Using Preventive, Protection, Prosecution and Partnership Framework to Explore the Successes and Constraints of Social Work to Address Sex Trafficking in Edo, Nigeria

Social work features in human trafficking discourses as a remedial approach, but the profession’s potentials in Nigeria have not been fully realised. Thus, our research seeks to understand how social work has fared across the Prevention, Protection, Prosecution and Partnership (4Ps) of anti-human trafficking in Edo (a prime source destination for sex trafficking in Nigeria), and what can be done to scale up the presence and efficacy of social work. Qualitative research was conducted with twenty-three participants comprising qualified social workers, allied social work professionals and operational staff of ten anti-human trafficking agencies. Data were sourced using in-depth interviews, deductively coded and analysed based on the 4Ps framework. An important finding was the recognition of the social work profession by most anti-human trafficking agencies, as they employed qualified social work staff or outsourced social work roles to allied professions. Across the 4Ps, Prevention and Protection fared better, unlike Prosecution and Partnership. We provide insights on how to scale up all 4Ps using a social work lens. This research has the potential to strengthen the social work component of anti-human trafficking and presents an in-road to conduct more social work analysis in anti-human trafficking and other fields. Social work is an important profession that utilises problem-solving strategies and models to address challenges of people and systems. On a global scale, the profession has contributed a lot to anti-human trafficking. Unfortunately, the state of social work within anti-human trafficking in low resource regions is under-researched, especially in Nigeria. Through the 4Ps framework of anti-human trafficking, we assessed the capacity and contributions of social work to stemming sex trafficking in Nigeria.