Child Protection Compact Partnership Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Ghana

The Government of the United States of America (“the United States”) and the Government of the Republic of Ghana (“Ghana”), hereinafter the “Participants,”

Acknowledging the respective leadership roles and responsibilities of the United States Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and the Republic of Ghana’s Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department, Ministry of Interior, Ghana Police Service, and Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations, in the fight against human trafficking,

Concerned that the sex trafficking and forced labor of children, which, left unabated, has devastating and lasting physical, psychological, and developmental consequences for child victims, is prevalent within Ghana and that it will require concerted efforts to eradicate this exploitation;

Desiring to work collaboratively in Ghana to achieve the development and implementation of new policies and programs that build more effective and sustainable systems to hold perpetrators of child trafficking criminally accountable, identify child victims of trafficking in persons, coordinate the provision of comprehensive protective services, and significantly reduce the trafficking of minors;

Taking into account the 2010 Declaration of Joint Action to Support Implementation of the Harkin-Engel Protocol, which reaffirms the United States’ and Ghana’s commitment to financially support efforts and work in a collaborative and transparent manner to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in cocoa growing areas of Ghana and declares their intention to work together and with other major stakeholders to successfully execute projects in the spirit of the Declaration;

Acknowledging the Letter of Agreement on Law Enforcement Cooperation between the Government of the United States and the Government of the Republic of Ghana, done at Accra February 23, 2010, which is designed to improve Ghana’s enforcement capacity against organized crime and its subsequent amendments;

Reflecting on the General Agreement for a Programme of Technical Cooperation between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Ghana, signed at Accra June 3, 1957, and in force since that date, which continues to serve as a foundation for cooperation in the exchange of knowledge and skills and other related activities designed to contribute to the balanced and coordinated development of the economic and productive capacities of Ghana;

Recognizing the ongoing partnership between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Ghana, including longstanding programs to increase agricultural production, employment opportunities, and income for the poor, to improve the quality of health services and education, and to strengthen government institutions;

Acknowledging the recommendations put forth by the U.S. Department of State in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report assessing efforts made and considering future improvement by the Government of Ghana to prosecute trafficking offenders, protect victims, and prevent the crime; and

Desiring to set forth a framework for the Participants to work collaboratively and cooperatively over the next five years to achieve the goals and objectives of this Child Protection Compact Partnership (Partnership),

Have reached the following understandings:

I. Background and Context of Child Trafficking Interventions in Ghana

A. The United States and Ghana acknowledge that:

1. Ghanaian boys and girls are subject to forced child labor within Ghana in fishing, domestic service, street hawking, begging, portering, quarrying, artisanal gold mining, and agriculture; and Ghanaian girls, and to a lesser extent boys, are subjected to sex trafficking within Ghana, including in the regions around Lake Volta and in the oil-producing regions.

2. Several Ghanaian ministries and departments share responsibility for, and implement programs aimed at, child trafficking prevention, protection of victims, and investigation and prosecution of traffickers. These agencies include the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection (MGCSP), Department of Social Welfare (DSW), and the Human Trafficking Management Board (HTMB); the Ministry of Interior, Ghana Police Service (GPS) and Ghana Immigration Service (GIS); the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department (AG); and the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations, Labor Department, Child Labor Unit (MELR/LD/CLU) and the National Steering Committee on Child Labor. All of these ministries have expressed a desire to step up anti-trafficking activities but each has reported a lack of training and insufficient resources.

3. Civil society plays an active role in countering child trafficking in Ghana. Numerous nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and public international organizations (PIOs), such as UNICEF, ILO, and IOM, work cooperatively and collaboratively with Ghanaian law enforcement and child protection agencies to identify child victims, provide a wide range of protection services, and prevent child trafficking. In addition, in recent years such organizations have been a source of funding for expenses related to some governmental operations and services, such as the GPS Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) investigative operations, MGCSP/DSW shelter services, and functions of the HTMB.

4. The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of State leads the United States’ global engagement to combat human trafficking. This Office partners with foreign governments, public international organizations, and civil society to develop and implement effective strategies for confronting modern slavery, including through targeted foreign assistance. Since 2002, the Office has supported more than 835 projects to combat human trafficking around the world, with awards to international and nongovernmental organizations strategically placed to fuel greater progress based on the “3P” paradigm of prosecuting traffickers, protecting victims, and preventing trafficking.

B. Existing constraints have impeded Ghana’s development and implementation of coordinated, comprehensive action to combat child trafficking. Moving forward, concerted efforts are required to overcome challenges such as:

1. Limited funding for Ghanaian agencies responsible for combating child trafficking, especially those engaged in anti-trafficking law enforcement and child protection efforts;

2. Dilapidated, unsafe conditions in the DSW shelter where child victims of trafficking are housed without government funding for essentials such as food, clothing, health, education, and psycho-social services;

3. Weak coordination of activities to prevent and respond to child trafficking across agencies at the national, regional, and district levels;

4. Ad hoc rather than systematic referral procedures in suspected cases of child trafficking;

5. A lack of systematic data collection to inform policy formulation and program planning, implementation, and evaluation in key ministries responsible for combating child trafficking;

6. A lack of specialized training and skill development for professionals involved in the array of investigation, prosecution, protection, and prevention activities related to child trafficking;

7. Cultural acceptance of informal fostering of children by extended family members, which exposes many children to abuse and exploitation, and undermines reporting of such abuse and cooperation with law enforcement and social welfare efforts to intervene; and

8. Limited livelihood-creation opportunities for families in need.

II. Purpose and Understandings

A. The overarching purpose of this Partnership is to enhance the effectiveness of Ghana’s efforts to combat child trafficking by working collaboratively to build coordinated systems of justice and protection that hold perpetrators of child sex and labor trafficking accountable under Ghanaian law, while ensuring that services for child trafficking victims are comprehensive and gender sensitive, foster recovery and community integration, and undertaking measures to prevent child trafficking.

B. The Participants acknowledge that:

1. There is a devastating impact of human trafficking on children and it is critically important to carry out effective coordinated responses across government agencies, at all levels of government, and in cooperation with NGOs and other key stakeholders in order to prevent child trafficking, protect and assist victims, and hold trafficking perpetrators accountable;

2. Ghana leads the national response to child trafficking and is responsible for enforcement of anti-trafficking laws, identification and protection of child victims of trafficking, and prevention of child trafficking;

3. The activities conducted through this Partnership are consistent with the authorities and mandates of Ghanaian agencies responsible for addressing all aspects of child trafficking and are intended to enhance the capacity of these agencies to adopt and sustain more effective anti-trafficking policies, procedures, and practices over the long term; and

4. The Participants are dedicated to cooperating and working collaboratively to improve the response to child trafficking in Ghana.

III. Goals and Objectives

A. Recognizing the political will that is evident within the Government of Ghana and the existing structures and capacity within the relevant agencies, the Participants seek to strengthen existing structures and enable Ghana to develop new integrated policies and procedures for combating child trafficking. This includes enhancing the ability of the HTMB, which was recently reconstituted and convened and whose members include key anti-trafficking stakeholders, to provide a forum for developing strategic direction for Ghana’s national response to child trafficking, as well as coordinating and improving the implementation of the government’s anti-trafficking activities.

B. Such strategies should be integrated with Ghana’s National Plan of Action (NPA) to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor (WFCL), which sets out objectives in support of the elimination of the WFCL, including child trafficking, and the roles of key agencies in accomplishing the objectives.

C. Goals:

1. The establishment of a more holistic approach to significantly reducing child trafficking that is characterized by greater efficiency and improved coordination of activities to eradicate child trafficking; and

2. Enhanced and more effective efforts to prevent child trafficking, prosecute and convict child traffickers, and improve the quality of protection services for child victims.

D. Objectives:

1. Provision of comprehensive, gender sensitive, trauma-informed care and case management services with appropriate community integration and follow up for an increased number of child trafficking victims;

2. An increased number of successful investigations and prosecutions of perpetrators of forced child labor and child sex trafficking;

3. Improved interagency coordination of anti-trafficking efforts;

4. Increased public awareness of the nature of child trafficking, its devastating impact on children, and the importance of prevention;

5. Establishment and operation of a systematic referral mechanism with protocols for timely interagency response to suspected cases of child trafficking;

6. Establishment and implementation of procedures for pro-active identification and removal of children from trafficking situations, including children in forced child labor in the fishing industry;

7. Implementation of mechanisms for data collection designed to monitor indicators of anti-trafficking program outcomes supported through this Partnership and which can be sustained to track key government interventions, such as the number of investigations, prosecutions, and convictions in child trafficking cases and the numbers of child trafficking victims identified and who receive services; and

8. Development of livelihood-creation opportunities for families of victims.

IV. Roles and Responsibilities

A. Ghana and the United States intend to participate in an annual high-level bilateral consultation that would serve as a forum for sharing information related to all aspects of child trafficking and implementation of this Partnership;

B. The United States, through the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of State (TIP Office) intends to promote the accomplishment of the Partnership objectives through direct financial support to programs and projects administered by NGOs and PIOs with expertise in preventing and responding to child trafficking in Ghana. Such projects may include:

1. The provision of training expertise aimed at improving the proficiency of Ghanaian agency professionals dedicated to the investigation, prosecution, and adjudication of child trafficking cases;

2. The provision of training for DSW staff and others on trauma-informed comprehensive care and case management for child trafficking victims; and

3. Technical assistance on the development and implementation of policies and procedures for child victim identification and safe removal; development of an effective public awareness campaign; and methods of developing and operating a systematic referral mechanism and improving interagency coordination.

C. Ghana intends to:

1. Establish a CPC Partnership technical committee comprised of representatives designated by each participating ministry who are knowledgeable of relevant operations and would serve as focal persons to work on implementation of the Partnership, ensure that reporting requirements are met, and work collaboratively with the MGCSP;

2. Dedicate an annually increasing level of staff resources and operating budget funding to support the authorities and mandates of each participating agency with responsibility for child trafficking investigation and prosecution and child protection, including funding for the Human Trafficking Fund, over the course of this Partnership with the view to sustaining the activities beyond this five-year Partnership;

3. Ensure the cooperation of all participating ministries throughout the term of this Partnership;

4. Provide semiannual reports of progress toward meeting the commitments of each participating agency, as well as the goals, objectives, and implementation targets through the collection and reporting of data that measures effectiveness and impact of the activities;

5. Develop and implement methods of integrating policies and procedures initiated under this Partnership, as appropriate, into Ghanaian judicial structures as well as regional and district level governance; and

6. Develop a plan for sustaining the policies and procedures developed through this Partnership after the term of the Partnership is completed.

D. Ghana, through its Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, intends to:

1. Provide leadership and coordination for Ghana on implementation and fulfillment of the commitments outlined in this Partnership;

2. Prioritize efforts to fight child trafficking in the annual and multi-year budget processes, and allocate an annually increasing level of staff resources and operating budget funding to support the ministry’s commitments made in this Partnership;

3. Support the establishment and operation of at least one DSW-administered shelter for child victims of trafficking and ensure that DSW staff receive training in child trafficking identification, trauma-informed care, and case management by the end of the first year;

4. Provide comprehensive services for an increasing number of child trafficking victims over the term of this Partnership;

5. Convene the HTMB quarterly throughout the term of this Partnership and facilitate the exchange of information and interagency collaboration on child trafficking matters, including promoting interagency training to facilitate full implementation of the Human Trafficking Act across member agencies and at all levels of government;

6. Coordinate the work of the technical committee referred in paragraph C 1 of this section;

7. With multi-stakeholder input, develop and disseminate a Plan of Action on Human Trafficking within the first year of this Partnership;

8. Cooperate fully with NGOs, PIOs, and other Ghanaian agencies on the establishment of policies, protocols, and training for systematic referrals for child trafficking victims within the first 18 months of this Partnership; and sustain its operation with increasing levels of government support through the term of this Partnership;

9. In cooperation with the other participating Ghanaian ministries, conduct public awareness efforts that will improve the public’s knowledge of the dangers of child trafficking, how to prevent it, and how to respond when it occurs; and

10. Collect the data that is required to monitor and evaluate the activities of each participating ministry under this Partnership, and compile and share such data with the TIP Office semi-annually.

E. Ghana, through its Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department, intends to:

1. Prioritize efforts to fight child trafficking in the annual and multi-year budget processes, and allocate an annually increasing level of staff resources and operating budget funding to support the ministry’s commitments made in this Partnership;

2. Ensure that the Human Trafficking Act implementing regulations are sent to the Parliament and disseminated to appropriate agencies within six months of the effective date of this Partnership.

3. Designate a prosecutor as the focal person to lead Ghana’s child trafficking prosecutions in each region and increase the number of convictions, with particular emphasis on developing effective strategies for holding perpetrators of forced child labor accountable under Ghanaian law, through the term of this Partnership;

4. Receive and advise on the preparation and disposition of all child trafficking dockets;

5. Ensure participation of prosecutors in training, including interagency training, designed to enhance the skills of prosecutors to successfully prosecute child trafficking cases using existing applicable laws and victim-centered techniques that minimize additional trauma to child victims/witnesses throughout the term of this Partnership;

6. Ensure full cooperation with the GIS and GPS anti-human trafficking units in the effective investigation and prosecution of child trafficking cases; and

7. Provide to the MGCSP the data that is required to monitor and evaluate the activities of the Attorney General’s Department under this Partnership.

F. Ghana, through its Ministry of Interior, Ghana Police Service and Ghana Immigration Service, intends to:

1. Prioritize efforts to fight child trafficking in the annual and multi-year budget processes, and allocate an annually increasing level of staff resources and operating budget funding to support the ministry’s commitments made in this Partnership;

2. Continue to provide personnel who specialize in human trafficking investigation and increase the number of child trafficking arrests and investigations, with particular emphasis on developing effective strategies for forced child labor cases, through the term of this Partnership;

3. Liaise with the Attorney General’s regional focal person on the preparation of all child trafficking dockets and submit them to the Attorney General’s Department for advice;

4. Ensure participation of investigators and prosecutors in training, including interagency training, designed to enhance the skills of investigators and prosecutors to successfully investigate and prosecute child trafficking cases, using victim-centered techniques that minimize additional trauma to child victims/witnesses;

5. Ensure full cooperation with Attorney General’s prosecutors in the effective investigation and prosecution of child trafficking cases;

6. Develop and implement policies and procedures that ensure victim protection services are an integral part of enforcement operations; and

7. Provide to the MGCSP the data that is required to monitor and evaluate the activities of the GPS and GIS under this Partnership.

G. Ghana, through its Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations, Labor Department, intends to:

1. Prioritize efforts to fight child trafficking in the annual and multi-year budget processes, and allocate an annually increasing level of staff resources and operating budget funding to support the ministry’s commitments made in this Partnership;

2. Ensure that LD/CLU personnel, including labor inspectors at all levels, receive training on identification and referral of child trafficking to facilitate implementation of Ghana’s National Plan of Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor;

3. Strengthen cooperation and coordination with DSW, GPS, and GIS when suspected cases are identified to ensure the safe removal and referral for care for children in trafficking situations and appropriate law enforcement investigations;

4. Provide education and sensitization programs on child trafficking for selected communities, including potential offenders;

5. Continue to train and support the capacity of District and Community Child Protection Committees to identify potential child trafficking situations, refer cases to appropriate law enforcement and social welfare agencies, and facilitate the reintegration of child trafficking victims who return to their communities;

6. Strengthen the National Steering Committee on Child Labour (NSCCL) to more effectively eliminate child labor, especially the worst forms of child labor; and

7. Through the NSCCL, provide the data that is required to monitor and evaluate the activities of the Labor Department under this Partnership to the MGCSP.

V. Communications

Communications required under this Partnership will be in writing and must be submitted to the Point of Contact (POC) designated by each Participant as indicated below. Notice of a change in POC should be provided in writing to the other POCs within 30 days of such change.

Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons POC:

Name: Jane Nady Sigmon, PhD
Title: Senior Advisor to the Director
Office: Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office)
Email address: sigmonjn@state.gov
Telephone: +1-202-312-9887

Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection POC:

Name: Victoria Natsu
Title: Acting Executive Secretary
Office: Human Trafficking Secretariat
Email address: vinatsu@yahoo.com
Telephone: +233 (0) 24 481 3888

Interior Ministry POC:

Name: Samuel Amankwah
Title: Director
Office: Research
Email address: slkamankwah@yahoo.com
Telephone: +233 (0) 24 213 2661

Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department POC:

Name: Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa
Title: Acting Director of Public Prosecutions
Office: Prosecution Division, Attorney General’s Department
Email address: yaaobuobisa@yahoo.co.uk
Telephone: +233 (0) 24 465 6275

Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations POC:

Name: Eugene Narh Korletey
Title: Acting Chief Labour Officer
Office: Labor Department
Email address: korlenarh2005@yahoo.com
Telephone: +233 (0) 20 781 1446

VI. Effective Date

This Partnership is intended to become effective on the date of its signature by both Participants and to remain effective for five years from that date.

VII. Modification

This Partnership may be modified or extended in writing with the mutual consent of the Participants.

VIII. Sustainability

A. The Participants intend for policy and operational improvements in the response to child trafficking adopted with the support, and during the course, of this Partnership to continue and be improved upon after the end of this arrangement. Ghana and the United States recognize that this goal requires significant resource mobilization from Ghana through the term of this Partnership and beyond.

B. A sustainability plan is to be developed on behalf of Ghana by the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection within one year of the effective date of this Partnership and updated annually thereafter.

IX. Partnership Work Plan

A Partnership Work Plan developed jointly by the Participants through meetings and a review of major activities to be conducted in support of this Partnership is inserted at Addendum C. The Participants intend to update the Work Plan annually during the course of this Partnership.

Signed at Accra, in two originals, in the English language.

 

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Addendum A: Clarification of Terms

For purposes of this Partnership,

“trafficking in persons” and “human trafficking” are used as umbrella terms for the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. This compelled service includes involuntary servitude, slavery or practices similar to slavery, debt bondage, and forced labor. Human trafficking can include, but does not require, movement. People may be considered trafficking victims regardless of whether they were born into a state of servitude, were transported to the exploitative situation, previously consented to work for a trafficker, or participated in a crime as a direct result of being trafficked. At the heart of this phenomenon is the traffickers’ goal of exploiting and enslaving their victims and the myriad coercive and deceptive practices they use to do so;

“forced child labor” sometimes referred to child labor trafficking is a form of trafficking in persons the purpose of which is to subject children to forced labor. Any person who engages in recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining a child for the purpose of forced labor has committed this crime. Forced child labor includes situations in which the child is in the custody of someone other than an immediate family member who requires the child to perform work that financially benefits that person, as well as situations in which a parent provides a child to others who subject the child to forced labor in which the child does not have the option of leaving the employment. Children subjected to forced labor are usually inadequately cared for and not allowed to attend school and are often abused;

“child sex trafficking” is a form of trafficking in persons and occurs when a child is recruited, harbored, transported, provided, obtained, or maintained for the purpose of performing a commercial sex act from which the trafficker benefits financially. Children who are prostituted are sex trafficking victims, without regard to whether force is used to make them engage in commercial sex; and

“child trafficking” encompasses forced child labor and child sex trafficking; and

“child” is a person under the age of 18.

Addendum B: Roles of Ghanaian Ministries in Combating Child Trafficking

Below is a brief description of the primary responsibilities of the Ghanaian ministries and departments that share responsibility for and implement programs aimed at child trafficking prevention, protection of victims, and investigation and prosecution of traffickers.

The Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection (MGCSP) is the lead government agency for developing and coordinating human trafficking measures. The MGCSP’s Human Trafficking (HT) Secretariat oversees policy formulation, police review, implementation, advocacy, monitoring, monitoring and evaluation of trafficking efforts, as well as data collection and research into trafficking issues.

The HT Secretariat is also responsible for convening quarterly meetings of the Human Trafficking Management Board (HTMB), the inter-ministerial board chaired by the Minister for Gender, Children, and Social Protection. The HTMB was recently re-constituted and met in late 2014, after having not met for nearly two years due to a lack of funds. The HTMB is comprised of a member of parliament, representatives of the police, prosecution, immigration, health, education, local government, journalism, and NGOs; representatives of international organizations (UNICEF and IOM) serve as observers. As authorized in the Human Trafficking Act of 2005, the Board is responsible for advising the minister on trafficking policy and promoting strategies to prevent trafficking and to facilitate assistance, care, and re-integration of trafficking victims and it oversees management of the Human Trafficking Fund that is intended to support victim services. The Board maintains five subcommittees: (1) Monitoring and Evaluation; (2) Research, Data Collection, Information Dissemination, and Prevention; (3) Legal Framework and Policy Development; (4) Finance and Resource Mobilization; and (5) Rescue, Rehabilitation, and Reintegration.

Within the MGCSW, the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) is responsible for administering protection services for child victims of human trafficking; however a lack of funding for shelters and other services has impeded the delivery of comprehensive care for child victims of human trafficking. DSW also administers the government’s Livelihoods Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) cash transfer program that provides extremely poor households with cash grants, some of which are conditional upon children's attendance at school and their non-involvement in the worst forms of child labor, including child trafficking. By the end of 2014, LEAP reached approximately 77,000 households in 140 districts; households received between 24-35 Cedis (approximately $10-$15 USD) per month.

In its January 2015 statement, the MGCSP announced its 2015 goals related to human trafficking: to develop a National Plan of Action on Human Trafficking (NPAHT), launch a new shelter for victims of human trafficking, strengthen the HT Secretariat, expand the LEAP program to reach 200,000 household beneficiaries, disseminate the newly approved National Child and Family Welfare Policy, and finalize the Child Justice Policy on its Children's Rights Promotion, Protection, and Development Programme.

The Ministry of Interior’s Ghana Police Service (GPS) maintains the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) in the Criminal Investigation Division (CID). The AHTU has permanent field offices in ten regions and leads the government’s efforts to investigate and prosecute child trafficking cases under the 2005 Human Trafficking Act (HT Act), as amended, which prohibits all forms of trafficking and prescribes sufficiently stringent penalties. The AHTU has been recognized for its leadership in enforcement of the HT Act. The reported statistics show that in 2013, Ghana obtained convictions in six of twenty trafficking cases prosecuted; the AHTU was responsible for the vast majority of these cases. All of the convictions involved sex trafficking and some of the victims in these cases were minors. No convictions in child forced labor cases were reported. Implementing regulations for the Human Trafficking Act, referred to as a legislative instrument, have not been issued, thereby impeding enforcement of the Act. The GPS Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), which has the lead on child abuse and domestic violence cases, cooperates with the AHTU and refers suspected cases of child trafficking to the AHTU for investigation. The GIS also investigates and prosecutes human trafficking cases.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations (MELR), Labor Department (LD), Child Labor Unit (CLU) leads implementation of Ghana’s National Plan of Action (NPA) to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor (WFCL), 2009-2015, under the supervision of the National Steering Committee on Child Labor (NSCCL). The NPA prioritizes nine worst forms of child labor including child trafficking, fishing, mining and quarrying, ritual servitude, commercial sexual exploitation of children, child domestic servitude, and labor in some agricultural sectors (e.g., cotton, cattle herding, cocoa, oil palm, and vegetables). The NPA acknowledges that the institutions charged with protection of children from exploitation and enforcement of laws relating to the WFCL lack interagency coordination and are inadequately equipped; “few districts have the institutional capacity (shelters, personnel with the requisite know-how such as specialized police and judges, child psychologists, social welfare officers, Labor Inspectors) for identifying, rescuing, protecting, and rehabilitating children in especial need or danger.” The NPA also provides the framework for the Ghana Child Labor Monitoring System (GCLMS), a tool that facilitates the collection and analysis of data measuring the number of children at risk or engaged in child labor and WFCL in targeted communities.

The Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department (AG) oversees the prosecution of crimes in Ghana; in practice, the prosecution of most trafficking cases has been conducted by GPS prosecutors. Ghana’s NPA to Eliminate the WFCL, including child trafficking, designates the AG’s Department as the lead for prosecution and enforcement of laws related to the WFCL. The NPA also notes it is “imperative to prosecute systematically offenders, perpetrators, and accomplices of unconditional WFCL to ensure deterrence and provide remedies and effective protection for victims.”

Addendum C: CPC Partnership Work Plan

This Work Plan was developed jointly by the Participants to outline activities to be conducted throughout the course of the Partnership. Responsibilities and activities of the Government of the Republic of Ghana and participating Ghanaian ministries, and of the United States of America and the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office), are organized under the “3P” anti-trafficking framework (Protection, Prosecution, and Prevention), as well as a fourth category for System Change, and the eight CPC Partnership Objectives listed herein. The Participants intend to identify output and outcome indicators (referenced under Objective 7) by the end of November 2015.