Regional CSO Forum.

On the 3^rd of July to the 6^th of July 2017 HAART in partnership with GIZ held a conference for CSOs dealing with aspects of migration with a focus on human trafficking. The conference was held in Nairobi Kenya and it saw participants from East Africa and Horn of Africa attend. The participating countries were namely: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia. The participants were about 34 in number. We also had guest from Expertise France, UNODC, IOM and GIZ Better Migration Management program implementing partners from Ethiopia and Sudan.

The forum began on Monday the 3^rd in the evening with an ice breaking introduction session. This was to get the participants to jell. The following day started with official opening remarks from HAART’s director and an outline of the Forum’s objectives and overview from Jakob Christensen. This was to kind of set the foundation and explain the purpose of the forum.

The first presentation was from IOM who presented on the concept of human trafficking. It was one of the most interesting presentations and the audience interacted with it much. This could be attributed to the fact that most organizations had a key focus on human trafficking.  We also had short presentations from the facilitating organizations which in this case was HAART, GIZ as well as Stop The Traffik. This was just to inform the participants what the organizations are all about and their activities.

The participants then got a chance to present what they do and the key focus of their organizations. This was done by writing on flip charts round the conference room. Thereafter, all participants went around to read their colleagues information and asked questions where need be. This particular activity was set so that people can learn from each other and see how they can collaborate in their work.

On this day we also had a presentation on migrant rights and safe and fair migration from HAART’s director Radoslaw Malinowski. This was to crown the theme of the forum and also to add onto the knowledge of the participants on this subject as it is something they deal with in their day to day work. The first day ended with a discussion amongst the participants on the agenda of the forum and expectations. In the evening, we took the participants to an art exhibition dubbed “A2ES” which means Arts To End Slavery. This is an awareness raising campaign that HAART has done yearly since 2015 which brings together different artists from across the country to do art pieces that speak of human trafficking.

The second day was facilitated by the contracted consultant Fuzz Kitto who is the coordinator of Stop The Traffik Australia. Fuzz trained on coalition building which was the general objective of this forum. The idea is to set up a regional coalition and/or capacitate the different countries to set up national coalitions which are more sustainable. This is so as to ensure that there is no overlapping of work and that people work coherently as they learn from each other. It is also a good way of learning from each other. On this day we also had a short presentation from the Kenya’s counter trafficking advisory committee chair speaking of where Kenya is at I terms of curbing human trafficking. That evening we had a cultural evening, and it was great to watch the different countries represent their cultures in dance, song and dressing.

The final day which was the 6^th of July we had a presentation on the status of safe houses in Kenya and Ethiopia from Expertise France. We then undertook workshop evaluation exercise which basically involved filling in a questionnaire to gage how effective the forum was. Before closing the forum, the participants had an opportunity to discuss the way forward from the forum’s discussions. All the countries listed at least three action points they would undertake after the forum. The forum was officially closed at lunch time and guest left after lunch.

We must say that it was a success especially in the representation both sectorial and country wise. We hope to see progress next year as a result of the deliberations that occurred during the three days.

By Phyllis Mburu