Engaging Youth: Dialogues and Debates about Child Trafficking Policy

Introduction

Enabling youth participation in community and political decision-making is critical for developing impactful interventions to address problems that youth face. Our study goals were to: 1) develop an approach to support youth participation in conversations about addressing child trafficking, and 2) explore youth perspectives about the utility and potential gaps in child trafficking laws.

Methods

This qualitative study used a domain-based, comparative thematic methodology to explore youth perspectives about child trafficking prevention laws in Kambia, Kailahun, Kenema and Kono districts within Sierra Leone. The method was selected because it provided a framework for our team to compare perspectives between multiple youth groups. This study was reviewed by ethics committees in Sierra Leone and the US. Activity-based focus group discussions were held with 12 groups of 13-17-year-olds. The activity-based discussion process included exploring district-level child trafficking laws and facilitating discussion about the utility of the laws. Transcribed data from group discussions were coded in NVivo and summarized by domain. We used a peer-debriefing process to identify themes across and between respondent groups.

Results 

Three primary themes emerged: 1) Surprise, 2) Skepticism, 3) Possibility. Surprise was expressed by many youths who described this study as the first time that they had ever been invited to discuss their views on laws intending to protect children. Participants expressed skepticism about the practicality and utility of the laws, pointing out several potential implementation gaps such as financial constraints. Finally, youths highlighted possibilities of the laws to strengthen and support youth participation, such as through direct and clear statements supporting youth rights to report experiences of abuse and exploitation.

Conclusions

The process of engaging youth in discovery, dialogue and debate is critical to supporting their participation rights and also to advancing knowledge about how to address complex social problems that impact youths’ lives every day.