Policy review of the Swaziland National Strategic Framework and Action Plan 2013-2015

Abstract

This thesis seeks to examine the Swaziland National Strategic Framework and Action Plan 2013-2015 (Trafficking in Persons) During the development of this thesis, Swaziland as a country changed its official name form The Kingdom of Swaziland to the Kingdom of Swaziland. The name change was sanctioned by the head of state, King Mswati III. The name change was done in 2018 as part of the 50 years of independence of the country as a British protectorate. For the purpose of coherence and fluidity, this thesis will use the word Swaziland to be in line with the title of the thesis and the title of the policy document being reviewed. The area of research in this thesis is people trafficking and smuggling commonly known as human trafficking and smuggling. The researcher will use the term people trafficking and people smuggling which is the terminology used in the Swaziland’s legislation. Swaziland enacted the People Trafficking and People Smuggling Prohibition (Act) 2009 and part of the steps highlighted by the legislation is the development of a National Strategic Framework and Action Plan. This is a policy document that mapped the response to people trafficking and smuggling for the period 2013-2015. At the end of this period the country received a downgrade rank in the United States, State Department Trafficking in Persons Report 2016. This research Investigated what were the underlying reasons leading to downgrade. Swaziland takes the United States, State Department Trafficking in Persons as a priority report because as a developing country, it relies heavily on donor funds in the health sector, a bad rating affects the amount of donor funding received from the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). As the title states, this is donor funding by the United States Government for HIV/AIDS prevention, mitigation and treatment of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The main results that came from this study is that the Swaziland Anti-Trafficking and Smuggling National Strategic Framework and Action plan (2013-2015) is a document that was never fully accepted by stakeholders due to a lack of ownership by stakeholders. Stakeholders comprising of Government departments, United Nations Development Partners, civil society, faith-based organisations and Nongovernmental Organisations were not fully involved in the development of the document which led to the document not being referred to when conducting activities related to TIP. Enthusiasm for the response to trafficking in persons waned shortly after the launch of the document, due to perceived lack of efficient coordination from the coordinating body and a lack of thorough consultation for a policy that needs a multi-sectoral approach for it to be implemented successfully. Issues A lack of resources, be it human resources or otherwise were part of the reason which led to insufficient implementation of the policy, a flawed development process used in developing the document hindered the amount of success it could have possibly had, if done thorough by following the guiding principles in public policy development process.