Ouagadougou – On Friday (18/08) and Monday (21/08) IOM, the UN Migration Agency, organized two workshops to build the capacities of local practitioners involved in the fight against human trafficking. Governmental and non-governmental representatives attended the workshops.

The trainings aimed to strengthen the capacities of all stakeholders to collect data, and to facilitate communication between all actors involved. Over 50 government and non-government attendees were trained during these two sessions. The training, facilitated by Nanebor Consult, a research entity in Burkina Faso, consisted of a presentation on the issues and challenges associated with the collection of data on human trafficking; related practices; the data collection system; and the proposed form for data collection and storage.

"The training has benefitted us because we have learned a lot,” said Ibrahim Traoré, one of the participants, at the end of the training. “Before, we were obliged to write the data on paper and send them to Bobo-Dioulasso or Ouagadougou. Now with the collection tool and the phone, we can easily send the data directly.”

Yvette Dembele, Secretary of State for Social Affairs, Disability and Inclusion, representing the Minister for Women, National Solidarity and the Family, expressed her satisfaction and thanked IOM for this initiative. She encouraged participants to use this new knowledge to protect the people in the country from human trafficking.

Burkina Faso has been demoted to tier 2 of the United States’ watch list (classifying countries according to their level of elimination of human trafficking) for several reasons including the shortage of available statistical data. It is very difficult to have comprehensive, harmonized and shared data on the practice of human trafficking in the country, which the new tool aims to resolve.

According to IOM Burkina Faso’s Simon Pierre Tarama, these trainings are the result of a study commissioned by IOM, which resulted in the creation of a harmonized data collection tool for smartphones. The information collected will be automatically transmitted by mobile phones to supply a centralized database at national level via software.

The trainings are part of the project Fight Against Human Trafficking in Burkina Faso through the Strengthening of the National Framework and Capacities in the Identification of Victims and the Improvement of Data Collection, funded by the US Department of State.

The two-year project supports the Government of Burkina Faso in strengthening the national anti-trafficking management framework. It also aims to bring together key national structures working in the fight against trafficking in persons to better coordinate actions, strengthen the system of data collection and information sharing among stakeholders and facilitate investigations and prosecution of victims of trafficking in the country.

For more information, please contact Simon Pierre Tarama at IOM Burkina Faso, Tel: +226 67 39 65 13; Email: starama@iom.int