About the IACT Program

The Innovations in Addressing Child Trafficking (IACT) Program was implemented by The Warnath Group from 2020-2025 to address child and adolescent sex trafficking in Costa Rica. The program was implemented in the provinces of Guanacaste and Puntarenas in close collaboration with the Government of Costa Rica and civil society organizations, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. The IACT Program strengthened anti-trafficking responses in the country to realize demonstrable change for child and adolescent trafficking victims, their families, and affected communities, as well as prevent the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. Program components were designed to effectively strengthen the capacity of national and local government and civil society to reduce and address all forms of child sex trafficking in Guanacaste and Puntarenas. The program had a vast geographical and population coverage, with implementation in 15 cantons.

We invite you to learn more about the IACT Program by watching this video.

Our Journey of Change

Summary Report

The summary report, Our Journey of Change, describes the different components of the IACT Program and highlights outputs and achievements.

Cooperation and Collaboration

The IACT Program was implemented in close collaboration with the Government of Costa Rica and civil society organizations at the central, regional, and local levels. This included coordination with central level institutions and inter-institutional bodies – namely, the National Coalition Against Migrant Smuggling and Trafficking in Persons (CONATT) and the National Commission Against the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents (CONACOES) – to ensure that the program was aligned with and supported the implementation of national laws, policies, institutional mandates, protocols, and decision-making structures.

The IACT Program also coordinated implementation with regional level institutions and local level institutions and mechanisms. This included partnering with canton level multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) to enhance the capacity and commitment of community-based practitioners to preliminarily identify possible child and adolescent trafficking victims and refer them to central level authorities for formal accreditation, protection and assistance, as well to report trafficking situations for investigation. Local level MDTs were also engaged in prevention and risk reduction activities.

You can hear from some of the practitioners the IACT Program worked with in this video.

Survivor Engagement and Support

Warnath Group designed a unique model of survivor and beneficiary participation for the IACT Program to ensure that trafficking victim and survivor perspectives and knowledge were incorporated in the design, implementation, and evaluation of program activities.

The IACT Program also directly supported trafficking victims through funding to five NGOs providing protection, assistance, and reintegration services. A total of 462 trafficking victims and their children received assistance including accommodation, healthcare, counseling, legal assistance, education, vocational training, and job placement. IACT also provided training and technical assistance to NGOs to enhance the quality of victim-centered and trauma-informed services while reinforcing sustainability at the community level.

You can hear from some of the survivors the IACT Program worked with in this video.

Resources and Tools

Before the IACT Program, the laws, policies, and procedures addressing trafficking in persons in Costa Rica were not readily available to practitioners. This was especially the case at regional and canton level institutions, where practitioners did not have easy access to information about trafficking in persons or their roles and responsibilities across protection, prosecution, and prevention.

To address this significant challenge to the anti-trafficking response in the country, the IACT Program developed the Learning Hub, an online platform that provides information, resources, tools, videos, and on demand learning on the following:

• trafficking in persons
• child and adolescent trafficking
• indicators of trafficking in persons
• the steps of trafficking victim protection in Costa Rica
• services for trafficking victims in Costa Rica
• supporting trafficking victim-witnesses in Costa Rica
• child-friendly spaces for child and adolescent trafficking victims
• implementing activities to prevent trafficking in persons
• anti-trafficking law, protocols, procedures in Costa Rica

The Learning Hub is a repository of information, good practice resources, tools, videos, and on-demand learning to improve all aspects of a meaningful anti-trafficking response.

Closing Event

In October 2025, Warnath Group hosted a Closing Event to share the achievements of the IACT Program and articulate, together with government and NGO stakeholders, a shared vision in the continued fight against child and adolescent trafficking in the country: to support and protect trafficking victims, hold perpetrators accountable, and prevent children and adolescents from being trapped in situations of sexual exploitation. The Closing Event was opened by the Vice-Minister of Governance and President of CONATT, with closing remarks from the Magistrate of the Criminal Cassation Chamber and the Executive President of the National Child Welfare Agency. The closing event was attended by hundreds of practitioners and stakeholders from different institutions and organizations working at the local, regional and central level across the provinces of Guanacaste and Puntarenas and in San José.

We invite you to watch this video of highlights from the IACT Program Closing Event.

You can also watch this slideshow of snapshots from implementation of the IACT Program across Guanacaste, Puntarenas, and San José.