Poverty, gender and human trafficking in sub-Saharan Africa

Rethinking best practices in migration management

By: Truong TD
Published by: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) , 2006
Via: Eldis

This report critically analyses the linkages between poverty, gender and human trafficking in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The report asserts that poverty is one of the primary factors that cause people, particularly women and children, to become victims of trafficking. And because human trafficking keeps victims in poverty, a vicious circle of poverty-human trafficking-poverty is perpetuated. The author also states that even though human trafficking is currently a priority issue for many governments, it remains a subject that is poorly understood, and there is a dearth of information on the magnitude of the problem. Also, knowledge about the intersection between migration and trafficking has not yet brought about any consensus on the underlying forces and their implications for the wellbeing of children and women.

In addressing this issue, the report provides a gender critique of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), which reveal how the lack of consensus on the relation between economic growth and poverty renders choices in collective action more vulnerable to error. This gender critique also highlights the negative effect of the dismantling of the care domain on livelihood systems in SSA, and how it exacerbates the pressure to migrate.

Also, the reports highlights a number of practices by organisations participating in the research, to point out how practices of migration management can benefit from a more holistic approach – one which addresses a broad set of overlapping livelihood systems. The organisations’ profiles, strengths, weaknesses, their understanding of trafficking and the replicability of their methods are presented.