In the last decade, many legislations, policies and practices have been implemented to fight trafficking in human beings and support trafficked persons in Europe. However, a lot still needs to be done.

Human trafficking has a complex, multidimensional and ever-changing nature and often public and private service providers do not possess the proper instruments or approaches to respond to the trafficked persons' needs, to monitor the phenomenon, and to assess the provided services. Interventions frequently remain experimental, disjointed and not implemented as part of a structured, consistent and integrated model. This situation undermines the operators' opportunities to acquire comprehensive knowledge of the phenomenon and of the existing practices of intervention and co-operation and, consequently, it reduces their ability to provide proper support to trafficked persons.

Given this scenario, within the framework of the EQUAL Community Initiative of the European Union, six Development Partnerships (DPs), representing six distinct Member States, signed a Transnational Cooperation Agreement in order to carry out the Headway - Improving Social Intervention Systems for Victims of Trafficking project.