The Advisory Group (AG) to the Joint European Union and Council of Europe Project “Supporting Malta in the design and implementation of a new anti-trafficking strategy” held its fifth meeting (online) on 11 June 2024 with the participation of all of its members from the European Commission’s DG-REFORM, the Council of Europe, the Office of the Prime Minister, European Funds, Equality, Reforms and Social Dialogue (OPM-EES) and its Human Rights Directorate (HRD) and Human Rights Initiatives Unit (HRIU), as well as the Ministry for Home Affairs, Security, Reform and Equality (MHSR).

The HRIU confirmed that the draft National Anti-trafficking Strategy and Action Plan have been validated by the Maltese Anti-Human Trafficking Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) and Human Trafficking Monitoring Committee (HTMC) and will be sent to the Cabinet of Ministers for adoption after the final feedback of the Ministry of Justice.

The Project is supporting the implementation phase with tools to strengthen national coordination as well as evaluation and monitoring capacities. A presentation on the Theory of Change and Monitoring and Evaluation Framework was made during the AG meeting and will be followed by a series of trainings to IMC members in June and July 2024. A joint IMC and MC meeting will also take place in July 2024 to discuss the preparation of coordination guidelines.  

This activity was carried out in the framework of the Project “Supporting Malta in the design and implementation of a new anti-trafficking strategy”, which aims to contribute to the ongoing policy reform for combating trafficking in human beings in Malta. The project is co-funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument, and implemented by the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the European Commission.