The TIP Office manages a foreign assistance program dedicated to combating human trafficking outside of the United States. The TIP Office awards grants to combat all forms of human trafficking—sex trafficking, child sex trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, domestic servitude, forced child labor, and the unlawful recruitment and use of child soldiers—according to the “3P” paradigm of prosecuting traffickers, protecting and assisting trafficking victims, and preventing trafficking in persons. A fourth “P”—for partnerships—is also critical to the TIP Office’s work. The Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report, published annually in June, provides a diagnostic assessment of the efforts of 187 governments to combat human trafficking and shapes our foreign assistance priorities.
TIP Office programs support efforts to combat transnational organized crime consistent with Executive Order (E.O.) 13773, promote rule of law, and build the capacity of security sector actors to prosecute human trafficking cases using a victim-centered approach. Programs supported by the TIP Office include ones that build the capacity of actors to identify victims and individuals who are at risk of becoming trafficking victims and ones that train officials and others on the provision of comprehensive, trauma-informed services. TIP Office programs also help prevent human trafficking in global supply chains by funding research and providing assistance to build capacity, increase awareness, and protect vulnerable workers. The Office’s foreign assistance aligns with the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development’s FY 2018-2022 Joint Strategic Plan’s Goal 1 to Protect America’s Security at Home and Abroad and Strategic Objective 1.3 to counter instability, transnational crime, and violence that threatens U.S. interests by strengthening citizen-responsive governance, security, democracy, and rule of law.
Annual Awards Competition Process
The TIP Office announces an open competition each year for projects to combat human trafficking outside of the United States. The first stage of the competition begins with the TIP Office posting a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) requesting applicants to submit Statements of Interest (SOIs) that summarize priorities for projects addressing the country- and region-specific requirements. The TIP Office posts this notice by the end of April on SAMS Domestic and Grants.gov. In the second stage of the competition, which begins in late July, the TIP Office invites selected applicants to submit full proposals to expand upon the concepts described in their SOIs.
Organizations eligible to apply for this funding opportunity include U.S.-based and foreign non-profits, public international organizations, institutions of higher learning, and for-profit organizations. For-profit organizations are not permitted to generate profits from U.S. foreign assistance funded activities. U.S. government agencies are also eligible to apply. Foreign governments are not eligible to apply.
TIP Office projects address one or more of the “3Ps” of human trafficking (prosecution, protection, and prevention) and are designed to combat both labor and sex trafficking involving men, women, transgender individuals, and children. Within these parameters, the TIP Office is increasing its focus in environments affected by conflict, crisis, and natural disasters. The TIP Office encourages applicants to submit innovative proposals that align with U.S. government priorities (including as articulated in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report), address human trafficking challenges on a significant scale, incorporate survivor input, demonstrate a strong monitoring and evaluation plan, and offer the potential to have a systematic effect, among other factors.
In addition to the annual awards competition, the TIP Office has several other funding opportunities available for special programs and projects, such as Child Protection Compact (CPC) Partnerships, the Program to End Modern Slavery (PEMS), and research opportunities.
We thank all organizations working to combat human trafficking for their continued efforts and encourage organizations to consider applying for an award from our office. Please email JTIPGrants@state.gov if you have any further questions regarding any of the programs described here.
Program to End Modern Slavery
In 2017, the TIP Office launched the Program to End Modern Slavery (PEMS), a groundbreaking U.S. foreign assistance program authorized and funded by Congress. The program, which Congress has funded with a total of $75 million to date, aims to support transformational programs and projects that seek to achieve a measurable and substantial reduction of the prevalence of modern slavery—also known as human trafficking—in targeted populations in specific countries or regions.
Following an open and competitive selection process, the TIP Office awarded the initial tranche of $25 million in FY 2016 funds to a nongovernmental organization—the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (the Global Fund)—to administer a three-year PEMS program beginning in October 2017. The mission of the Global Fund is to end modern slavery by making it economically unprofitable through efforts under three pillars: rule of law, business investment, and sustaining the freedom of survivors. The Global Fund is focused on sub-grants worth approximately $19 million aimed at reducing trafficking of overseas migrant workers from the Philippines and Vietnam; combating sex trafficking in Maharashtra, India, and Vietnam; and preventing and ending forced labor in the apparel and construction sectors in Vietnam and India, respectively. The Global Fund is also undertaking extensive research on methodologies for measuring the prevalence of trafficking in the target countries as well as specific industries. The program calls for strong monitoring and evaluation and the contribution of data, analysis, and programmatic best practices to the anti-trafficking field.
Congress provided the Department an additional $25 million in FY 2017 funds for the same purposes. Following a second open competition, on September 27, the Department issued an additional $21 million award under the Program to End Modern Slavery to the Global Fund to continue its work leveraging donor resources and administering sub-awards to combat human trafficking and $4 million to the University of Georgia Research Foundation to measure prevalence of trafficking in two select African countries and administer sub-awards in both countries.
Congress has made another $25 million in FY 2018 funds available for PEMS, which will bring the office’s total investment for this important program to $75 million.
The transformational nature of the Program to End Modern Slavery is reflected in part in its intent to attract other donor resources. In September 2017, the UK announced a £20 million ($27 million) investment to the Global Fund. A private donor has pledged $25 million in support of the Global Fund’s work. The Global Fund expects to mobilize $150 million, including U.S. government funds, by the third year of the TIP Office’s first $25 million PEMS award.
TIP Office Anti-trafficking Projects
As of January 1, 2020, the TIP Office manages 90 bilateral, regional, and global anti-trafficking projects in over 83 countries worth more than $161 million in total. Detailed descriptions of the TIP Office’s current projects can be found here.