The Warnath Group’s President and CEO Stephen Warnath is pleased to announce that the Warnath Group has been awarded $15 million by the U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (“Trafficking Office”) to support the implementation of strategies designed to create transformational change in the fight against child sex trafficking in Costa Rica.
With this initiative, part of the Program to End Modern Slavery (PEMS), the Warnath Group will implement a broad set of programs to prevent trafficking, protect and assist victims, and prosecute traffickers. Our work will focus on the Provinces of Guanacaste and Puntarenas, in collaboration with the Government of Costa Rica, local government entities, and Costa Rican organizations. Working together, the project will build upon and strengthen the foundation of anti-trafficking efforts that exist to protect children, a population at a heightened risk of human trafficking, and seek accountability of perpetrators.
“We look forward to this opportunity to advance our mission to identify and apply effective practices to combat human trafficking through constructive collaboration, thoughtful analysis of policies and practices, and tailored skills training and technical assistance to enable sustainable positive change,” stated Mr. Warnath. “This investment in our work will support an important and rare opportunity to conduct research alongside the provision of anti-trafficking programs to evaluate indicia of change and impact resulting from those anti-trafficking efforts. This project will produce valuable insights about what strategies and practices work and which do not in combatting child sex trafficking.”
This award was made by the TIP Office which leads the U.S. State Department’s global efforts to combat modern slavery. The Office’s annual report helps to increase understanding of human trafficking by reviewing national responses in countries around the world. The groundbreaking PEMS program, initiated by the TIP Office in 2017, is authorized and funded by Congress with broad bipartisan support. Over $100 million has been invested thus far in programs that are designed to be transformational in achieving a reduction of the prevalence of modern slavery in targeted populations in specific selected countries or regions worldwide.
The Warnath Group is a specialist firm that works with public and private sector leaders, offering professional development and advisory services to identify and prevent modern slavery in countries and communities around the world. The Warnath Group offers training and consultations to companies, government officials, and civil society to help address forced labor, child labor, and human trafficking more effectively. The Warnath Group’s projects include cooperative agreements and grants with the TIP Office spanning over a decade. These include Global Training and Technical Assistance and the U.S.-Jamaica Child Protection Compact.
The Warnath Group is dedicated to expanding knowledge to guide policies and practices and engaging collaboratively to design, develop and operationalize innovative solutions, built on expertise accumulated from nearly twenty-five years of experience, to achieve meaningful change in our efforts to eradicate modern slavery.
For more information, please contact Warnath Group at IACT@warnathgroup.comand updates are available at @WarnathGroup and at www.WarnathGroup.com.