a detailed description of each indicator. Part 5 discusses issues related to data quality and analysis, while part 6 provides resources on data collection as well as information about data collection initiatives in Europe by governments and international organizations. Part 7 provides the practical tools (i.e. MOUs, glossary, consent forms, confidentiality agreement and question templates) for the implementation of data collection according to the developed criteria.