Publication: Human Trafficking : A Brief Overview
Loading...
Date
2009-12
ISSN
Published
2009-12
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Millions of men, women and children are victims of human trafficking for sexual, forced labor and other forms of exploitation worldwide. The human and economic costs of this take an immense toll on individuals and communities. By conservative estimates, the cost of trafficking in terms of underpayment of wages and recruiting fees is over $20 billion. The costs to human capital are probably impossible to quantify. The problem of trafficking cuts across a range of development issues, from poverty to social inclusion, to justice and rule of law issues, and thus has relevance for practitioners throughout the development community. This note provides a brief overview on the issues of human trafficking, which can be used as a quick reference for the task team leaders, sector managers, directors, and their clients at the World Bank Group. This note will first provide a definition of human trafficking and the scope of the problem, and then summarize the regional trends of trafficking patterns. This is followed by a discussion of the key actors in the anti-trafficking movement and the role played by development partners in preventing human trafficking. The final section offers some potential orientations for the World Bank Group to further engage this issue in its operations.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Makisaka, Megumi. 2009. Human Trafficking : A Brief Overview. Social Development Notes; No. 122. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11103 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Sexual and Gender-Based Violence : What is the World Bank Doing and What Have We Learned, A Strategic Review(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-11)Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is the most prevalent form of gender inequality. More than one third of the women in the world have experienced some form of gender based violence. The impacts of such violence extend far beyond the individual survivors, affecting households and communities, and spanning across generations. SGBV is widely recognized as a development constraint that falls within the World Bank's mandate. This report is an effort to take stock of the experience of the World Bank in addressing SGBV, from 2008 to 2013, in order to capture lessons for engaging more strategically on this issue across the Bank portfolio. The report elaborates on the prevalence of SGBV, the methodology adopted for the purpose of this review, an overview of World Bank activities for SGBV, lessons learned, addressing SGBV in design and implementation, cross-cutting and operational lessons, conclusions and recommendations.Publication Women's Voice and Agency : The Role of Legal Institutions and Women's Movements(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014)Global events like the Beijing Women s Conference of 1995 have resulted in the creation of strong international frameworks that set standards for women s rights around the world. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action, and other international norms define the scope of universal rights for women and girls, and have opened new spaces for regional and national legal reform. Bottom-up engagement with these international laws and institutions by local and transnational women s movements has catalyzed widespread changes in lawmaking and transformed standard-setting documents into tools for reform. The following paper discusses four important pillars of women s voice and agency (while recognizing that there are others which are beyond the scope of this review): freedom from the risk of violence; freedom of movement; freedom to make decisions on family formation and the freedom to shape policy. It will examine the ways in which these freedoms impact women s voice and the ways in which women are working to reform law and policy to ensure these four freedoms are accessible to all.Publication Violence Against Women and Girls : Introduction(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-12)Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is one of the most oppressive forms of gender inequality and stands as a fundamental barrier to equal participation of women and men in social, economic, and political spheres. Such violence impedes gender equality and the achievement of a range of development outcomes. VAWG is a complex and multifaceted problem that cannot effectively be addressed from a single vantage point. The prevention of, and response to, such violence requires coordinated action across multiple sectors. This resource guide was developed through a partnership between the Global Women s Institute (GWI) at George Washington University, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the World Bank Group (WBG). The primary audiences for the guide are IDB and WBG staff and member countries, as well as other development professionals who do not yet have experience addressing VAWG. The purpose of this guide is to provide the reader with basic information on the characteristics and consequences of VAWG, including the operational implications that VAWG can have in several priority sectors of the IDB and WBG. It also offers guidance on how to integrate VAWG prevention and provide quality services to violence survivors across a range of development projects. Lastly, it recommends strategies for integrating VAWG prevention and response into policies and legislation, as well as sector programs and projects.Publication "To Whom Do the People Take Their Issues?" The Contribution of Community-Based Paralegals to Access to Justice in South Africa(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-01)Paralegals provide a crucial link to justice services and legal redress in South Africa, particularly for the rural poor. Although post-Apartheid constitutional reforms guaranteed a broad range of rights and benefits to all South Africans, including the right to legal assistance, accessing many of these benefits remains a challenge for those who live in remote areas and those who cannot afford legal representation. Community-based paralegals fill this gap by providing dispute resolution and legal support that is both geographically and financially accessible and informed by a deep understanding of the social issues and everyday challenges facing their clients. Despite the prevalence and importance of paralegals in the South African justice sector, their role remains largely under-formalized and understudied. This report seeks to address this gap by providing a broad analysis of the current state of the paralegal sector. It begins with a historical overview of paralegal services in South Africa from the apartheid period to the present. The study then maps the current state of the paralegal sector, and provides detailed information on the structure and function of key organizations that provide paralegal services. Through an analysis of twelve case studies of paralegal-assisted cases, the report identifies facilitating and hindering determinants of Community Advice Offices (CAO) functions at both the institutional and organization level.Publication Analysis of Displacement in Somalia(Washington, DC, 2014-12-09)Development and humanitarian actors currently engaged in Somalia face the challenge of delivering assistance in such a way that it is supportive of peace and state building, addresses the acute vulnerability, and dependence of large shares of the population while operating in a still insecure and changing environment. Forced displacement is a key feature of the current political economy context of Somalia. The necessity of addressing displacement is partly due to the scale and duration of the phenomenon. Displacement dynamics have fundamentally reshaped Somali culture in multiple ways. The purpose of this study is to inform the Bank and other development and humanitarian actors on the scale, characteristics, and political economy dimensions of displacement in Somalia. The study was undertaken between February and June 2013 by a team from the Tana Copenhagen. The conceptual framework for the study was based on one for political economy assessments. In this context the report presents, introduction; history, causes, and characteristics of displacement in Somalia; current internally displaced person (IDP) situation; prospects for return; vulnerabilities and development needs of the displaced; political economy challenges; and development for IDPs - recommendations.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Supporting Youth at Risk(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008)The World Bank has produced this policy Toolkit in response to a growing demand from our government clients and partners for advice on how to create and implement effective policies for at-risk youth. The author has highlighted 22 policies (six core policies, nine promising policies, and seven general policies) that have been effective in addressing the following five key risk areas for young people around the world: (i) youth unemployment, underemployment, and lack of formal sector employment; (ii) early school leaving; (iii) risky sexual behavior leading to early childbearing and HIV/AIDS; (iv) crime and violence; and (v) substance abuse. The objective of this Toolkit is to serve as a practical guide for policy makers in middle-income countries as well as professionals working within the area of youth development on how to develop and implement an effective policy portfolio to foster healthy and positive youth development.Publication Addressing Food Loss and Waste(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-09-28)The report focuses on the role that food loss and waste (FLW) could play in reducing the environmental footprint of food systems while attempting to meet the caloric and nutrient needs of a population expected to increase by 3 billion people in the next 30 years. The performance of the global food system over the last century has been extraordinary. From a global population of 1.6 billion people in 1900 to nearly 8 billion in 2020, the agri-food sector has risen to the challenge of providing global caloric sufficiency, mainly by increasing yields of a few principal staple crops. However, this path is no longer sustainable.Publication Agriculture Productivity Growth in Brazil(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-09-24)The industrialization process in Brazil begun in the 1960s and intensified in the 1970s, however the expected productivity growth of the overall economy and structural transformation did not happen. Since the end of the 1970s, the Brazilian labor productivity has been lower than many similar economies, currently representing around one fourth of the average labor productivity in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. One of the reasons for the weak productivity performance of the Brazilian economy in the past decades has been the manufacturing sector. Between 2000-2013, agriculture productivity rose by 105.6 percent, compared to only 11.7 percent in the services sector and -5.5 percent in the manufacturing sector. This report will focus mainly on policies related to key production factors (such as human, physical, and natural capital) and agriculture policies. The motivation for this report is to explore the evolution and source of the strong agriculture productivity growth that has occurred in Brazil in recent decades, identifying opportunities and challenges for future development of the sector. The goal is to look for opportunities to accelerate agriculture productivity growth, to have an increased impact on sector growth, jobs, environmental sustainability, and poverty reduction, as well as potentially to shed light on lessons that can contribute to efforts to boost productivity in other sectors within Brazil. The report is divided into five sections. Section one give introduction; section two describes the evolution and sources of agriculture productivity growth in recent years; section three evaluates the contributions of different factors of production, such as natural, human, and physical capital; section four explores the opportunities for further maximizing agriculture growth in Brazil through increases in productivity; and section five presents conclusions and policy recommendations on how to further maximize agriculture productivity in Brazil while having positive social (poverty reduction and jobs) and environmental impacts.Publication Environmental Challenges for Green Growth and Poverty Reduction(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06-01)The Environmental Challenges for Green Growth and Poverty Reduction in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic report reveals strong linkages among environmental quality, economic growth, and social wellbeing of the nation’s 7 million inhabitants. This report is a comprehensive presentation prepared after two years of targeted diagnostic research and analysis of issues and conditions within Lao PDR. The analysis was conducted by an international team of World Bank researchers in cooperation with counterparts in lead government agencies in Lao PDR. Information from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and others, provided an initial basis for the assessments, and this was complemented by other international information. The results can be regarded as a state-of-the-art contribution of information to decision makers in Lao PDR having an interest in achieving sustainable growth consistent with the 2019 National Green Growth Strategy. The report’s scope includes consideration of impacts on key economic sectors and on risk factors influencing the health of the population. The assessments encompassed the economic costs of degradation in the forestry, agriculture, fisheries, mining, and hydropower sectors. The report identifies solid waste management and plastics as an important priority to which the Government of Lao PDR has already pledged its support in regional and global initiatives. Within the context of the Mekong River and its watershed, this report addresses climate-change impacts including increased risks of flooding.Publication Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Fall 2024: Better Education for Stronger Growth(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-17)Economic growth in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) is likely to moderate from 3.5 percent in 2023 to 3.3 percent this year. This is significantly weaker than the 4.1 percent average growth in 2000-19. Growth this year is driven by expansionary fiscal policies and strong private consumption. External demand is less favorable because of weak economic expansion in major trading partners, like the European Union. Growth is likely to slow further in 2025, mostly because of the easing of expansion in the Russian Federation and Turkiye. This Europe and Central Asia Economic Update calls for a major overhaul of education systems across the region, particularly higher education, to unleash the talent needed to reinvigorate growth and boost convergence with high-income countries. Universities in the region suffer from poor management, outdated curricula, and inadequate funding and infrastructure. A mismatch between graduates' skills and the skills employers are seeking leads to wasted potential and contributes to the region's brain drain. Reversing the decline in the quality of education will require prioritizing improvements in teacher training, updated curricula, and investment in educational infrastructure. In higher education, reforms are needed to consolidate university systems, integrate them with research centers, and provide reskilling opportunities for adult workers.