The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction

Finally, G/TIP has worked extensively with the relevant State Department bureaus in engagingwith multilateral organizations such as the UN, the Organization of American States, theOrganization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Group of Eight to promote avictim-centered and multidisciplinary approach based on the U.S. experience, and to promoteratification and implementation of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking inPersons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention againstTransnational Organized Crime.d. U.S. Agency for International Development’s International EffortsThe U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has played a leading role inaddressing the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents abroad through a number ofactivities or interrelated initiatives. The majority of USAID’s programs are bilateral,multilateral, or regional arrangements that complement and support in-country enforcementactions directly or in-directly. Specifically, since 2001 USAID has provided more than $100million for programs directed at the elimination of human trafficking, a major factor behind thesexual exploitation of children and adolescents worldwide, through a wide range of activities inmore than 70 countries. To complement anti-trafficking activities, USAID has also instituted anumber of parallel development efforts to include girls' education, administration of justice, andrefugee assistance.For example, since 2005, USAID has worked to prevent the trafficking of girls in the MekongDelta through scholarships, vocational training and job placement to at-risk girls. InMozambique, USAID partnered with the government and an NGO network to draft antitraffickinglegislation that passed unanimously in the National Assembly in 2008.Simultaneously, in Benin USAID helped promote awareness of the Family Code, whichestablished a legal marriage age of 18. In Ecuador USAID continues to provide technicalassistance and training towards the implementation of a national anti-trafficking plan, whichaims to increase protections for vulnerable children. To create awareness of trafficking in Asia,USAID and MTV collaborated to target a young media-savvy audience through a televisionspecial featuring well-known models, actors and musicians. This public-private partnershipspearheaded a collaborative partnership with Radiohead, a popular rock band that reached out toas many as 560 million households. In Moldova, USAID set up regional centers for job skills,job search, technical training, legal assistance and counselling for trafficking victims. More than25,000 women received services and nearly 10,000 rural women were assisted throughestablished mobile units.The totality of USAID’s efforts has been instrumental in mitigating and resolving the negativeaffects attributed to the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents, and USAID will continueto place a high priority on this and other associated issues.e. Department of Labor’s International EffortsThe United States contributes to a wide array of programs that support the elimination of theworst forms of child labor worldwide, including programs to address the sexual exploitation ofchildren. Since 1995, the Department of Labor has provided approximately $720 million for108