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Human trafficking (HT) is one of the most disturbing problems facing our global community. In Moldova, it can affect anyone, from rich to poor, from educated to not. HT strips away basic human dignity from its victims.

HT often leads to modern day slavery, and in the Moldovan case, sex slavery. HT exists in one country, it has a ripple effect across the entire globe. Not only does it affect the victim, his/her family and community, the current rates of HT cripple local economies and weaken governing institutions. This global problem is degrading to humanity and should be tackled from all angles.

The sought outcome of the pilot is “to establish a unique, secure, digital ID for children and minors aged 0-14, with modalities of linking children’s personal ID to that of their family members”.

This document is a response to this open challenge, developed by a team of four women, two of whom were born in Moldova and have extensive experience in technology, blockchain and business and two women based in the United States with extensive experiences with blockchain for good and emerging self-sovereign identity technologies. We have identified a range of international partners and advisors to work with. The proposal outlines the basic components of a system to tackle one aspect of the challenge surrounding human trafficking (which is only one along many problems we are addressing), preventing the transport of ALL children across borders on semi-falsified or forcefully signed documents granting parental permission for them to travel.

In this project we aim to solve a very small piece of a much broader problem. But even then, solving a small part of the puzzle, requires hard work, lots of resources, a holistic approach and many committed partners. This problem is too big to be solved by one group or one tool.

A unique, secure digital ID can be achieved with the modern technology, there are several organisations that are doing this, and we partnered with many of them; a result that can be scaled and implemented in other countries with HT problem.

In order to educate and eradicate this problem we need:

• Local partners that know the territory and are persistent in their work.
• Local authorities to be involved. In countries like Moldova where the average monthly wage is below US$300, bribery is common. This undermines trust in government, which makes the partnership/collaboration with the local government as a weak link
• International partners that have been in the space of HT or/and eID and blockchain, and have worked on related implementations
• Global expertise in designing solutions for human trafficking working inside the project team
• Academic partners that will independently assess the progress and the impact of the project and give a transparent feedback and suggestions for optimization
• International partners to insure the scalability of the project
• International support and engagement with Europol, Frontex and the Organisation for Security Cooperation in Europe, and EU member state police forces
• Financial support from private and public funds
• Direct access to modern slavery and human trafficking publications for global dissemination of project outcomes.
• At least another Partner country.

The solution we identified might sound easy and trivial, but its implementation will be a demanding process. We remain open to learning more as the project unfolds and will accept/integrate new solutions if need be.

Anastasia Miron, Kaliya Young, Sara Golden, Tatiana Chicu

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hz5VDjlr312yCPrDB2lYfEl-V_stSPYyRnTNKaGxUzk/edit#heading=h.gjdgxs

https://www.irespond.org/

https://github.com/sovrin-foundation