Background of the assignment:

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is a global leader against illicit drugs, transnational organized crime, terrorism and corruption. With support from the UK Government (Commonwealth Funds), UNODC has enhanced its technical assistance to Zambia in counter- trafficking through the new joint-cooperation project on Trafficking in Persons. The project which was launched on the 17th of January 2019 and strives to build on the on-going support to Zambia through UNODC’s Regional Project on Trafficking in Persons with the SADC Secretariat. The activities and planned outputs for the Zambia cooperation project are organized into four work streams or specific objectives:

• Specific objective 1: To assist Zambia to develop and/or strengthen and implement national strategies, plans or policies against trafficking in persons.
• Specific objective 2: To assist Zambia to bring national legal frameworks in line with international standards.
• Specific objective 3: To assist Zambia to strengthen its criminal justice response to trafficking in persons, including regional cooperation in criminal matters related to trafficking in persons following a victim centred-approach.
• Specific objective 4: To assist Zambia to strengthen victim protection and assistance.

Zambia acceded to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Trafficking in Persons Protocol on 24 April 2005. In 2006, Zambia developed the National Policy to Combat Human Trafficking to comprehensively address the problem of human trafficking consistent with the Trafficking protocol. The Policy was launched in 2007. In 2008, the country became one of the first in the SADC Region to enact specific and comprehensive trafficking in persons legislation, namely The Anti-Human Trafficking Act, No. 11 of 2008. In addition, the country immediately established an inter-ministerial steering committee and developed a comprehensive national strategy and action plan to combat trafficking in persons namely – the Anti-Human Trafficking National Action Plan (2012 to 2015) which was recently revised to cover the period 2018 to 2021.

To support Zambia in its legislative and policy reform on Human Trafficking, UNODC now seeks to engage a consultant to support the review of the ‘National Policy to Combat Human Trafficking (2007)’, to strengthen the countries’ efforts against Trafficking in Persons.