This article assessed the success or otherwise of the Ghana Human Trafficking Act (GHTA), 2005, in curbing human trafficking. On the basis of interviews and secondary information, the assessment was done along the program, process, and politics dimensions. The evidence showed that GHTA achieved fairly its program objectives. However, failures occurred in all the phases of the Act’s enactment process. In particular, agenda setting suffered from definitional ambiguity surrounding human trafficking and implementation was mired by resource constraints and financial impropriety. The findings also revealed that an integrated model of human trafficking has greater explanatory power than a single one, but there is inattention to this in extant literature. The article concludes that lessons should be drawn from the specific type as well as the overall program, process, and political failures of the Act. As in this case, an exclusive focus on technical learning to the neglect of potential process and political failures has increased rather than decreased the chances of policy failure. Moreover, the accent on legislative bans to the neglect of other interventions is futile.
AdjeiS.AgyeapongI. K. (2008). Public social policy development and implementation: A case study of the Ghana national health insurance scheme. Health Policy and Planning, 23, 150–160.
3.
AllaisC. (2013). Human trafficking: Some research challenges for South Africa. Acta Academia, 45(3), 268–290.
4.
AtugubaR. A. (2005). Human trafficking in Ghana: A review of legislation. International Labor Organization.
5.
BalesK. (2004). Disposable people: New slavery in the global economy. University of California Press.
6.
BarnardC. (1938). The functions of the executive. Harvard University Press.
7.
BridgmanP.DavisG. (2004). The Australian policy handbook (3rd ed.). Allen & Unwin.
8.
DanailovaT. G.BelserP. (2006). Globalization and the illicit market for human trafficking: An empirical analysis of supply and demand. ILO.
9.
DasS. K.EargieL. A.EsmailA. M. (2011). Cross-national sex trafficking network in developing countries: A theoretical overture using global commodity chain approach. Race, Gender & Class, 18, 230–253.
10.
DiesingP. (1971). Patterns of discovery in the social sciences. Aldine-Altherton.
11.
DunnW. N. (2012). Public policy analysis: An introduction. Pearson.
12.
DyeT. R. (2008). Understanding public policy (12th ed.). Pearson Education.
13.
FarrellA.FahyS. (2009). The problem of human trafficking in the U.S.: Public frames and policy responses. Journal of Criminal Justice, 17, 617–626.
GalliT. V.SchauerE. J.WheatonE. M. (2010). Economics of human trafficking. International Migration, 48(4), 114–141.
17.
GAO. (2006). Human trafficking: Better data, strategy, and reporting needed to enhance U.S. anti-trafficking efforts abroad. A Report to the Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary and the Chairman, Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives.
18.
Ghana Government. (2005). Ghana human trafficking act, 2005 (Act 694). Government Printer: Assembly Press, Accra.
19.
GeorgeA. L. (1979). Case studies and theory development: Method of structured focused comparison. In LaurenP. G. (Ed.), Diplomacy (pp. 43–68). The First Press.
20.
GeorgeA. L.HallD. K.SimonsW. E. (1971). The limits of coercive diplomacy. Little Brown.
GoździakE. M. (2014). Data matters: Issues and challenges for research on trafficking. In DragiewiczM. (Ed.), Global human trafficking (pp. 37–52). Routledge.
25.
GraafJ. (Ed.) (2003). Poverty and development. Oxford University Press.
GulatiG. (2011). News frames and story triggers in the media’s coverage of human trafficking. Human Rights Review, 12, 363–379.
28.
HaynesD. F. (2009). Exploitation nation: The thin and grey legal lines between trafficked persons and abused migrant laborers. Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public. Policy, 23(1), 1–71.
29.
International Labor Organization. (2012, June1). Twenty-one million people are now victims of forced labor, ILO says. Press Release, June 1,. Geneva: ILO.
Jac-KucharskiA. (2012). The determinants of human trafficking: A U.S. case study. International Migration, 50(6), 150–165.
35.
JagersN.RijkenC. (2014). Prevention of human trafficking for labour exploitation: The role of corporations. Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights, 12(1), 47–73.
36.
JakobssonN.KotsadamA. (2013). The law and economics of international sex slavery: Prostitution laws and trafficking for sexual exploitation. University of Gothenburg School of Business, Economics and Law.
LercheJ. (2007). A global alliance against forced labour? Unfree labour, neo-liberal globalization and the international labor organization. Journal of Agrarian Change, 7(4), 425–452.
40.
LutyaT. M.LanierM. (2012). An integrated theoretical framework to describe human trafficking of young women and girls for voluntary prostitution. In MaddockJ. (Ed.), Public health—Social and behavioural health (pp. 555–570). InTech.
41.
McConnellA. (2010a). Policy success, policy failure and grey areas in-between. Journal of Public Policy, 30(3), 345–362.
42.
McConnellA. (2010b). Understanding policy success: Rethinking public policy. Palgrave Macmillan.
43.
NaimM. (2005). Illicit: How smugglers, traffickers and copycats are hijacking the global economy. Heinemann.
44.
OkogbuleN. S. (2013). Combating the new slavery in Nigeria: An appraisal of legal and policy responses to human trafficking. Journal of African Law, 57(1), 57–80.
45.
OttisovaL.HemmingsS.HowardL. M.ZimmermanC.OramS. (2016). Prevalence and risk of violence and the mental, physical and sexual health problems associated with human trafficking: An updated systematic review. Epidemiological Psychiatry Science, 25(4), 317–341.
46.
PressmanJ.WildavskyA. (1984). Implementation (3rd ed.). University of California Press.
47.
RaigrodskiD. (2015). Migration gone wrong: Trafficking in persons through the lens of gender, labor, and globalization. Indiana International & Comparative Law Review, 25(1), 79–114.
48.
RaigrodskiD. (2016). Creative capitalism and human and human trafficking: A business approach to eliminate forced labor and human trafficking from global supply chains. William & Mary Law Review, 8(1), 71–134.
SamarasingheV. (2009). “Two to tango”: Probing the demand side of female sex trafficking. Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies, 16, 33–54.
51.
SatzD. (2003). Child labor: A normative perspective. World Bank Economic Review, 17(2), 287–309.
52.
SertichM.HeemskerkM. (2011). Ghana Human Trafficking Act: Success and shortcomings in six years of implementation. Human Rights Brief, 19(1), 2–7.
53.
ShelleyL. (2007). Human trafficking as a form of transnational crime. In LeeM. (Ed.), Human trafficking (pp.116–138). Willan.
54.
ShelleyL. (2010). Human trafficking: A global perspective. Cambridge University Press.
55.
SilvermanJ. G.DeckerM. R.GuptaJ.MaheshwariA.WillisB. M.RajA. (2007). HIV prevalence and predictors of infection in sex-trafficked Nepalese girls and women. JAMA, 298(5), 536–542.
56.
SkilbreiM.TveitM. (2008). Defining trafficking through empirical work: Blurred boundaries and their consequences. Gender, Technology and Development, 12, 9–30.
57.
SweilehW. M. (2018). Research trends on human trafficking: A bibliometric analysis using Scopus database. Globalization and Health, 14(106), 1–12.
58.
TariqM. M.AmnaM. (2017). Selling souls: An empirical analysis of human trafficking and globalization. Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences, 2(1), 452–487.
59.
UN.GIFT. (2008). The Vienna forum report: A way forward to combat human trafficking. United Nations.
60.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). (2004). Protocol to prevent and trafficking in persons, especially women and children. Supplement to United Nations Conventions against Transnational Organized Crime. New York: United Nations
WeitzerR. (2014). New directions in research on human trafficking. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 653, 6–24.
74.
WheatonE. M.SchauerE. J.GalliT. V. (2010). Economics of human trafficking. International Migration, 48(4), 114–141.
75.
ZimmermanC.HossainM.YunK.RocheB.MorisonL.WattsC. (2006). Stolen smiles: A summary report on the physical and psychological health consequences of women and adolescents trafficked in Europe. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
