The European Commission’s Aeneas programme to provide assistance to third countries in the field of migration and asylum awarded € 2,000,000 to the Interchurch Organisation for Development Cooperation of the Netherlands (ICCO) and its implementing partners NGO Coalition to Address (Sexual) Exploitation of Children in Cambodia (COSECAM), Chab Dai Coalition (CDC) and Ockenden Cambodia (OC) to execute the CETHCam Project during 3 years from 1 January 2008 until 31 December 2010 in Cambodia.

To stem irregular immigration and reduce human trafficking in Cambodia and in the region, in par-ticular for children and youths by establishing a comprehensive approach amongst government and civil society key-stakeholders to address the problems.

To strengthen institutions, procedures and systems to reduce trafficking in, and smuggling of human beings, in particular children and youths, in order to protect and enable trafficked and migrated individuals and families to return to their homes; generate sustainable income through decent work; and reintegrate fully in to their community.

Three major Actions are foreseen in the program:

The Action’s strategy to achieve the results is: ‘Strengthening institutions, systems and procedures to facilitate law enforcement and protection, return and reintegration of trafficked and irregular migrated persons, in particular children and youth.’ This will be achieved through lobby and advocacy, participation in the institutions of the national Task Force on Combating Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation (NTF) established by the Government, promotion of recommendations for improvement of work conditions for migrants, strengthening of systems for community anti-trafficking mechanisms through sensitization and motivation, and studies and research to obtain information about the target group’s situation before and after intervention or in new areas.

The intended result will be:

The Action’s strategy to achieve the result is: ‘Capacity building to assist and empower trafficked and migrated persons in need of recovery and rehabilitation support for reintegration.’ This will be achieved through two activities:

The intended results will be:

The Action’s strategy to achieve the results is: ‘The establishment of a national coordinated system for protection and victim assistance’ through a centralised coordination with decentralised case management and case conference method (CCM). The CCM will build upon existing coordination systems and only introduce new systems if no appropriate coordination exists. However, existing systems will be adapted to fit to the centralised coordination system. The Action will pilot the CCM in some areas and after review cover more parts of the country.

Through the CCM the required services for victims will be determined and victims will be referred to the most appropriate service providers or reintegrated directly into their communities where they will continue to receive support if needed. The Action will enable service providers with adequate capacity to deliver professional services to at least 3,469 beneficiaries, including after reintegration follow-up support.

 

The Applicant ICCO and the lead implementing Partner COSECAM have agreed that the Project will have a broad and transparent policy-making structure in order to facilitate collaboration with the government, in particular with the National Task Force on Combating Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation (NTF) and international organisations. It should be kept in mind that a period of three years is not very long to establish a well-functioning national child-youth victim protection and assistance system. Efforts will need to be made from the beginning to assure a concerted and harmonious operation. A Project Steering Committee (PSC) will be formed chaired by COSECAM with a vice-chair for the Chab Dai Coalition and one vice-chair for the Ministry of Social Affairs. The Ministries of Interior and Women’s Affairs – important players as well in the NTF – the Asia Foundation, MSME, UNICEF, IOM and ILO-IPEC will be offered a seat in the PSC. Its mandate will be policy formulation and guiding the direction of the Project within the approved framework, the further development and introduction of the Coordinated Case Management (CCM) system, furthering cooperation and collaboration with relevant organisations and agencies, and assuring sustainability after the termination of the Project. This latter part of the mandate might already become important during the second year transferring responsibility to government agencies and attracting donors for continuing the efforts after 2010. The PSC will meet regularly, during the start-up phase every 2 months but later twice a year.

In order to link the Project closely with the national system developments will be reported to the National Task Force via COSECAM’s vice-chair of the Protection and Reintegration Working Group.

 

The Steering Committee of COSECAM will be responsible for overseeing financial and budgetary affairs, service contractual agreements, human resources, monitoring, reporting and other management issues. The execution of these tasks is delegated to the Director of COSECAM in order to assure compliance with the strict regulations by the grantee the European Commission of the European Union and to remain accountable towards the Applicant agency ICCO. Two coordination units and programme sections of COSECAM will be tasked with the actual implementation; in addition the project partners CDC and OC will implement a number of activities within the project framework.

COSECAM and Partners will manage the Project through a two-pronged approach: a unit for the service provision (field cooperation unit or FCU) and a unit for the system development, cooperation and research (technical cooperation unit or TCU). The director of COSECAM will link the Project to the National Task Force and manage the Project as the chief executive officer (CEO), taking responsibility for management issues, such as finance, budget and human resource affairs. He will also head the Field Cooperation Unit, dealing with service providing organisations and victim services. The Technical Advisor will act as advisor for the whole Project and lead the Technical Cooperation Unit with a special focus on policy formulation and development of the protection and victim assistance system. The CEO and the Technical Advisor will jointly take care of the collaboration with the National Task Force, Government Ministries, cooperation with other organisations, and project monitoring and reporting.

A number of project activities will be implemented by the Advocacy or IHRD Programmes of COSECAM: The capacity needs assessment, training programs, the empowerment of victims (Girls Speak Out) and the strengthening of member organisations for support to local responses to address trafficking and irregular migration.