Training “National sub-contraction system. National Referral Mechanism (NRM): Standards of identification and reintegration assistance for victims of trafficking”

The training on the national sub-contraction system in the Republic of Belarus and National Referral Mechanism was held in Vitebsk during September 9-11, 2013. The training brought together 34 representatives of social governmental structures as well as the non-governmental and international organizations.

The principal objective of the seminar was to familiarize the audience with the new edition of the Law on “Social Protection” which initiates the participation of NGOs in state sub-contraction, to discuss the possible ways of cooperation in this respect, issues of participation in the contest, the specifics of financial allocations to the social services. The experts of the training presented the results of the research on development of the standards for provision of social services in the sphere of Counter- trafficking and domestic violence. The existing international standards of reintegration assistance, used by IOM were presented to the participants of the training.

The second day of the training was devoted to the topic of National Referral Mechanism and the work of the multi-disciplinary groups in the oblasts of Belarus, the participants of the training were able to discuss the gaps existing in the region and to share best practices in the field of provision of reintegration assistance to the VoTs.

In accordance with the feedback received through evaluation training forms, 90% of the participants highly rated the training and indicated its main topics as up-to-date and acute, they suggested to have this kind of events more often and to attract also international experts, another expectation of participants pertains to organization of study trips for the purpose of learning experience of other countries in the field of developing social sub-contraction system and NRM.