WP1 will run for the entirety of the project’s 24 month long run-time. It consists of the managerial tasks to facilitate the successful completion of the A4 project. These include managing the financial and administrative aspects of the project, form a Monitoring and Steering Committee, organise the project internal meetings, as well as establishing an external evaluation process.

The WP is led by the Project Coordinator KEMEA. For more information on the coordinator, see “Team“.

WP2 foresees the development of the underlying Action Plan that will be used in the following WPs, namely WP3 and WP4. WP2 consists of three main objectives that take place between month 2 and month 8 of the project:

1. Identifying gaps in police investigation that produce and reproduce a failure to punish perpetrators of sex trafficking of female victims.

2. Documenting the need for inter-agency and cross-sectoral cooperation between Law Enforcement Agnecies (LEAs), Criminal Justice actors and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) active in the field of protecting women/girls victims of sex trafficking.

3. Developing the aforementioned grounded Action Plan to promote a police-led border safety net for female victims of sex trafficking, while balancing effective evidence gathering and avoiding victims’ re-victimization.

WP2’s first objective sets out to do extensive research efforts consisting of three distinct sources. The first one is a comparative research of recent decisions from the European Court of Human Rights, regarding THB cases of women and girls with the purpose of sexual exploitation pertaining to Greece, Bulgaria and Austria. The second one consists of a case file research of selected cases of sex trafficking of women and girls. The third source are key informants (i.e., National Rapporteurs’ Offices on THB, representatives of Permanent
Coordination Mechanisms, National Referral Mechanisms, Public Prosecutors’ Office, NGOs Consultation Fora as well
as members of the Project’s trainee target group/police officers) participating in 5 focus groups across the three target countries, in order to collect first hand information.

WP3 starts with month 8 of the project and ends with month 15. In this time frame, WP3 is set out to achieve two objectives:

1. Enhancing competences of 162 police officers on sex trafficking indicators, communicability as well as effective intersectoral and cross-border cooperation with a focus on the existing gender stereotypes among LEAs that perpetuate impunity.

2. Created inter-regional safety net in a main entry point for female victims of sexual exploitation, aligned with strategical
   key regions for victims to cross and be exploited, following a peer-to-peer methodology

So as to achieve the two objectives, WP3 builds upon the expertise accrued in WP2 and sets out to build a critical mass of police personnel. This is done by training 162 police officers in 16 training teams across 7 Greek regions. Furthermore, a selection of trainees will become trainers to establish a network allowing for peer-to-peer knowledge transfer. This includes the development of relevant training resources.

WP4 is set to further WP3’s work, as well as validate the results of WP3’s training activities through month 10 to month 24 of the A4 project. In particular, WP4 has following 3 objectives:

1. Implementing and pilot-testing an inter-agency platform for interaction among key-professional carrying out investigations, by establishing 7 Joint Investigation Teams (JITs).

2. Assessing behavioral change in 30 trainees from WP3, measuring changes to their attitudes on gender stereotypes, behavioral patterns pertaining to inter-agency cooperation, and other key determinants.

3. Developing policy recommendations for effective police investigation prioritizing female victims of sex trafficking human rights as well as their perpetrators’ accountability.

To reach these targets, WP4 foresees the creation and operation of 7 dedicated JITs, which are planned to convene during 28 consultation meetings in 7 target areas. Furthermore, cross-border Workshops and a study visit will aim to strengthen cross-border cooperation additional. JITs activities will be monitored, while WP3 training is assessed via a survey with trainees to measure the impact of A4 activities. Lastly, based on the practical expertise gathered during the implementation of the training and the cooperation platform, as well as their assessment, the A4 Practice Advice will finalized and feed into policy recommendations for the Greek Ministry of Citizen Protection and the EC.

Lastly, WP5 will run concurrent with most of the project as it starts in Month 2 and ends in Month 24. It is meant as a public outreach for the A4 project, serving to fulfill following three objectives:

1. Enhancing awareness on cross-border, multi-agency and inter-sectoral police investigation for intensified prosecution of perpetrators of women/girls sex trafficking, through information material and online campaigns.

2. Promoting the non-liability of female victims and tackling gender stereotypes through a targeted social media campaign and information material.

3. Promoting transfer-ability of the developed A4 methodology and outcomes at national and EU level, through workshops and conferences.

To this end, the D5.1 Dissemination Plan is drafted and serves as a baseline for the A4 project’s dissemination strategy, as well as the dissemination material resulting from the project’s strategy. This includes envisaged banners, posters, social media activity, as well as this website.