Solidifying Awareness on Trafficking in Persons in Azerbaijan through Education

This is the third phase of a two-year project funded by the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency (SDC) and implemented by IOM, aiming to contribute to the prevention of trafficking in persons and to promote safe migration through school education by means of intensifying cooperation with the Ministry of Education and other government bodies, as well as with non-governmental partners in securing incorporation of trafficking and safe migration into the national education curriculum. 

The overall message that this project will convey to the target groups is to emphasize the positive aspects of safe migration and empower teenagers to take decisions based on objective information, thus stimulating critical thinking. 

The project achieved considerable progress during the first project phase as well as the ensuing bridging phase, which IOM implemented from November 2008 until December 2011. The third phase of the project mainly aims: a) to continue to capacitate national education authorities and teachers to integrate the module on the prevention of trafficking in persons into the relevant school curricula, thus securing project sustainability and impact; b) to facilitate the exchange of information among education officials, teachers and young people in the region to identify common modalities and best practices in raising awareness on trafficking in persons, including by means of peer-to-peer education, extra-curricular activities and multi-media campaigns; c) to strengthen efforts to reach out to disadvantaged children with trafficking prevention messages.