COMPREHENSIVE SEXUALITY EDUCATION AS TOOL FOR REDUCING TRAFFICKING IN GIRLS: THE GIRLS’ POWER INITIATIVE (GPI) NIGERIA EXPERIENCE

INTRODUCTION
Nigeria is made up of six Geo-Political zones five of which are mostly populated by dominant ethnic groups. The sixth, which is the South-South zone, is populated by minority ethnic groups and consists of the oil producing states located in the Niger Delta. Beyond sharing the status of minority, the six states in the zone are grossly underdeveloped and plagued with problems one of which is the relatively high involvement of the children especially from four of the States in the human trafficking trade.

Recent researches, statistics and happenings confirm that over 62% of girls who are trafficked for purposes of sex work from Nigeria come from Edo State, over 70% of girls trafficked internally for domestic work originate from Akwa Ibom and Cross River States. Although statistics does not exist as to the exact number of girls and women that have been trafficked, our research reveals that every household in the research sites in three of the states is either involved in that one of its members has been trafficked or knows a member of another household that has been trafficked or is a recipient o a victim of trafficking.

CHALLENGES
The hazards of trafficking in persons include not only the immediate effects of the slavery-like practices on the girl or child such as loss of freedoms, the health effects of sex work, economic exploitation by the trafficker; it portends danger for the future as many girls no longer aspire for academic excellence but desire to migrate and they often end up being trafficked; and the society is hardly prepared to cope with the needs of large numbers of returnees either now or in the future.

The increased dependence of poor families on the income of trafficked victims who are able to send something home is evident in the lifestyles of such parents and often times, the young of such families end up not developing meaningful skills for living as they get carried away with having so much money to spend and are unable to find work that can give them similar income as a result of which they aspire only to also travel abroad. Returnees want to go back because they lack the skills to earn well and suffer stigma where they return without money. Other challenges include the non revelation of identities of traffickers by victims because of the fear of the backlash of the oaths they took before shrines in the course of their recruitment and their indebtedness to the traffickers; and active resistance to the campaign against trafficking by parents and families that are benefiting from the trade.

Despite the adverse effects of being trafficked, girls remain very susceptible because of their desire to salvage their families from the poverty many of them are groping with, their ignorance of the true nature of life that trafficked girls are subjected to both in transit and in countries of final destination, their inability to say NO to the pressures and lures of trafficking agents who sometimes are family members. Even girls who are returned strive to go back because of their poor self esteem and inability to feel accepted in their communities.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK
Although Nigerian legal instruments have always contained legislation on trafficking, the laws were formulated in pre-colonial times and were so archaic that they did not even acknowledge that traffickers may be women nor that trafficking may be internal and that the issue of consent on the part of the victim should be disregarded.

In Edo State, a law amending the sections of the Criminal Code on trafficking in persons was passed in year 2000. The law however criminalizes prostitution as a result of which victims of trafficking have become less willing to bring their traffickers to book and traffickers, their agents and other service groups such as native doctors are now cautious in their dealings. While this state of things may seem advantageous, criminalizing of prostitution has been shown elsewhere to only increase the abuses that sex workers experience and not reduce the incidence of prostitution. Rather that seek to punish the trafficked girl who in reality is a victim, the law further victimises them by disregarding the International Protocol that the consent to being trafficked is void because no one can consent to becoming a slave.

At the national level, the National Assembly in May 2003 passed a national Act on trafficking that provides for the setting up of a special agency, recognises that trafficked girls are victims and seeks to attach same level of seriousness to the prosecution of traffickers of persons, as is presently the case with drug traffickers. Its implementation modalities have commenced with the opening up of offices of the agency in States of the federation. The Edo State office of the agency led the prosecution and first ever conviction of a trafficker in the State recently

The Federal Ministry of Education in 2001 approved a national curriculum on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) that has modules on personal skills development, which is very relevant in educating girls against trafficking. That the curriculum can reduce the incidence of trafficking is hinged on the experience of GPI and similar adolescent empowerment programmes using similar curricula and the fact that the Comprehensive Sexuality Education curriculum emphasises the acquisition of skills that help children to clarify their values, make decisions, speak assertively and gain information on a wide range of subjects which include: society and culture, health, gender, relationships, communication, violence. None of the six states in the South-South zone has started full-scale implementation of the curriculum. Efforts at implementation so far have been NGO driven.

INTERVENTION
NGOs and international agencies have led in the evolvement of interventions to address the problem. These interventions include coalition building, research and documentation, law reform, public awareness raising, preventive education, curriculum adaptation, rehabilitation and reintegration of victims.

GPI following its research into the susceptibility of girls to trafficking which revealed the need for awareness raising among girls of the true nature of life that trafficked girls are exposed to in their final destinations, the initiation of personal skills development programmes to enable them resist advances from traffickers and law reform to grant legal protection to girls and punish traffickers, GPI

- published a book documenting its findings which has had to be reprinted due to demand

- has in collaboration with others carried out public awareness campaigns directed at various segments of the population,

- opened new adolescent empowerment centres in two more States of the South-South where it uses the strategy of Comprehensive Sexuality Education with contents on Gender and Human rights to help girls acquire information and abilities to discern and make healthy choices,

- in collaboration with other organisations adapted and tested the personal empowerment components of the CSE curriculum in schools,

- is currently leading a campaign for law reform and the implementation of Comprehensive Sexuality Education in four of the South-South States as a way of implementing the findings of the GPI research into the susceptibility of girls to trafficking and replicating the GPI experience for the benefit of all in-school children.

IMPACT
The impact of the efforts made by government and non governmental agencies and organisations so far are enormous and include:

- Heightened awareness of the problem. Prior to the research by IRRRAG and WOCON documenting the incidence of trafficking in girls in 1999, though the indicators were visible, not many recognised that children and women were being trafficked both internally and externally. Since then however especially with the emergence of more NGOs addressing the issues including those of the wives of the Vice President and Governor of Edo State, interventions of international governmental and non-governmental agencies like UNODC, UNICEF and IOM, many urban dwellers are now aware of the difference between migration and trafficking and the resistance to the wiles of the traffickers has led them to move to rural areas for recruitment of new victims.

- Legal reform arising from the efforts of anti trafficking organisations include a national Act on trafficking, State laws on it and establishment of a Federal agency to implement the provisions of the act.

- Increased prosecution of traffickers though mostly unsuccessful due to the non-cooperation of victims and corruption can still be cited as an impact of anti trafficking efforts. Daily, the traffickers change tactics and routes just to beat the law.

- School curriculum adaptation to make for the teaching of information and skills to address the susceptibility of girls and children. The IOM in collaboration with Edo State government has tested this curriculum.

- Reintegration and rehabilitation of victims. Many returned girls and others considered to be vulnerable to trafficking have received counselling, skills training and micro finance support to become self employed and fully reintegrated into the society.

- Research and publications on the issue are more available now than in the past as a result of the involvement of many groups.

- Creation of networks and coalitions at local, state and national levels are a direct effect of the work done so far.

Specifically, the impact of the efforts by GPI to reduce trafficking through the use of CSE include:

- Girls speaking out about trafficking and acting in their communities to discourage it.

- Girls providing counselling to vulnerable girls and speaking on their behalf to parents to discourage them from trafficking their daughters.

- Training of members and personnel from other organisations on the personal empowerment components of CSE.

- Greater awareness by policy makers of CSE as a strategy not only to reduce HIV and AIDS but human trafficking.

FUTURE STRATEGIES

GPI work in the past ten years confirm that exposure of girls to information and skills that enhance personal development not only equips them to resist negative cultural and modern practices such as FGM and trafficking but also makes them catalysts of change in their environments. Our first recommendation then is the implementation of Comprehensive Sexuality Education with gender and human rights content at all levels to provide personal skills development for young persons to resist traffickers, other vices and make healthy choices.

Other strategies proposed include:

- Wide publicity of the true nature of trafficking and the life of victims in locations of destination in an attempt to dissuade girls,

- Law reform to make local laws conform to the national law, and make the national law more effective.

- Effective prosecution of traffickers,
- Tuition and materials free quality education for girls at all levels.
- Replication of Best Practices
- Meaningful reduction of poverty, provision of microfinance and job opportunities.
- Support by counties of destination for prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration programs in countries of origin.

ABBREVIATIONS
IOM International Organisation for Migration
IRRRAG International reproductive Rights Research Action Group
NGO Non Governmental Organisation
UNODC United Nations Office for Drug and Crime Control
WOCON Women’s Consortium of Nigeria