The Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office) announces an open competition for funding to address the impacts of COVID-19 on efforts to combat human trafficking and support government measures to counter human trafficking.

The TIP Office recognizes the pressures governments and civil society organizations are under to combat human trafficking and manage the impacts of COVID-19. As such, the TIP Office encourages applicants to propose innovative concepts to address the impacts of COVID-19 on efforts to combat human trafficking and support government measures to counter human trafficking.

Activities

Examples of activities may include, but are not limited to:

• Activities that support research and analysis to identify how COVID19 and governments’ responses have impacted human trafficking trends at the local, national, regional, or global level;
• Activities that support victim identification and screening efforts by:
  • Assisting governments to better screen and identify victims of trafficking among communities made more vulnerable as a result of COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders;
  • Working closely with source and destination governments to increase human trafficking screening procedures in the workplace, particularly for migrant workers who face increased vulnerability to exploitation by traffickers as the economy reopens;
  • Facilitating the safe self-identification of victims;
• Activities that support collaborative cross-border case management with law enforcement by:
  • Assisting governments with the repatriation of identified survivors of trafficking who may not have the capacity due to COVID-19;
  • Facilitating virtual court systems and witness testimony to support prosecutions during a time of decreased or closed state services, such as social distancing in courtrooms and witness testimony;
• Activities that provide access to services and resources for victims and survivors that may have decreased as a result of COVID-19 and government responses;
• Activities that respond to emerging evidence on increased types of trafficking as a result of COVID-19 by:
  • Addressing the surge in traffickers using the internet to abuse of their victims by working with governments to identify and crack down on these types of cybercrimes.

Funding Information

• Award ceiling: $ 1,000,000
• Award Floor: $ 1,00,000

Eligible Applicants

• Organizations eligible to apply include U.S.-based and foreign non-profits, non-governmental organizations (including faith-based organizations), for profit organizations, institutions of higher education, and public international organizations (PIOs). For-profit organizations are not permitted to generate profits from grant-funded activities. U.S. government agencies may respond to this opportunity with applications for proposed projects that would be funded through an Interagency Acquisition Agreement.
• Foreign governments are not eligible to apply, governments may be beneficiaries of projects provided that funding does not pay salaries of government agency personnel and that such assistance is not restricted by U.S. law or policy.
• Organizations currently receiving funds from the TIP Office may apply for additional funding under the present funding opportunity. The eligibility requirements for applying to this funding opportunity do not restrict applicants from receiving other sources of funding from the United States government, including funding from other bureaus within the Department of State. However, related U.S. government funding must be identified in the application. Applicants should demonstrate experience administering successful projects—preferably in human trafficking or related areas and in the identified country or sub-region.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.