BANGKOK, THAILAND, 25-26 January 2016 – NEXUS participated in the USAID Asia Counter Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) Evidence-Gathering Summit held in Bangkok, Thailand, which convened stakeholders, including international organizations, donors, civil society organizations (CSO), subject matter experts, governments, and private sector partners, to present ongoing C-TIP activities, identify existing gaps, and agree on priorities for the region. The C-TIP Summit was designed to gather insights to inform the development of new USAID C-TIP programming.
NEXUS Senior Researcher Rebecca Surtees shared NEXUS’ experiences on various aspects of the issue, including leading sessions on understanding reintegration and identifying unidentified trafficking victims.
The C-TIP Summit was part of USAID’s wider work in the framework of its Counter-Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) Policy launched in 2012. The policy aims to reinvigorate and further focus the agency’s C-TIP efforts and emphasizes the importance of new technologies and innovative approaches to fight trafficking, focusing on five key objectives:
- Integration of C-TIP activities into broader development programs
- Rigorous research on C-TIP programming through surveys and impact evaluations
- Institutional accountability within USAID to combat trafficking
- Investments in critical trafficking challenge countries
- Increase C-TIP activities in conflict and crisis-affected areas
Participants at the summit were invited from USAID regional and bilateral missions in Asia and included representatives from the USAID/Washington Asia Bureau and the Democracy, Human Rights and Governance (DRG) Center. The other representatives were invited from among leading international organizations, donors, civic society organizations (CSOs), subject matter experts, governments, and private sector partners in the Asia region were also invited to participate.
USAID/RDMA Mission Director Beth Page’s Welcome Remarks from the summit are available here.