REACH: Guidelines

Writing a REACH Datasheet

Guidelines for writing a REACH data sheet The aim of the data-sheet paper is to increase the knowledge of UNIAP about the local human trafficking situation in each country of the world.

More specifically, UNIAP’s priority is to acquire relevant information and reliable and documented data about trafficked persons from the Mekong Region.

As information is not often readily available about this specific target group, we welcome REACH volunteers to use data available in the volunteer’s countries languages and to conduct interviews with respondents and informants in their home countries.

Examples of informants that could be contacted are police departments, the Ministry of Immigration and local NGOs. When possible, we also welcome interviews conducted with migrants coming from the Mekong Region.

These migrants might or might not have had direct experience of trafficking, but they might be able to contribute with relevant information about for example informal migration channels from their home countries. This information has to be documented with scientific methods with clear references to sources. However, since trafficking is a global phenomenon that often has similar characteristics regardless the origin of the victims, UNIAP also welcomes research and information that could help us understand the local characteristics of trafficking in the volunteers’ home countries even if not directly related to the Greater Mekong Sub-region.

Project Aim

To enhance our overall knowledge of the human trafficking situation in relevant countries around the world, with an emphasis on trafficked persons from the Mekong Region to these countries increase; and to create a global-volunteer community can help the United Nations to more effectively and efficiently combat human trafficking.

Method

Collection and analysis of primary and secondary sources of information. UNIAP advises volunteers to divide the data-mining process in two phases: in the first phase, participants will use secondary sources of information available in English and especially in their home-countries languages. We would like to stress the importance of using data in the volunteer’s home countries languages as this will help UNIAP to gather information on human trafficking that is not readily available to us. In the second phase, volunteers are encouraged but not compelled to engage in field-work and use interviews with both informants and respondents in order to gather new information about human trafficking in the specific countries, regions, and cities where the volunteer teams are based. If it is not possible to conduct a field-work, UNIAP will welcome data gathered only from secondary sources of information.

We would like to stress that all information that is written in the papers has to have clear references to sources. Moreover, we expect that volunteers will follow the ethical praxis that is used both in academia and by UNIAP while conducting research.

You can read about UNIAP's ethical guidelines here.

Networking among Teams

To add value to the work that is being done by the various teams, a networking approach will be used to exchange information as follows:

One regular Skype meeting with another team in the same country and/or with a team in another country across the world during the duration of the whole volunteer period. The frequency of meetings will be as follows:

• Teams/volunteers that participate to the REACH initiative for three months: One meeting on Skype every week;
• Teams/volunteers that participate to the REACH initiative for six months: One meeting on Skype every two weeks;
• Teams/volunteers that participate to the REACH initiative for one year: One meeting on Skype every three weeks.

UNIAP does not expect that all members of a team must participate in each of these meetings. The teams can decide how many members should meet in accordance to their specific needs. Topics of discussion might include: legislative matters, anti-trafficking media coverage, the human trafficking situation in their country, trafficking trends from the Greater Mekong Sub-Region and similar topics, etc.

Expected Outputs

The information expected for each country team is as follows:

• One page summaries for each Skype meeting;
• A final data-sheet with the results of the teams’ work. The data-sheet should be a minimum of 4 pages and maximum of 8 pages. The format will be discussed and agreed upon between the team and UNIAP. Teams can choose to carry an in-depth investigation of one of the questions, but five of nine of these questions have to be responded:
  1. What is the human trafficking situation in the country?
  2. Who is being trafficked to or from Asia and elsewhere?
  3. Where do trafficked persons come from and how are they exploited?
  4. What is the scale of human trafficking in the country?
  5. Who is addressing the problem?
  6. How is the problem being addressed?
  7. How many trafficking victims are repatriated each year back to their home countries?
  8. What is happening to the traffickers?
  9. What needs to be done?

A limited number of outstanding REACH team members (two outstanding members for 2009) will be flown to Bangkok to present the results of their work to the Asia regional counter-trafficking community-including UN counter-trafficking personnel, international and local counter-trafficking NGOs, academics, the diplomatic community, policy makers, advocates, media, and others.