Last month, we held a steering committee meeting for our project to empower change agents against trafficking and exploitation of persons, especially women and girls in Honduras. The IBCR team in Honduras presented the first results observed and the action plan for the next months of the project.
As the main governance body of the project, the steering committee brings together members of IBCR partner institutions and organisations and meets at least once a year. Its mandate is to ensure the achievement of the targeted results by participating in decision-making, collaborating and/or formulating recommendations.
In the light of the current health situation, and the measures taken by the Honduran government to limit the spread of the virus, this rather unusual committee has been held online, by videoconference. Twenty people were able to participate virtually in the meeting on September 3rd. Alongside the IBCR team in Honduras and our operations coordinator, Roxana Galant, were present :
- Members of the National Police, the Judiciary, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, and the Inter-institutional Commission against Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking in Persons (CICESCT).
- Members of several civil society organisations (women’s collectives or LGTBI, representatives of Afro-Honduran and indigenous population groups and children and adolescents)
- The Director of Cooperation at the Canadian Embassy in Honduras
- A representative of World Affairs Canada, financial partner of the project
All the actors present gave very positive feedback on the progress of the first year of the project. Since the launch of the project, several workshops have been organised, training kits for the Ministry of Labour and Security, the CICESCT and civil society organisations are being developed, and several audiovisual tools for training purposes have been produced.
A call for projects was also issued to Honduran civil society organisations to strengthen the response to human trafficking in the country through innovative projects that can benefit from the technical and financial support of the Office.
In addition to the discussions related to the health situation which particularly impacts Honduras, the action plan for the second year of the project was validated taking into account an extension of the project by a few months in order to adapt to the situation and continue the actions in order to achieve the objectives.
As the steering committee meeting is normally held in person, this was a first online experience! All present were very satisfied with the outcome of the meeting, which successfully encouraged everyone’s participation, thanks to rich and dynamic exchanges, despite the new format.
The call ended with a positive conclusion from Sandra Berberi, representative of World Affairs Canada, who congratulated the IBCR and all its partners for the smooth running of the activities carried out so far within the framework of the project, underlining the efficiency of the teamwork and coordination between all the members of the Committee.