The government of Uganda through the Ministry of Internal Affairs has launched a National Communications Strategy that seeks to up the prevention of trafficking in persons in the country.
The strategy was launched last week in Kampala.
According to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Lt. Gen. Joseph B. Musanyufu, a lot more needs to be done to increase outreach and awareness of human trafficking among the general public and first responders.
“To strengthen efforts to prevent and combat trafficking in persons in Uganda, a coordinated approach needs to be continuously emphasized, strengthened, and employed to develop and deploy effective and targeted messaging,” said Lt. Gen. Musanyufu.
He added that the National Communications Strategy has been developed to enhance the creation and dissemination of accurate knowledge and information on trafficking in persons in Uganda.
The five-year communication strategy complements the National Action Plan to prevent trafficking in persons and focuses on providing stakeholders with a guide on standardizing the framing of communication approaches on trafficking across all stakeholders.
According to the Commissioner of Police (CP) Twinomujuni Julius, the Coordination Office for the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons, the strategy will go a long way to guide communication at the tertiary, secondary, and primary levels. The primary level involves victims, the tertiary involves policymakers and the secondary level involves office bearers.
The Commissioner also revealed that they have already started implementing the strategy at the end level by looking at the primary audience by visiting schools in border districts of Bukedi Region, Arua, Kasese, and Kyotera.
“We believe that by talking to the real victims, they will understand what trafficking in persons entails, both its positives and negatives. We call upon all stakeholders to embrace it, mainstream it into their activities because it will be proactive and help prevent human trafficking by accessing information.” CP Twinomujuni concluded.
This program is supported by the European Union (EU) and Germany through the Better Migration Management (BMM) Program.
